Imagine an America where far-right, white militia groups could attack their political enemies with impunity. Where local prosecutors whose campaigns were funded by Vladimir Putin would simply dismiss the charges when they committed serious crimes, but savagely prosecute members of the public who tried to defend themselves against right-wing thugs.

Imagine further that after winning a murky election where his own election workers were credibly accused of massive voter fraud, President Trump’s administration kept dozens of progressive election protestors in solitary confinement. This more than a year after a riot where they were attacked by police. And the feds wouldn’t turn over key evidence, kept pushing trial dates back into the indefinite future, and denied those liberal protestors proper food and medical care. Meanwhile, a savagely partisan GOP Congress tried to delegitimize and prosecute ordinary political activity by Democrats.

Our Country Is Fascist Now

If you called such tactics “fascist,” you wouldn’t be overstating things. Few of us on the right would have the stomach for such an abuse of power. You see, we really do believe in liberal democracy, the rule of law, and the dignity of the person as the image and likeness of God. And in the short-run, those things about us seem to be weaknesses. They stop us from even trying to aggressively wield power when and where we have it.

Even worse, we can mistake these cherished, peculiar beliefs of ours for a civic creed that all our fellow citizens likewise believe. We project our own good intentions and moral integrity onto our enemies. We imagine that they sincerely share these basic values with us, and they only disagree about their proper application.

My friends, none of this is true. And it’s time for us to stop pretending otherwise. Yes, it helps us sleep at night. It might make socializing easier, acting as if progressives were fellow citizens with whom we share basic beliefs and common interests. It might lower our blood pressure to convince ourselves that our elites have good intentions, but are simply misguided or misinformed.

In the same way, the heresy of universal salvation spreads a blanket of tranquility over the troubled Christian heart. A pity that it’s a lie from the pit of Hell. So is the fairy tale we tell ourselves about leftists.

The American Gulag

As you read this, more than 100 Americans who peacefully protested the theft of the 2020 election rot as political prisoners in GITMO on the Potomac. Those who led the January 6 law-breaking and violence mostly weren’t even charged — which virtually clinches the case that they were federal informants. They ginned up violence and chaos, entrapped their fellow citizens, and quashed Republican challenges to dodgy electoral votes. Every bit of that served the incoming regime’s power-grab. But the Bidenist Occupational Government is using the crimes its informants incited to persecute the opposition, in classic police-state style.

Real Terrorists Walk Free

Want to know who is not going to prison, or even to trial? Leftist rioters who attempted a mass casualty terrorist attack in Los Angeles. Read this Fox News LA this FOX News LA report on a Democrat prosecutor who, on his first day in office, dismisses a strong case against leftist terrorists who tried to murder dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of American citizens on a commuter train. Then he retaliates professionally against an honest subordinate who tried to continue the case.

Remember Kamala Harris bailing out violent rioters, and telling Stephen Colbert that the riots should continue? Remember Winnie Mandela … oops, I meant to say “Michelle Obama” … threatening America during the Democratic National Convention? As blue cities burned, she said that the “chaos” would only get worse if Biden lost the election, so people should vote for Biden “like our lives depend on it.”

Only One Side Is Fighting

These are the kind of people that lead the American left. They are not “friends we haven’t met yet,” or fellow citizens with different views. They are domestic enemies, trying to wreck our country, persecute their opponents, and strip us of our rights.

Keep that in mind the next time some spineless RINO calls for “bi-partisanship.” Or some hack from the Planned Parenthood (i.e., Bush) wing of the GOP scolds you for “undermining institutions and norms” by indulging in “populism.” There’s already a civil war on, but only one side is fighting.

John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or co-author of ten books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. He is co-author with Jason Jones of “God, Guns, & the Government.”