Post-election: now the work begins
I mentioned earlier that Trump’s victory speech was good and hit the right tone. I have no idea whether he can sustain that tone, and what’s more whether he can follow it up with successful action. But when Trump walked onstage to give the speech, I thought I noticed a different and more somber look in his eyes. Maybe it was wishful thinking on my part, but I believe I saw it. And it makes sense that a person would feel the weight of the office descend on him or her, now that the prize is won and the competition with other contenders is over.
Before the polls closed yesterday, I was having dinner with a friend who’s a liberal Democrat. She worked for Hillary and voted for Hillary, but she wasn’t a fervent Hillary admirer. None of the returns had come in yet, but we were talking about the election and the possibility of a Trump victory. I didn’t think it likely but I was definite that it was a possibility, and not a distant one, either. She and I agreed that a Clinton presidency would probably be more predictable in terms of her behavior as president, and that a Trump presidency would be more unpredictable.
And then she surprised me by musing, “But I’m almost hoping he wins, because I’m very curious what it would be like. It would be exciting.”
And I agree. Of course, “exciting” is a double-edged sword. And I don’t think most Hillary supporters would agree with her sense of adventure.
One prediction I make is that Obamacare will really be thrown out. The GOP needs to come up with a very detailed plan for replacement, because now they have the power to do it. There will also be a fairly quick reversal of some of Obama’s executive orders on illegal immigration. As for the rest, I do not think there will be mass deportations, nor will there be banning or deportation of Muslim immigrants. There is much fear about this among those populations, though, and that fear is very understandable. I think, however, that Trump and the Republican Congress will not be fulfilling the most extreme version of his campaign rhetoric.
That’s my belief, and that’s my hope. Whether it is reality remains to be seen.
This reversal in the GOP’s fortunes gives them an amazing opportunity, one that has occurred seldom for them since the days of Calvin Coolidge. It’s an awesome opportunity and an awesome (in the deeper sense of the word: “inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear”) responsibility. I hope they’re up to it. If they are, they could change a lot of minds about what Republicans stand for.
Right after an election it’s possible to imagine that things will be okay, and that all those pleasant words about the future will come true. Trump is no exception. I’ve always said that if he wins, I’ll hope that he’ll show his better side, and be a better president than I expected, based on his campaign. So, I’m prepared to do just that.
I did it with Obama, and it only took a couple of months for him to disabuse me of the idea that it was going to be okay. It would be wonderful if this time it works out a great deal better.
This I agree with.
With 33 GOP Governors would it be a good time to have a Constitutional Convention? Two thirds majority.
Why?
It seems we need to build some better protections on executive limits to power.
Would also like to see stronger budgetary controls:
1) to default to zero funding should Congress and the WH not agree to one vs the continuing resolution process.
2) to limit the deficit (current, and, more importantly, future) that a sitting government can commit to, without extraordinary support.
3) would there be a way to have state legislatures have a say in major new legislation or executive domestic policy? (e.g. EPA, Bathroom mandates) As a means to slowing down major intrusive programs?
#3 Should be it’s own point and might need to be more focused on where state vs federal responsibilities overlap or conflict.
Neo:
“I’ll hope that he’ll show his better side, and be a better president than I expected, based on his campaign. So, I’m prepared to do just that.
I did it with Obama, and it only took a couple of months for him to disabuse me of the idea that it was going to be okay.”
Conservatives collectively need to be more active than just hope in holding officials accountable and, in conservatives’ own right, socially engineering desired outcomes.
Keep in mind that Trump doesn’t owe his POTUS win to conservatives, but rather a markedly anti-conservative faction that supplied the activism needed to exploit legitimate concerns of the GOP base and then the larger American electorate.
Obama was of the Left, like his activist supporters, with a track record, which you described for us here, so Obama’s actions were a disappointment but not a surprise.
Trump is a harder read than Obama. It’s not clear from his background and his campaign whether Trump is likeminded with his alt-Right supporters or, for that matter, what’s Trump’s actual agenda.
As to how he might govern, especially because Trump owes no debt to conservatives and does owe a debt to alt-Right activists for winning POTUS, it’s incumbent on conservatives to be vigilant and actively competitive for their agenda and principles.
Big Maq:
Convention of States, Article V. Some states have already signed on to the process (8 IIRC). The process does not depend on the Congress or the Executive branch.
Some of Neo’s regular commenters while willing to risk Trump are afraid to follow the constitution, adopting the wait and see if Trump can’t be controlled or turns out bad. Often they follow with “civil war is inevitable, the people are too stupid and immoral to govern themselves.” You’ve heard it here I’m sure.
“This reversal in the GOP’s fortunes gives them an amazing opportunity, . . . ”
“I’ll hope that he’ll show his better side, and be a better president than I expected . . . .” [Neo]
Many of my earlier comments have had two underlying themes: 1) Never fully judge an administration by the campaign rhetoric it uses to get elected, and 2) the 45th presidency is a historic opportunity for a Becket-like administration to rise to the needs of the office.
The Trump win is, IMO, the dodging of the Hillary bullet. Whether Trump can or will rise to this occasion remains to be seen. I think the sobriety and graciousness of his victory speech is a good first-blush sign, but it is only that. The difficult work for any 45th president will be making political/economic/policy sense out of the carnage of the last eight Obama years.
We shall see. We should all wish him well with our hope and prayers, for if he does rise to the occasion, it will be us, as a country, who benefit from that result.
T–My sentiments exactly.
So far, he’s more conciliatory than some of his supporters.
“So far, he’s more conciliatory than some of his supporters.” [Matt_SE @ 4:24]
That might be leadership rearing its head..
Winning the Presidency is not all it’s cracked up to be. It is a position of power but also fraught with crushing responsibilities. (Unless you’re Obama. If you are him, you say “Who me worry?”)
