Daily Wire's Michael Knowles: “Martial law is is not only just, but also necessary in certain cases”
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From the December 4, 2024, edition of The Daily Wire's The Michael Knowles Show
MICHAEL KNOWLES (HOST): Speaking of places that require people to wear masks on airplanes, South Korea has declared martial law. South Korea, first time since 1980, has declared martial law. The president of South Korea has done it. The parliament, which has a ton of libs in it, has opposed it. Woo Won-shik, a member of the opposition liberal democratic party, said the people should rest easy. The National Assembly will defend democracy with the people. However, the president of South Korea has said that there is clear anti-state behavior aimed at inciting rebellion, and it's paralyzed state affairs and turned the national assembly into a den of criminals. And he said that these libs are colluding with the North Koreans, with the communists — who are really just a vassal state of China, the Chinese communists, and he's not gonna put up with it. So the president of South Korea, said that he will eliminate the anti-state forces and restore the country to normalcy as quickly as possible.
On top of that, Reuters is reporting that, quote, strikes, work stoppages, and and rallies that incite social chaos are also prohibited. Doctors have now famously engaged in a walkout from work, and the president has ordered them to return to their job within 48 hours. Kinda reminds me of Ronald Reagan ordering the air traffic controllers to return to their jobs in 48 hours or they'd lose their jobs. The current president of North Korea is a conservative guy. He's a right-wing guy. His predecessor was a left-winger.
And, so this opposition from the liberal progressive democrats has been intense. Kind of reminds us what happens when a conservative takes over in America and the liberal Democrats, gin up all sorts of anti-state forces to try to shut down the country and to try to make deals with our enemies.
Why do we care about this? Why do I care about South Korea? I'm an American. It's far away. It's not a big deal. Right? I care about this because two months is a long time to have a weak or comatose president of the United States. We all thought early November, wow, great. Trump won. It's all good. No world war 3. Things are gonna get better. Two months is a long time. A lot can spin out of control in two months. So the South Korean right-wing leader is taking matters into his own hands. I was talking about this with a friend of mine. We were joking. I said, oh, wow. I saw South Korea declared martial law. And my friend said, well, hold on. I need to figure out which side is which before I figure out what I think about that. And it was a joke because people will think it's hypocritical to support a right-winger declaring martial law if the left-wingers are trying to overthrow the government, but that it would be bad if a left-winger declared martial law, for instance. But it's not hypocritical. It just means different people have different standards and, you know, different ends of government, and their substantive differences are real and legitimate.
Also a reminder, I know this is gonna be unpopular among some idealists and maybe libertarians — martial law is is not only just, but also necessary in certain cases. Not in every case. But we have exercised martial law in parts of America many, many times, well over a dozen times in American history. President Abraham Lincoln, widely regarded as one of the greatest American presidents, he himself instituted martial law. It happens. And the reason for that is that when your country faces an existential threat, a true existential threat — not Joe Biden saying that the mean orange mango Mussolini is an existential threat, but a genuine existential threat, then the preservation of the country becomes paramount. It supersedes the demands of local law, state law, federal law, even the Constitution by definition, by the very internal logic of law. But what does it mean for the rest of the world? It means things are gonna spin out of control a lot more before January 20th. Things are gonna get worse before they get better.