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The Coming Revolution
I have never been a fan of Trump’s. However, I do believe that his brashness and bombast have been useful. As the now nearly former president leaves Washington (it is still pretty early in the day) and the new president gets ready to be sworn in, we have been treated to a forecast of what is to come. Leftist overreach has already begun in earnest. They can’t control themselves. Their calls for reconciliation committees and bannings and every other typical leftist maneuver started almost immediately following election day.
On the other hand, Trump set an example of a behavior that Andrew Breitbart began in his dealings with the left. He simply refused to be cowed by their opprobrium. No matter what they said he seemed to walk through it much like a stream flows around rocks in its course. Breitbart, a far more intellectual man than Trump, understood exactly what he was doing. Trump simply did it, but not without effect. And now, with the obvious support of somewhere around 74 million Americans, he may not have won the election, but he proved beyond a doubt the impotency of the left. He walked away unharmed from his first impeachment, and will likely do the same with the second.
Revolutions happen not when people are oppressed. They happen when freedom begins to grow, when the bonds of oppression begin to loosen. That happened during the Trump administration. By example he demonstrated the inability of the left to harm him meaningfully by their absurd charges of racism and sexism. The obvious support of very nearly half of the population of the country showed unquestionably that those claims had little or no power. My sense is that this is or will be the beginnings of a new revolution against leftist political correctness. The pot is boiling over and there will be no putting the lid back on.
We are all tired of being threatened with cancellation, with having our social networks driven off the web, of people like Tim Cook, who has done a far less than adequate job of running the greatest computer company in history nearly into the ground, telling the rest of us how we are to think and speak. We are tired of media hypocrisy, of double standards and lockdowns. We are Americans with a long history of freedom, and Donald Trump, for all his faults, reminded us of that heritage. Coming from one of the most oppressive cities and states, he has an understanding of what we have been losing through increased governmental power. He sought to bring that awareness to all the people during his term in office. I don’t know that it was a conscious thing with him, but having grown up in that same place at the same time as Trump, and having left it long ago, I shared his sense how overweaning our leaders had become.
I suspect that, like me, many of the 74 million who voted for Trump weren’t exactly on the Trump train. However, we all felt something, a growing sense of freedom to express our views in public and private that has been diminishing in recent years. That growing sense of emancipation is now, suddenly, being threatened as the Biden Administration takes office and the leftist overreach begins in earnest. I don’t think that those feelings are going to be put back in the box. I suspect that we are at the start of a new uprising, and the reset isn’t going to be the one planned in Davos.
Published in General
I don’t share your optimism. I think things will have to get worse, probably much worse, before they get better. And they will. The thing I wonder about is the timeline.
I repeat a question I posed in a comment to a post several days ago: Does this coming revolution have to be led by Trump? And a follow-up question: If Donald Trump decides to break from the GOP and start his own political party, how many Trump supporters on Ricochet will follow? Maybe a sort trial separation might be best for all parties (heh) involved. Instead of fighting like cats in a gunny sack over the remains of the Republican Party we instead climb out, set up competing associations and see who best leads the way forward.
Great post.
I am glad that Donald Trump has left Washington. I was getting nervous for his personal safety.
Now that he is safely away, I am excited for the future because during his term, he opened the doors and put the lights on for all to see. Washington has become a problem that we can’t ignore anymore.
No one knows that better than Donald Trump as we could see in his refusal to further feather the federal government’s nest with power to control matters of local public health. He left public health management to the states. That one action won’t solve all of our problems with the federal government, but it’s a start. He lifted up our country’s governors. That is the first step in the reorganization we need to bring about.
The state governments must find their feet again. They have all the tools they need to do that.
We don’t need riots or gun battles. We need a resurgence of De Tocqueville’s little autonomous platoons. Strong towns and cities and states. Heightened civic engagement. People going to evening meetings at their local libraries and townhalls.
To see the entire federal government, Republicans and Democrats alike, arrayed against one man these past six months has been revealing, to say the least. They did not like being disturbed. They have built a nice daily life for themselves in Washington. But now it’s time for them to go home and take their sixty congressional staff members with them.
Thank you, President Trump.
Very good post.
Not as optimistic as you on timeline. Things will get worse but overall I think you are right.