I always remember the story about when FDR died After Truman was sworn in, he asked Mrs. Roosevelt, “Is there anything I can do for you?”
Mrs. Roosevelt responded, “Is there anything we can do for you? For you are the one in trouble now.”
Maybe DJT is feeling a bit of that.
There are great struggles ahead. The progressives are not going to roll over and take it like help less beggars. Few reforms will come easy. If Trump is smart, he will do as Reagan did. Lay his case out to the people, and let the people tell their representatives that they agree.
Well written, Neo, Eric, and T. I always appreciate this blog and the civility of most of the comments. A good place.
Well, we have definitely turned a page; and I am hopeful.
Observers have noted that Trump campaigned much differently the last couple of weeks; and his speech last night was very good. Almost humble. There are a couple of articles today with supposedly informed speculation about his cabinet. It is encouraging. Also encouraging are reports that his transition team is reaching out to GW and Reagan veterans for counsel on how to make a smooth transition.
For those who wanted to see the GOP blown up. Tough luck. Trump gave the microphone to one person last night, after lavishly praising him–Reince Priebus, Chairman of the RNC. Then, those GOPe stalwarts, McConnell and Ryan gave good interviews today in which they each specifically acknowledged that the electorate has mandated a new direction for government, and that they will work with President Trump to move in that direction. They both stated that they have been in contact with the President-elect this morning, and will be coordinating with him during the transition so as to get a fast start.
As Neo’s friend said; it is sort of exciting to see how this will play out. I certainly expect some improvement over the past eight years on almost every front. I know for certain that we dodged a bullet with respect to SCOTUS nominees if nothing else.
I was pleased to wake up and learn hrc was defeated. As for the president elect I will wait and see. To those who read the electorate correctly, kudos.
The dems lead by bribery
Trump leads by more classical message which since feminism declared toxic maleness we are not used to seeing… It was something biology responds to which makes it hard for women to compete if it’s used
This is one major reason men diminished power positions.. Unlike women they don’t plot against the ladies like the ladies do…
We have forgotten this because we are forbidden to talk and think thanks to the ladies controlling speech and standing judgment that falls in their favor….
You saw it neo
At that point, the news could not hide it
Did you really think Ronald Reagan saying when he met Trump he was meeting a president was erroneous??? Now it’s prescient!!!!
Did you really think that the way media did is thing you saw through it to a man who runs a business empire built on handshake deals and trust that you got the truth???
Like Paris Hilton I know, no one wanted to believe people that meet them preferring to believe media… The artform whose total purpose is to screw with your head for money….
Your gonna keep getting surprised if you think this way
And you obviously do
Ed Klein: Here’s what I know, not my opinion. About 6:30 this morning she called an old friend. She was crying inconsolably. She couldn’t stop crying. And her friend, her female friend from way, way back said it was even hard to understand what she was saying she was crying so hard. This is Hillary we’re talking about. Eventually her friend said she could make out that she was blaming James Comey, the Director of the FBI, for her loss, and, I don’t understand exactly, the president of the United States for not doing enough.Her crimes were not why
Her lies were not why
Her duplicity and sociopathy was not why
Her ignoring the Constitution was not why
But falling apart to the point you can’t graciously thank everyone and sending podesta out to say “go home”…. Is more presidential than Trump saying he offers his hand to those that opposed him to move forward
Trump has always risen to meet the situation
He is real, without facade, and we are used to get guarded robots
When he bought the golf course he paid the debts of the workers the prior owners stiffed
No tax write off for that and the people have spoken knowing he did not have to…(the beef we read about in the press was with the leftist state who wanted to ruin the investment to hurt and humiliate Trump knowing that the left would not care about broken agreements that hurt the rich the same way Obama negated the rules in the banks to favor the union’s of of turn)
When a farmer committed suicide thinking his family would get the insurance… Trump paid off the farm… Insurance didn’t pay if suicide can be proven… That’s not deductible either
Out of thousands of employees, hundreds of deals, over 50 years of business… What did the left actually find to cause you to think perfection was the only thing allowed… One woman was a hoax… Only a few didn’t like the courses… Not one business associate had something bad to say… The worst was and locker for talk that the left decide that you and I would care about without thinking about the others behavior in the presence of stuck money… If only they could get him interested… The airplane thing dried up when a witness OK the flight pointed out she was throwing herself at him
Why do we think abs Nicole Smith didn’t live the billionaire she hooked… What about the gay man who tried to keep Martha Ray property claiming to marry her and not care her age… We can accept gruopies going after rock stars… And carry grants stories… And even burt ward and Robin… And that women would throw underwear and room keys on stage for elvis and blue eyes and even Vegas strip acts…
But with Trump all the pudenda class is different???
Boy are a bunch of you going to be really surprised!!!!
Way to go, Art. Let her rip!
artfldgr if you ever start yr own blog, be sure to leave the link. thx.
@Art – you are worse than the MSM, just repeating crap without much corroborating evidence. Just because Ed Klein says so, does not make it fact.
clinton is just awful, but we don’t need to be going around spreading rumors.
Besides those areas you cited, Neo, there are other extremely important issues that need to be rectified:
– reverse the EPA’s war on fossil fuels and fracking
– weed out the Climate Change fanatics in NASA
– reform the civil service system to make it easier to dismiss or indict employees like Lois Lerner and others found abusing their positions for partisan (read: Marxist) purposes (see below)
– probably most important is going to be rooting out all the Marxist poison pills hired at the top civil service positions throughout the bureaucracy since 2009, beginning at the Department of Justice. They’re directly responsible for the re-interpretation of Title IX to facilitate the “rape culture” meme on campuses and the denial of due process to the accused, the attacks on state laws requiring voter ID, the prevention of the clean-up of state voter rolls, the prosecution of businesses for refusal of services that violate their religious convictions, the imposition of gender-neutral bathrooms, the obstruction of justice in the IRS, Fast & Furious and Hillary email scandals, among many others, and much, much more.
