Political violence and political revenge have been around as long as…politics have. I grew up with it in Greece. As a 5-year-old, looking down across the street of a chic Athenian neighborhood, I remember seeing a chauffeur-driven car’s open door and a bald man bending down in order to enter it, then hearing one, two, three, and four shots, with dark red round holes forming on his scalp. The screams that followed were from his daughter watching his departure from a balcony above. The name of the victim was Kalyvas, and he was undersecretary of some Greek ministry during the German occupation. In other words, Kalyvas was deemed a collaborator, according to the Stalin-led Communists in Greece. Others felt differently, that unless responsible and patriotic Greeks accepted government posts, the Germans would be ruling outright with far worse results.
I was to see far worse during the civil war that followed liberation. The royal gardens next to where we lived and where I daily played were suddenly covered with stinking, rotting corpses. Both sides were taking revenge, and it wasn’t pretty. The good guys won, with a little help from the Americans, thank God. It took more than eighty years for old wounds to heal, and they only healed because people died and old hatreds died with them and new generations were not brought up to hate like those during the war years.
“Once in power, be magnanimous.”
Here in America, old hatreds between North and South have also died away. Some were still around when I attended The University, as the University of Virginia, founded by the great Thomas Jefferson, was and is referred to by some diehards like myself. Back then, boys from the South made fun of Yankees, but there was no hatred involved, none whatsoever. I was, of course, on the side of the Confederacy. Imagine what those nice folks of the left would invent about me if they knew it, especially if my name were Trump.
In the wake of James Comey’s indictment, Democrats and the so-called neutral media are issuing dark warnings about the end of democracy and so on. These lefties and their sidekicks were around on Joe Biden’s watch but failed to notice that Trump, an ex-president, faced four separate indictments with 88 criminal charges. Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro were jailed for contempt, and my buddy Roger Stone—a sharp London tailored womanizer—was arrested at dawn in an over-the-top SWAT raid. Worst of all was the case of Gen. Michael Flynn. A decent and patriotic Afghan veteran, General Flynn was charged with making false statements to the FBI. Comey had two FBI agents visit Flynn days after Trump took office the first time. Flynn was up for national security adviser, and he would have been a good one, but Comey nailed him on calls Flynn had made to Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Flynn had done nothing wrong but prepare to serve his country. Comey made the calls out to be illegal, which they were not. Flynn lost his house, his savings, and his reputation fighting the charges until Trump pardoned him. Comey should have been sent to jail for what he did to Flynn. Instead he bragged about it.
My friend Roger Stone had a similar experience over fake Russian collusion allegations. In a predawn darkness setting, heavily armed FBI SWAT teams descended on Roger’s house and arrested him. He and his wife were marched outside in their pajamas, something Comey should have been subjected to but was not, unfortunately.
And let’s not forget the brave charge of the light brigade of FBI agents on Mar-a-Lago, when they rifled through Melania’s underwear. This was worthy of Thermopylae, or something similar. Now it’s Biden’s turn, but he is not around for us to enjoy it. His awful son is making the usual noises, but my unsolicited advice for him is to go back to taking drugs; he’ll make less of a fool of himself than by playing the victim.
Needless to say, anti-Trump pundits—aren’t they all?—are screaming bloody murder. One named David French in the Times calls it a vindictive campaign by Trump to get revenge on his political enemies, “no matter the facts or the law.” For some strange reason I don’t remember him saying anything when a good soldier was indicted on made-up charges by the Comey gang. The Russian hoax ruined the first Trump presidency. It was a first for American politics.
I remember how Richard Nixon refused to question the Kennedy victory in 1960 despite real allegations of cheating in Illinois and West Virginia that gave JFK the victory. It simply was not done, and Nixon was first and foremost a patriot. Al Gore did not question the George W. victory after a dead heat. It would have hurt the country’s standing in the world. Not even Hillary dared to challenge and dispute the results, despite winning the popular vote in 2016. Only Biden’s brood and fellow leftists decided to punish Trump for winning in 2016. Now they’re squealing like pregnant penguins, but I for one hope Trump sticks it to them. If I sound vengeful, I am not. But I truly believe it might teach the left a lesson. Once in power, be magnanimous. Do not do a Biden, because things can change and come back to bite you. Revenge is a two-headed monster, and we never know which way it might go.
This article was originally published on Taki’s Magazine.