I don’t think it will be led by Trump. I believe it will be more organic, just people tired of being stepped on who have gotten more used to growing freedoms. Simply saying NO! When I retired from teaching I felt a growing sense of freedom from the restrictions on my thinking and speaking. Coincidentally, as I came away from those limitations, I saw them being applied far more generally around the country, to businesses, media, and on the net. Trump was a breath of fresh air in regard to that stifling movement of the left. He set the example, and a lot of people who didn’t care for him personally saw the value of it. They will lead the reset.
I so hope you’re right, Eugene. I so much want to be optimistic for the future.
I am, but only if the ‘old guard’ agrees to step aside (we can set aside for the moment any discussion as to who this group might include). Conservatism, broadly regarded, has a very deep bench. Donald Trump was a great gift to the Left since they didn’t have to do any heavy lifting to demonize him and his followers. What are they going to do with Nikki Haley or Dan Crenshaw or Tim Scott or a dozen other players warming up on the sidelines? Biden was elected because he was not Donald Trump. That won’t work in 2022 and 2024.
If you are looking at Nikki Haley or Dan Crenshaw for the future of the right, you are looking in the wrong place.
Why? Not a snarky question, just curious.
The key is to find someone who makes the left do the heavy lifting as you say, but also who appeals to hardcore Trump supporters at the same time. Someone who is more disciplined, doesn’t think out loud, isn’t completely unpredictable, doesn’t flaunt his or her ego constantly, but who nevertheless is un-politically correct. That’s probably the most important characteristic. And the un-PC has to come naturally to him or her. It can’t look forced. Otherwise they will appear to be a typical Republican which means a Republican who has internalized the progressive critique of conservatism. A Republican who unconsciously believes that critique. I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head who fits the bill.
I like the optimism of this post! I think many conservatives are psychologically shaken up by the recent events and seem to be flailing about trying to vent their anger. I see Republicans uncharacteristically touting conspiracy theories to explain away the election losses. That is not normal. It is usually people on the left doing this kind of stuff.
I think part of it is that Trump attracted a more cultish-like following than Republicans normally do. I don’t think this was a good thing, and it is also more characteristic of people on the left. While I appreciate that Trump brought different demographic groups onboard, the adoration for “the man” only caused bitter disappointment when he let us down. It would be much better to channel all that adoration toward sound conservative ideals because they never let you down. And you never have to make excuses for those ideals.
There can never be a revolution against political correctness. There can only ever be resistance to it.
In a revolution, one political order is replaced by another political order. Political correctness is not a political order that can be replaced, but rather an inherent component of the human soul whereby the desire for certainty overpowers the desire for knowledge. This component can never be replaced, only resisted.
I’ve always viewed political correctness as a way to create enemies by people who need enemies. It paints common sense beliefs as somehow immoral, so that those who engage in political correctness can have an endless supply of enemies who are morally inferior to themselves.
Deep. But political correctness is based on unpleasant lies. People generally prefer lies to Truth but political correctness isn’t fun. No redemption. No fun. Just a dreadful sense of intellectually coherent guilt that does not affirm life.
Humans will run from this despair and turn to either sex robots or Christianity.
I have always thought of political correctness as a form of emotional and intellectual manipulation. It has been used by leftist regimes for a very long time to control the way people are allowed to think and speak. There is an idea in psychology that when you say something aloud it imprints on your subconscious mind and there it takes on its own reality. It is well known that repeating positive ideas when trying to achieve a goal actually does help the achievement. In the same way, speaking politically correct ideas outloud tends to imprint them on the subconscious mind until they take on a reality all their own. Those who do that essentially begin to believe their own BS. When that is reinforced by punishing uncorrect ideas it has a pretty solid effect on insuring that everyone thinks the same way. A prime example of this can be seen watching either CNN or MSNBC. Those people actually do believe the nonsense that they are spouting.
…at which point sex robots (or Christianity) will be politically correct.
Sex robots will be politically correct before Christianity.However, more people will passionately embrace Christianity. It acknowledges basic human truths and it can make humans into less garbage humans. Sex robots will help many social problems but it won’t replace Christianity.
They’re superficially attractive candidates by conventional Republican standards. But they have conventional Republican positions on issues as well. Their foreign policy is particularly at odds with the base. Pro-immigration. Pro-business. They want to be friendly with the media which means accepting the left/media framing which means throwing other conservatives under the bus. People notice that (and have noticed that).