Remember how the Marxists went nuts when the Bush DOJ replaced 8 DAs and also accused them of favoring conservatives in hiring, which turned out to be BS? J. Christian Adama and PJ Media reviewed the resumes of every DOJ hire since 2009 and found Every Single One is a leftist, with backgrounds in La Raza, the LGBTQ industry, the ACLU, radical environmental, feminist and racial orgs, but not one solitary conservative or even a moderate.
I’d love to see him appoint a non-nonsense, tough constitutional expert like Mark Levin to drain that swamp.
Trump will have a foreign policy and an economic policy. The quality of his agenda and his ability to make it happen will be things to watch unfold.
But I think it will be very telling to see if he implements any “drain the swamp” actions. Will he try to put a dent into the permanent lefty bureaucracy (EPA stifling activity never proscribed by Congress)? Will he curb tax dollars going to lefty NGOs from every corner of the alphabet soup of federal departments? This area of policy is optional. Will he expend any political capital on it?
The other thing that will be interesting to watch unfold is how effectively the establishment can fill the zeitgeist with Trump Derangement Syndrome. Are people sick enough of the MSM bias to tune out the coming incessant, never-ending, perpetually repeated, wall-to-wall (you get the idea) screeching that will occur é la “Reagan is cutting the budget… oh the horror” or “there were no weapons of mass destruction?”
I too think that Obamacare will be thrown out.
I agree that there will also be a fairly quick reversal of some of Obama’s executive orders.
Except for illegal criminals, there won’t be mass deportations but I do hope Trump strongly enforces the laws and goes after the employers.
I fully expect a near-banning of Muslim immigrants from suspect ME societies.
All of this is dependent upon Trump following through on his basic positions. Time will tell the tale.
“With 33 GOP Governors would it be a good time to have a Constitutional Convention? Two thirds majority.” Big Maq
It’s the State legislatures that is the determinate factor. If the GOP has a majority, then I strongly support it.
“civil war is inevitable, the people are too stupid and immoral to govern themselves.” OM
Obama won in 2008 and 2012. Trump and Hillary were the nominees. Hillary won the popular vote… the young strongly favor socialism and overwhelmingly vote democrat. If you can’t admit that to be, at the least a probable indicator of future conflict, then you are firmly wedded to the POV that everything will be all right… because.
geokstr,
An excellent start in draining the swamp.
Matthew M,
Yes, will Trump make a serious effort to drain the swamp? While ABC nightly news had several veiled attacks on Trump.
Saw a fanciful electoral map that purported to show the 18-25 year old vote (without documentation). It was blue except for about a half-dozen states in the upper west.
Several people commented that it bode well for the future.
My take is, let’s see how those people vote (assuming that it is near accurate) after they have been away from the parental cocoon, or the safe spaces on college campuses. They are very innocent of real life; and of government’s impact on their personal lives.
I am sure you are right about there not being mass deportations. However, the baseline for any beginning discussion on illegal immigration is that it is actually illegal and merits deportation. From that starting point one can begin to winnow cases as they come up. Illegals who have committed violent crimes are easy. Then come non-violent crimes. Then . . . whatever. But you don’t start with the premise that the law doesn’t count and almost everyone should stay which seems to be the position of too many in both parties.
I worry that a Constitutional Convention would be fraught with danger. The Bill of Rights is fairly tamper resistant, but everything would probably be fair game. It wouldn’t be over in a month.
G.B. in reply to OM: “If you can’t admit that to be, at the least a probable indicator of future conflict, then you are firmly wedded to the POV that everything will be all right… because.”
Massive anti-Trump protests now going on in seven major cities. One of them is in Seattle where it has just been reported that 5 people have been shot. The shootings may or may not be connected to the protest, but they happened in the area where the protest is taking place. Only further investigation will reveal what really happened.
I kind of expected this from the hard-core Bernie supporters. If the results had been the other way around, it might have been the alt-right talking to the streets. Will Obama step up to the plate in favor of law and order now? Or will he allow the civil disobedience to grow? The answer will be interesting.
Geoffrey:
I am sick of the civil war theme you keep peddling while claiming the mantle of a student of history. Tally up the dead in our civil war and try to compare the issues at stake then and now. Look around the world at recent civil wars, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and think about the causes for those disasters to the people involved. Progressives are a menace, communists a threat, radical islam is a plague, hyperbole is a waste of time. Get serious.
J.J.
And the anarchists are alive and well in Seattle, but it must be a civil war brewing? Because…..
These anti-Trump protests are probably being fueled by Soros money. Seattle has a Marxist city council-woman named Kshama Sawant who made an appearance at the beginning of the protest, encouraging voters to attend the inauguration and shut it down.
Many more protests up and down the West coast and on college campuses.
Twitter report in Seattle:
Alertpage Inc. Retweeted KOMO News
SEATTLE, WA – NOW REPORTED 5 SHOOTING VICTIMS – ALL REPORTED W/CRITICAL INJURIES – MCI DECLARED #BREAKING http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/20365
Stand by for days of rage.
J.J.
Those who play stupid games win stupid prizes, useful idiots abound around the Sound.
Neoneo:
Trump was conciliatory and even Hilary said to give him a chance, but it’s game time for the left. Black Lives Matter was lying low for the past month or two, probably on orders of Obama, but it and it’s ilk will be back, with media and elite support, and things will deteriorate quickly. TheSe people are not interested in getting along. I hope Trump and his team see this coming.
Ben
I doubt the current Days of Rage will last.
