JB SHURK: Can America Be Saved?

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ver the last century, there has been a trend to establish “truth and reconciliation commissions” in different countries emerging from periods of political terrorism, totalitarianism, or civil war. The idea is to acknowledge the crimes and atrocities that past governments officially sanctioned and to recognize the harms inflicted upon their victims. As is often the case when governments “disappear” citizens or throw them in gulags for their politically incorrect thoughts, it is the not knowing that haunts society. Survivors bereft of answers are left with inconsolable anguish. The commissions are often used as a first step toward healing grave national trauma.

It is no surprise that these commissions generally reflect the world views of the prevailing government that forms them. Communist governments are quick to label past “right-wing” officials as “murderers” while memorializing their own murderers as “patriots, civil rights heroes,” or “noble revolutionaries.”  Politically correct governments in the West today often describe their countries’ founders and explorers as “racists, white supremacists,imperialists,” and perpetrators of “genocide.”  No doubt the people alive during these consequential periods of history would take exception to the way they are remembered, but descendants, particularly descendants in possession of political power, maintain at least a temporary monopoly over the historical record.

Although Democrat politicians and Antifa terrorists hysterically insist that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are “disappearing” foreign nationals present in the United States illegally, that is not the case.  However, that lie — reinforced on Wikipedia, news blogs and on cable news, is one example of an expanding collection of diametrically held beliefs deeply dividing the American people.  

American citizens who are opposed to open borders and endless illegal immigration see ICE agents as performing critical tasks. Those agents put their lives on the line every day in order to arrest illegal aliens; many of whom have been convicted or accused of serious crimes, and they protect American citizens. Democrat politicians, however, call ICE agents “slave catchers” and “Gestapo thugs.” Antifa-affiliated groups dox officers, physically harass them, and even shoot at them. Anarcho-communists explicitly call for “war against ICE.”  Deranged leftists stalk and assault Trump Administration officials every day. Half of America sees ICE officers and administration officials as selfless patriots who should be honored for their sacrifices. The other half wishes them death.

Right now, The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNN, and MSNBC are all very upset that former FBI director Jim Comey has been indicted for false statements and obstruction of a federal proceeding. Well known political pundits are all repeating some version of this statement: We have never had a situation in which a sitting president has so brazenly used the criminal justice system to go after his political adversaries. This is the consensus opinion of those with institutional power, prestige, credentials, and fame. Yet to ordinary Americans without such accolades, elite talking heads sound delusional, amnesiac, and maliciously deceptive.

How could people at the height of their professions possibly describe the indictment of Jim Comey as “unprecedented?”  Americans for the last ten years have witnessed abject weaponization of the Justice Department and Intelligence Community against Donald Trump, his associates, and supporters. Hillary Clinton’s inner circle and Barack Obama’s trusted lieutenants co-opted  the FBI and CIA in an effort to frame Donald Trump as a Russian spy, remove him from office, and perhaps even convict him for treason. Jim Comey was instrumental in this nefarious plot. As journalist Matt Taibbi said the other day, “think of the national security implications of implying that your own president is a spy for a foreign country. … You can’t have an FBI director doing … these sorts of manipulations and lying to Congress about it and getting away with it.”

Yet the Russia Collusion Hoax was only one part of a decade-long effort to destroy Trump and his MAGA Movement. Democrat saboteurs working for the U.S. military and CIA turned a normal conversation with the president of Ukraine into Trump’s first impeachment. Then the FBI and DOJ labeled the January 6, 2021 protest against election fraud an “insurrection” — laying the grounds for Congress to pursue a truly unprecedented post-presidential impeachment. For years, FBI director Chris Wray lied to Congress and the American people about the presence of federal law enforcement officers near the Capitol that day. Only in 2025 have we now learned that nearly three hundred plainclothes FBI agents were on the ground during the protest, along with dozens of informants and an unknown number of other federal and local agents, all possibly stirring up mayhem.

Millions of American have long suspected that agitators created a “false flag” event on January 6 to help justify a subsequent prosecution of Trump and preclude his running for president once again in 2024, but those voices were censored on social media accounts for years. Treating Trump and his supporters as “terrorists” became the order of the day for both Silicon Valley and the Federal Government.

FBI SWAT teams busted into the homes of ordinary families in predawn raids to make it clear to MAGA Americans: unlike Antifa and Black Lives Matter members — conservatives enjoy no “privilege” to protest official authorities in the United States. The Biden Administration; arguably illegitimate since it secured election “victory” through blatant mail-in-ballot fraud, chose not to cool things down for the sake of the country. Instead, Obama holdovers running Biden’s presidency prosecuted high-profile members of Trump’s team for spurious “crimes;” harassed conservative parents opposed to leftist teachers’ racial and sexual indoctrination of their children; and intimidated pro-life activists, Christians, and just about any group too closely aligned with Trump’s MAGA agenda.  

Joe Biden called Trump a “criminal” and the “greatest threat to democracy” and labeled MAGA voters “violent extremists” and “domestic terrorists.”  His administration conspired with social media companies to censor Trump and conservatives in general. The Biden White House created several iterations of a “disinformation” board in order to justify Democrats’ continued ban on political dissent and conservative speech. Lawfare specialists successfully disbarred Trump’s lawyers for simply defending their client’s interests. Then Democrat lawyers orchestrated civil and criminal lawsuits against President Trump in half a dozen jurisdictions while working to remove him from the 2024 ballot in crucial battleground states. And after years of Democrats calling President Trump a “Russian agent, dictator, Nazi, fascist,” and every other kind of vile pejorative that might convince a delusional listener to believe that Trump had no right to live, at least two separate assassins tried to murder him last year; killing one civilian and wounding several others in the process.

At no time in American history has such a large-scale effort gone into utterly destroying a political candidate, his aides, and his voters. Yet when the current DOJ decides enough is enough and that at least one of those anti-Trump conspirators should be prosecuted for perjury and obstruction, the mainstream media lose their collective mind.

We may not be emerging from the aftermath of a terrible civil war, but America is nonetheless desperately in need of a “truth and reconciliation commission.” The problem is that we can’t agree about anything. One side believes in God; the other side largely does not. One side believes men can become women and that a “climate apocalypse” is about to kill us all; the other side refuses to play along with such fantastic delusions. One side believes that government agents provide citizens with certain privileges; the other side knows that rights exist regardless of bureaucratic decree.

It may be impossible to reconcile a nation so divided over basic truths. However, we must try. Otherwise, the real trouble is only just beginning. ✪