I think Trump will play a role in whatever comes down the pike, be it a brand new party or maybe a new media company, or something we’re not even thinking about. You hit the nail on the head by pointing out the 74 million plus supporters – many include the military. That is a lot of support.
Let the new administration with the old Obama cronies have at it and the sooner the better. The contrast will be immediate and it will be felt across all sectors is a prediction. These are tough times, especially with this awful virus. It won’t take long before people will realize the champions they had in their corner these last four years. Keep positive and don’t get in the dirt like the other side is doing with their insults. Keep your spirit above it.
I’m not sure I want to live in the world where this statement is true.
–Dough Mastriano the likely next governor of PA comes to mind.
He also showed the impotency of those on the right, weak-kneed elitists who never challenged leftism but merely “compromised” most of our principles away. Trump showed the only way to advance conservative principles is to be very aggressive and stick it to the left as often as possible. I don’t care if people on our side throw down a few brewskis with the people on the other side after a grueling session in Congress, but by golly shove their agenda up their behinds when you’re working for us . . .
Unfortunately, I don’t think they have to do any heavy lifting to demonize anyone with an (R) by their name. Taking quotes out of context (Charlottesville), citing anonymous sources (the Atlantic), making false accusations (everything Kavanaugh), etc. and then sending all that out the media megaphone seems pretty easy for them.
Yup. I’ll add that Crenshaw pushed to expand the H1B visa allotments, which really do nothing but displace American workers and depress wages (especially in tech). That disqualifies him in my book (yes, I know that will keep him up at night).
Crenshaw is awful. He supports red flag laws. The Republicans, or whatever they turn into, need to ditch the NeoCons.
This post has encouraged me to wear my I Am Breitbart T-shirt for the first time in a long time to the diner tomorrow.
Spot on, the more I look back on Andrew Breitbart the more I am amazed at how prescient he truly was. Never allow the Left to have a rhetorical point, no matter how small, oppose them all. Trump wasn’t the optimal vessel for that message, but maybe the GOP learned. I doubt it as can be seen by the various ones who are clamoring for his impeachment. Even Andy McCarthy thinks that he should be convicted, not of incitement because he clearly stated he isn’t guilty of that. Of what? I don’t know, being Trump I guess.
Politics is downstream from culture and we have to engage in the culture war if we ever want to win the political one. That is the huge mistake of most of the GOP and the punditocracy of the Right. Most are lawyers and think that the courts will protect us, but they forget that fighting in court is expensive, time-consuming, and risky. Ask Jack Phillips and Baronelle Stutzman how that has worked for them. Cede the culture and even with wins like appointing 300 Federal judges, the war is lost long term, and this is a very long term fight.
I listened to a couple of podcasts with Andy McCarthy in which he discussed the situation on the 6th. It seems to me that the area of contention is Trump’s apparent dereliction of duty during the riots. The story being floated is that Trump was watching the action on TV and was more enthralled with the action than in doing his immediate responsibility. This has been reported on a number of sources, but it is based on statements by unnamed sources. Further investigation with actual testimony will be needed to determine if this actually happened. Also, it is reported that Pence needed to initiate the call for the National Guard since Trump was unwilling to do so. Again, this needs to be investigated and sworn testimony needs to be taken to confirm or negate this claim. McCarthy did feel that Trump had caused the problem by the prolonged denials about the election results and claims that his “landslide victory” had been stolen from him. It was certainly irresponsible rhetoric. One would expect a president to be more circumspect and sensible about the situation. That, too, needs to be adjudged by the appropriate jury, I assume, the United States Senate.
President (always) Trump showed the country, and the world, what was possible. The energy and excitement was palpable. What could have been accomplished if even half of the party he tried to lead had supported him? We’ll never know….
I garnered that from McCarthy’s article, too, but I feel it is akin to the backwards logic of the left. Their theory goes that Trump, by spreading conspiracy theories and false information, incited the crowd to riot. But instructing people to peacefully protest and make your voices heard, no matter for what absurd or phony cause, does not constitute inciting a riot. The left is never content to criticize Trump on his rude and obnoxious behavior, so they constantly invent things out of thin air.