The Weather Underground in 1969 lost that bet. They called for big violent demos and not many showed up, even among the hardcore radicals of the day.
It was actually a sign of failure.
Though the Weather folks did regroup, go underground and/or burrow in. Decades later they helped elect Obama in 2008.
I looked up what was said about Reagan in 1980. Here’s what some of the brainiacs “feared”
JK:
Reagan had considerable experience as a governor and by then a well founded conservative grounding/temperament. The intellectual idiots of 1980 were wrong, but Trump is no Reagan.
We are no less deplorable and irredeemable in the eyes of the left than we were on November 7. There’s just more of us than they thought.
A segment of the people who helped elect Trump, the alt-right, are now openly exposing themselves as the racist scum we always suspected. This is from Vox Popoli and is being widely linked by a number of sites that will remain unnamed, other than to say several of them are often quoted and linked by Glenn Reynolds:
THE REALITY OF IDENTITY
This is only the beginning. Identity>Culture>Politics. There is no more “Republican” vs “Democrat”. It is now whites vs non-whites and white quislings. All long-term strategies now need to revolve around demographics, not ideological policies.
Neo says that this election gives people a chance to see what the Republican Party stands for. Does it stand for white identity? If so, we are witnessing the rise of something very ugly. Unless Trump, his advisers, elected Republican office holders, the right media including especially Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge, denounce and exclude these people they will undermine and ultimately destroy the party.
OM,
I understand that, but “they” treated Reagan in the same manner. I expect Trump to surprise the conventional wisdom.
Reagan was the only Republican president to reduce spending and to reduce regulation in the last 60 years. So the experience is not the big factor if you want change.
Trump has experience making decisions to get projects done. He knows how to select the people to run those projects. He’s not a wonk, but unlike TV presidents, the President is a leader/commander not a professor.
I don’t get my expectations of what a President is to do from a lame TV show, do you?
OM: “Those who play stupid games win stupid prizes, useful idiots abound around the Sound.”
True that. Seattle, the bluest of blue cities, has suffered mightily under the “rage” of the left. Talk about fouling your own nest.
The protests will go away, eventually. I was witness to the unrest of the late 60s and 70s. It wasn’t a pretty sight. It didn’t go away of its own volition. Only staunch law enforcement finally put it down. Soros money can keep things stirred up for longer than most would think and burn through a lot of taxpayer money. You may think it small potatoes. I’ll believe that when peace returns and cities/colleges no longer have to pay big overtime to LEOs for crowd control.
I hope I’m wrong, but the election may have just been the kickoff for the big game.
Still floating and feasting on happiness. God what a close call!
Here’s another thing to chew on: Mr. “Worst Possible Candidate!!!” would have beaten Obama in 2012. The National Review (yes, them) crunched the numbers:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/442059/dont-blame-clinton-trump-2016-wouldve-beaten-obama-2012
Schadenfreude; it’s what’s for dinnah.
We’ve won major battles last night, but are far from winning the long-term war.
The US may have, at least for the next four years, slowed the pace of transnational Progressives in eroding democratic, national sovereignty; reduced the power and credibility of the ridiculously partisan major media; made irrelevant the corrupt Clinton Global Crime Syndicate (who will pay $250K to hear Bill or Hill when they’ve now zero influence on DC decision making and no ability to transact pay for play favors?); curtailed the evolution of the US into a global welfare state where the our actual national interest is, at best, a tertiary concern; and kicked political correctness and identity politics in the teeth (a satisfying but hardly mortal blow).
It remains to be seen, however, if these are merely rear-guard “holding” operations, or it they signify permanent rollback. Color me skeptical. The march towards a Progressive elite oligarchy has been slowed, but it has hardly been stopped because last night’s political victories did nothing to weaken the Left’s domination of our cultural institutions.
The Progressive stranglehold over academia, the media, coastal elite opinion including Silicon Valley, the Legal profession, Finance, Hollywood and the other arbiters of what constitutes acceptable taste and behavior leave open to question if last night’s multi-pronged victory is a dead cat bounce or holds the promise of real, lasting cultural change.
The broad-based repudiation of Progressives at national and state levels gladdens my heart. Nevertheless, I am long-term very pessimistic about the preservation America’s classical liberal/constitutional order guaranteeing free speech, free markets and justice based on respect for the individual rather than membership in ethnic/gender/racial identity groups. We’ve hardly even begun to bring back into balance the twin but often opposing goals of freedom and equality, in today’s world where the Left views freedom as the principal obstacle to hyper-egalitarianism at all costs.
If anything, last night’s victories will only encourage the Left to organize more intensely and ruthlessly, with greater Red Guard-style discipline. The Left is down (temporarily), but hardly out.
The next four years will see an increase in Occupy-style mass protests (apparently, they’ve already started in dozens of cities and campuses) and BLM-style violence, openly encouraged and abetted by Leftist organizations. In these battles, the urge to solidify Progressives’ hold on “their” territories (academia, Media/Hollywood) will be fierce. Just look at the post-election attempts to reverse Brexit to understand the tenacity of the organized Left to preserve its power via quite open contempt and subversion of democratic institutions challenging their rule. Think the battle is over?
Last night’s elections slowed the rot but will not necessarily reverse it. Why? Nothing about last night changes the dominance of the Left over our key cultural institutions. Political changes are often short-term; culture is long-term.
So here’s a very qualified two-gun salute to the wisdom of a majority of American voters in rejecting Progressive elite governance by voting for candidates other than Hillary and her down-ballot colleagues. But let’s not let down our guard. Not only is the battle not over, but Republican victories will assuredly create an intense emotional urgency for a full scale Progressive rebellion, fought in the streets and from the campus and media trenches the Left controls so completely. Nothing about last night’s election altered the fundamentals regarding the Progressive stranglehold on our culture. Long-term, , unless we tackle the deeper cultural rot, we’re still doomed.
So, two cheers—but the long term challenge is cultural–challenging the suffocating PC monoculture in the schools, on campus and promoted by the brazenly corrupt and partisan major media.
A few legislative initiatives might help begin turn the tide. A good start would be the denial of any federal funding whatsoever to sanctuary cities and a similar denial of any federal funding to colleges or universities with speech codes or which otherwise restrict student or faculty speech or harass visiting speakers or which deny full due process to people accused of sexual or other campus-related misconduct. We must strengthen the enforcement of anti-corruption laws for current or former “public servants.” True pension reform must curb the pay for play schemes between state legislators seeking campaign donations and public employee unions, particularly teachers’ unions receiving unbelievable and unaffordable pension benefits maturing long after the corrupt politicians have retired.
Beyond legislation, a grass roots campaign to dissuade alumni from donating to campuses known for permitting or encouraging oppressive PC behavior would also set the stage for longer-term change.
The cultural battles we need to win are probably as tough as last night’s electoral wins. Our triumph at the polls should embolden us us to reform our politicized cultural institutions, to bring back balance, viewpoint diversity and, above all, free expression without fear of intellectual repression.
Political victories are great, but to sustain these long-term we need equally dramatic victories in the campus, public finance and media culture wars.
” A segment of the people who helped elect Trump, the alt-right, are now openly exposing themselves as the racist scum we always suspected” – the Other Chuck
I am hoping that Trump was just using the all-right to get what he wanted and that he will discard them quickly. I’m not sure I’m hopeful, but hoping.
Obama had an opportunity to lead in healing the nation of its racial wounds. I posit that he made them worse. Maybe a miracle will happen and Trump will do better on that score. He needs to be president of all Americans, and give no quarter to the thugs on the alt-right.
Of all the rolling effects of this election, I am really hoping against hope for some racial healing. I don’t know how that happens, though. Thoughts?
It took a lot of conservatives and patriots to put Trum on the DC Throne, including what the Alt Right and other Trum supporters called “Lying Ted” Cruz.
Just how long before they figure that out or start to forget it in the mists of DC, will be interesting to see.
Maybe a miracle will happen and Trump will do better on that score.
Why would a nation that tolerates the Left’s evil, including Planned Profit and union goons, deserve a miracle?
Are miracles something easily mass produced that those without faith can benefit from merely because of worldly power and wealth? If America gets enough economic and military power, can Americans buy miracles the way Catholics bought remission from sin by paying the Pope gold for an Indulgence?
Left Coast Ron Says:
November 10th, 2016 at 2:30 am
Has a long term analysis I can agree with.
Then again, I probably wrote similar lines here before this year.
The Clinton Machine isn’t even the Chicago Machine, and the Clinton Mafia is at most 10% of the Left’s strategic power. Even if the Wicked Witch of the West melts and takes all her corrupt brood with her to the next dimension, the Left’s power will regenerate in a mere few years. They are a hydra after all. People should learn from Hercules’ example.
The Other Chuck:
“A segment of the people who helped elect Trump, the alt-right, are now openly exposing themselves as the racist scum we always suspected.”
Easy way to understand the alt-Right is as adaptation of the Left in themes and playbook.
The alt-Right’s principal objective was not to win Trump the presidency, though it did, but to use the 2016 election to establish their Gramscian march. The movement to that objective continues apace.
The alt-Right frames the social cultural/political situation as a binary choice between alt-Right and Left visions of America – with alt-Right as the necessary counter-march to the Left’s march. But they’re sides of the same dys-civic coin who would take the nation to essentially the same place if they’re not simultaneously countered in the activist game. Reminiscent of the fascists vs communists trap.
The fact there was no center-left NeverHillary counterpart to the center-right NeverTrump shows that conservatives are the only American faction left to be the 3rd option to stop the Trump-front alt-Right and Democrats-front Left. The Left has subdued the liberals among the Democrats and, adapting their methods, the alt-Right is moving to subdue conservatives among Republicans.
With the adaptation track in mind, recall the disarming revisionist methods used by Obama’s supporters when you observe and engage with Trump’s supporters.
Obama was of the Left and it’s unclear yet Trump is of the alt-Right. So we can hope that Trump will break with the alt-Right activists who engineered the Trump phenomenon now that he’s elected POTUS, and past the campaign, Trump will make a ‘heel to face turn’ and prove himself to be the dutiful and responsible conservative Republican reformer now being painted by Trump supporters with Obama-like revisionist strokes.
Hope isn’t enough. Even in the best hopeful case for Trump, it’s urgently incumbent on conservatives to rise collectively as the competitive activist 3rd option needed to stop the activist machinery of the likewise Democrat-front Left and Trump-front alt-Right that would grind American society into a malignant form between them.
Oops. Forgot a line:
But they’re sides of the same dys-civic coin who would take the nation to essentially the same place if they’re not simultaneously countered in the activist game. Reminiscent of the fascists vs communists trap. They amplify each other.
Hillary won the popular vote… the young strongly favor socialism and overwhelmingly vote democrat.
That 3+million fake Democrat machine vote going on, but this time they miscalculated. Perhaps Hil was too busy with FBI stuff, servers, and crashing Bernie. Or perhaps Bernie’s supporters went ape and started counting votes for Trum instead. Those activist fanatics tend to be at the front lines of the Left’s volunteer staff positions. Unpaid positions even.
But Om’s reaction to Geoffrey is little different than the reaction I expected online in 2007 or even 2012. The time wasn’t ready back then. While some people are getting on the band wagon now in 2016, it’s still not quite as popular as the Trum band wagon.
So as the work begins a couple of questions on a certain pedestrian level regarding a smallish portion of the possible work at hand, while leaving aside for another day more important questions regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran:
Who is Ayman al-Zawahiri now that Osama bin Laden is dead? Hoola-hooper-chief? (And will there be any declared project to find and end him)?
Is there any chance that Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his fellow captives, Sept. 11th plotters all, will finally face trial for their crimes, and, if convicted, be put to death — and if so, any chance that the reason this has taken so long to be done will be told?
What about that captured trove of intelligence taken in the Bin Laden raid? Any chance that can be put to work also — and once again, will the reason that it has not been put to work be exposed to public knowledge?
Will capturing and detaining Islamist fighters for the sake of obtaining intelligence about that enemy become policy once more? That is, will the hands of US war fighters, now tied by an unfriendly administration be untied by a friendlier one, so that war fighting (the US is at war, is it not?) can once again take place with the customary usages and sensible measures of war?
Ymarsakar:
“Has a long term analysis I can agree with.”
Yes. The activist game is the only social cultural/political game there is.
It’s competition, the social evolutionary one. Participatory politics subsume electoral politics.
Ymarsakar:
“It took a lot of conservatives and patriots to put Trum on the DC Throne, including what the Alt Right and other Trum supporters called “Lying Ted” Cruz.”
I caution that the alt-Right is to conservatives as the Left has been to liberals. The liberals displaced and subdued by Left activists at least had the excuse of having been overcome by surprise. With the Left’s precedent known to all, conservatives have no such excuse with alt-Right activists adapting the Left’s strategy to displace and subdue conservatives.
Ymarsakar:
“But Om’s reaction to Geoffrey is little different than the reaction I expected online in 2007 or even 2012.”
Right. Full-blown generational mass casualty, mass destruction civil war doesn’t just burst forth spontaneously in full form in a vacuum.
They’re politics until they’re war. War is a form of competition for political stakes. To mangle the actual quote to make a point, if war is politics by other means, then activism is war by political means. Same continuum. Change on the continuum usually isn’t a gentle slope, but jumps like a step function.
It’s competition, the social evolutionary one. Participatory politics subsume electoral politics.
One point I differ with Eric on is the competition. As I wrote in the previous thread or threads, I do not seek a competition. I seek to destroy evil, by whatever means are most effective and efficient. I do not seek an MMA contest or “fight” on equal or relatively equal levels.
This can best be summed up as the difference between war and politics. In politics, if you are cheating, you are wrong. In war, if you aren’t cheating, then you’re doing it wrong.
On CBS this a.m., interview with rep from pollster company trump’s campaign used (from memory)…
“Big question going into election night was going to be turnout… Our internal polling was a bit off. What we expected a likely voter to be was not an accurate representation of who a likely voter actually was.” – Matt Oskowski – Cambridge Analytica
Seems the trump campaign really didn’t “know” any better than anyone else what the voting electorate looked like.
Considering that there may have been a “herding” effect amongst pollsters (i.e. similar interpretation of results by comparison and not wanting to be an outlier – oh, didn’t we see this wrt the “binary” paradigm vs other choices available?).
For people that prefer physical examples and deeds, then consider the difference between a US sniper killing a HVT from 1.5 miles away vs the political death/defeat of various factions.
If a criminal decides to go into a schoolhouse to shoot everyone there, including the kids, then there’s little need for politics or communication. Does the wolf communicate to the lamb that it should negotiate or else it will be eaten?
Most people are socialized to believe in the Deal or the Contest, the MMA brawl or the bar room fight, or the monkey dance where two big males push each other around to show off to the girls. I have studied such behaviors, but I prefer the highest strategy of warfare. The highest would be Sun Tzu or Christianity’s belief, that you win the war without having to fight anybody. The lower one would be, you win the war without having to fight anybody because you or your God has already killed all of them before they woke up.
An interesting, and probably one of the fairest analysis of the “First 100 Days” proposal.
https://mishtalk.com/2016/11/09/trumps-first-100-days/
Bill:
Re the alt-right I’m withholding judgement on Trump, for now. Will he have enough sense to do what Reagan did with the John Birch Society which he considered a kook organization, by saying that they are welcome to support him, but that doesn’t mean he supports them? When you gather together Trump’s inflammatory statements over the course of the campaign, add in the visuals of thousands flocking to his rallies, AND the support of the alt-right, it has the markings of a nascent fascist movement. I’m hoping against hope that is not the case.
Eric:
I agree with you that the alt-right is the flip side of the radical left. Does Trump support them or have they found an opening and jumped on the bandwagon? They clearly mean to become the ideological force in the new Trump administration and the Republican Party. Here is their answer to Bill Kristol and the National Review editorial board, again via Vox Popoli:
You guys will be crying yourself soon enough, when you realize how easily you were played and what damage is going to be done to conservative movement…
We. Are. Not. Conservatives.
We are Alt-Right.
We. Don’t. Care.
The Alt-Right Revolution has only begun.
The trick is to convince some people that your benign indifference to their life really is not a matter of racism per se. But for the class of congenitally inclined ass-sniffers, whatever their color, this is a difficult task.
You can point to a dead Olaf Palme or a flock of dead gay Nazis, and and laugh, and it still doesn’t make them feel any better.
They are racist to their cores without even realizing it.
https://twitter.com/JonHaidt
Life, liberty and Property. Validation is not included.
The left is going crazy because they want and need, and for years have no-limits insisted on having from others, what others neither need nor want from them.
Others, other than the odd compassionate-communitarianly tuned conservative, here or there.
But then they will always have The American Solidarity Party …
Perhaps some will ultimately find a likely home here …
Or better yet, Here : http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/a-different-conservatism/
Here is their answer to Bill Kristol and the National Review editorial board, again via Vox Popoli
Vox Popoli is a Leftist centered propaganda organ, from the articles I’ve seen. A lot of people seem to use it though, when linking online.
The Alt Right is a coalition, it’s much like when MoveOn or so called Republicans promises that Obamacare will “work” and you will “keep your plan”. A lot of them don’t speak for the leaders of their coalition, or are just lying.
There’s 3 primary leaders of the Alt Right, I have identified. Vox Day. The gay guy, Nero, aka … forgot his name actually. Well most everyone knows about the homo speaker poking SJWs in universities.
http://www.dangerandplay.com/2015/10/26/the-animal-within-how-to-breathe-like-wim-hof-joe-rogan-podcast/
The last one is Mike Cernovich.
There are also mob like movements like reddit or 4chan which is almost literally leaderless. They move like Brownian motion and is mostly cell based, not top down hierarchy based. The 3 listed above is the closest to “top down” anyone will see from the Alt Right coalition against the Leftist alliance.
http://voxday.blogspot.ca/2016/11/constructing-narrative.html
Here’s a good example of the limited command and control the Alt Right uses. It’s nothing all that complicated or hidden like JournoList, which the Left uses or Clinton’s email servers.
The 3 leaders are the “brains”, the strategists behind the Left. TrumpBart and other organizations fit in the middle, they support the vanguard, they don’t come up with innovative strategies themselves.
The Alt Right has already been using 4th generational warfare. It’s improbable that American “conservatives” can resist them without also using 4th generation warfare.
The 3 leaders are the “brains”, the strategists behind the Left.
EDIT: the strategists behind the alliance against the Left.
What they aren’t are a political group or a bunch of newspaper journalists cooking up the news. Their power and economic structures are nearly independent of politics.
The Other Chuck,
Traditional rules, mores, norms, etc, are pushed aside by competitors for zero-sum paradigm shift.
Ymarsakar:
“One point I differ with Eric on is the competition. As I wrote in the previous thread or threads, I do not seek a competition. I seek to destroy evil, by whatever means are most effective and efficient.”
As is, the binary choice is a trap. The Left isn’t the only evil that must be defeated. And in this case, the Left and alt-Right are essentially the same evil.
As the arena is currently arrayed, conservatives lose whether the Democrats-front Left wins or conservatives surrender their agency (theoretical as it is given their chronic aversion to activism) to Trump-front alt-Right activists.
And we can’t afford for conservatives to lose because they’re the last line for American society.
Ymarsakar:
“The Alt Right has already been using 4th generational warfare. It’s improbable that American “conservatives” can resist them without also using 4th generation warfare.”
Agreed.
“4th generational warfare”
What in the world is 4th generational warfare?
I guess I am ignorant. What has the “Alt Right” done that has commenters so stirred up? Guess I missed it, although I thought I was reasonably well informed.
Of course one family member told me that Trump would organize all of the uneducated, unemployed white guys into militias. So, I guess the Left propaganda machine is still hard at work.
What I actually see in the news are stories of left wing mobs shutting down freeways in LA, and desecrating public and private property to vent their rage over the results of a fair election.
One message is relevant. Trump won; election have consequences. We won’t know how Trump governs until he has had a chance to govern; and he earned the chance. I am hopeful because of the people he brought into his orbit. Ben Carson, Sen Sessions, Rudy, Mike Huckabee. These are not wild eyed crazies.
What in the world is 4th generational warfare?
Guerilla warfare and COIN. In other words, how to win against a superpower that dominates everything.
That superpower would be the GOP E or the Leftist alliance in this context. Or even the Alt Right, depending on what faction you are in.
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/k/tom-kratman/riding-the-red-horse.htm
The front line thinkers on this subject, as well as some old soldiers and strategists, are in the byline of that page. And yes, the publisher and editor is VoxDay, the same one as mentioned before. He has a lot of “ties” to different people and factions, which is to be expected of a vanguard leader/strategist of the Alt Right alliance. Leaders aren’t leaders, without followers and allies and resources. They’re just petty con men or warriors, or tools in a sense, without resources to command. Spymasters are spymasters because they tell spies what to do, they are not Master Spies themselves. People underestimated the Left because all they saw online were SJWs and protesters in the media. They couldn’t take them seriously. Can they take the Left seriously now that they realized Clinton is immune to your petty little laws? The Alt Right is far more transparent and far more divisive. Even with stories of Russian interference, the Russians would only be capable of interfering with something that is already grassroots. I like transparency, I can analyze internet personalities based on open sources alone. Whereas with the Left, all their Idiots Are Online, so analyzing them is pointless.
William S Lind would probably be the oldest advocate of 4th generationalwarfare, unless I’m forgetting something. A modern general that utilized such knowledge would be Petraeus, in his COIN (Counter Insurgency) which was successful in Iraq up until Hussein Obola came to power.
What has the “Alt Right” done that has commenters so stirred up?
Easiest way to findout is to read what their leaders say, which is pretty transparent.
http://www.dangerandplay.com/
Mike C is an American red blooded patriot, aka conservative. Vox Day is an Italian, Red Indian, White/Nationalist Christian (self proclaimed), Gamer/Coder/Analytical expert. Currently partial or full ownership of independent sci fi fantasy publishing house. Got some good writers on his portfolio like John C Wright.
VoxDay provides publicity and meme supporter, online social media propaganda support. Mike C gathers the Tea Party and Republicans who feel betrayed, via similar methods. The homo speaker that likes to poke SJWs at universities, um, he’s good at getting Liberals or former Democrats to jump ship to Trum, via his Trumpbart connections. He’s a writer of Breitbart Tech section, I believe, and has a lot of money somehow that he likes to flaunt as a materialist.
As is, the binary choice is a trap. The Left isn’t the only evil that must be defeated. And in this case, the Left and alt-Right are essentially the same evil.
I did not present a binary choice.
By evil, I would apply that to all of humanity, not just small tribal factions like the Leftist alliance or the Alt Right anti Left coalition.
They really need acronyms by now, it is getting tiresome writing it out, like NATO would be if I had to spell it out all the way.
I’m listening (right now) to Dennis Prager interview Victor Davis Hanson and he is making EXCELLENT points. Obama the supposed “uniter” has destroyed the Democrat party (only he could successfully run on his agenda–no other Democrat can) and Trump the supposed “destroyer” has united the Republican party in ways it hasn’t been united in over 20 years. Also he pointed out how Trump is genuine. I watched an interview this morning that EWTN’s Arroyo had with Trump prior to the election and this is EXACTLY my take-away. It is so refreshing to hear actual conversation and not just the “talking points” from both sides of the aisle that has for so many years passed for political discourse.
Some very real considerations about the take aways from this election, looking towards 2020:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442074/donald-trump-election-victory-myths-lessons
Hardly a “whitelash” that Van Jones wants to make of it.
It very much looks like clinton lost much of the support (incl white) that obama had the last two cycles. Very interesting chart here, and would like to see it with 2016 added. My guess is that we’d see a shift left (less dem support) across the board (to account for the 9M+ fewer votes):
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/06/10/upshot/voting-habits.html
And,
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/06/10/upshot/voting-habits-turnout-partisanship.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/10/upshot/there-are-more-white-voters-than-people-think-thats-good-news-for-trump.html
Big Maq–I’ve heard several accounts that even with Obama’s active support (campaigning on behalf of “so and so”), he has no coattails.
” Obama the supposed “uniter” has destroyed the Democrat party (only he could successfully run on his agenda—no other Democrat can) and Trump the supposed “destroyer” has united the Republican party in ways it hasn’t been united in over 20 years.” – Sharon W
I think it overstates things to say “destroyed the dem party”. They will recover. If trump fails to deliver on improving the economy – that alone will re-energize the dems with the populace. You can bet they will have a “fresh face” in 2020.
It also overstates that trump “united” the GOP. That overstates trump’s win. He got FEWER votes than Romney, with an electorate that grew by 10M voters since 2012.
It wasn’t a trump win as much as it was such a bad clinton loss, lowering the bar for trump to win.
“Big Maq—I’ve heard several accounts that even with Obama’s active support (campaigning on behalf of “so and so”), he has no coattails.”
Turns out exactly right. It is as much a loss for obama as it was for clinton. He put a lot into supporting her.
That lowered the bar to such an extent that trump needed far fewer votes to claim a win.
With regard to overstating–winning Pennsylvania? That’s big. Things like that. And as for destroying, look at the “deplorables” in that party upon which they rely. Busy destroying and undermining. In the “intellectual” realm, the journalists writing their letters to their daughters (precious snowflakes/hothouse flowers), complete with contemptible language. Look at the Sanders/Warren contingent as opposed to the Clinton contingent.
Overstating? The House, the Senate, and the White House. Enough said.
Many Bernie supporters were jumping ship to Trum.
Trum’s focus group and surveys at the end really worked out, since he was able to get a list of conservative and every other complaint, post it up as a promise, to seal the deal.
And people bought into it, even Democrats like Bernie Sanders supporters. Penn is proof of that, at least.
Without the activist/fanatic wing of the Democrat party, including the Greens, the Democrat machine for fake votes is also going to fall out of working order. Somebody is counting those votes, and it wasn’t DNC paid elites.
Ymarsakar:
The homosexual alt-right Breitbart (no longer Trumpbart?)
guy is Milo Yanopolis (check the spelling).
Sharon – you got it all wrong about what I am saying.
The GOP won the House and Senate. Many (most?) won with a larger vote share than trump – IOW trump did not “carry” them.
trump won the WH – however, he received less votes than Romney in 2012. He effectively traded votes, with heavier concentration on white working class, while losing others, all in an electorate that grew by 10M eligible voters from 2012 (which means he ought to have ~5M more votes than he received).
clinton lost millions of votes vs obama in 2012. This allowed trump to win by small margins in the mid-west and get past 270 ecv, despite having fewer votes than clinton nationally.
trump does NOT have a clear “mandate”.
BUT, he and the GOP in Congress DO have the power, and there is plenty good that can be done with that.
Sharon W.: To my mind, the Dems destroyed themselves by refusing to compromise after Obama won and jammed as much of the progressive agenda through with no regard for the rest of the country.
Trump didn’t show up until a year ago, moving from a functional liberal to pseudo-conservative. His campaign was a foolish gamble against hard odds. It happened to work, but Trump supporrters are deluding themselves if they believe Trump’s victory was inevitable.
If the election had been held earlier at any number of points, Trump would have lost and all the apocalyptic Hillary scenarios would have ensued.
The homosexual alt-right Breitbart (no longer Trumpbart?)
Yiannopo whatever works for the tech writing wing of Breitbart, I’m not too sure how political it is. Breitbart himself started all kinds of Big websites like BigHollywood. But a lot of the news articles and political propaganda came up on TrumBart though, but I didn’t review the entire networks of websites.
I only heard about how they had taken over from people like Matt SE, Neo Neo, and various other Alt Right or Republicans who went there.
I would like to think that not all the websites started by Breitbart got that politically weak to propaganda.
As for the people that said Trum would get stabbed in the back by conservatives or GOP E, because of people voting for Hillary Clinton or other candidates…
Trum is a 70 yo Democrat from New York. He got so many Sanders voters, he didn’t need anybody else that voted for McMullin, Mormons from Utah, or whatever.
That’s why they put him into the RNC right, cause he’s a Democrat and anybody is better than Clinton, even another New York Democrat.
Huxley-I agree with everything you just wrote. I think VDH was just noting how differently things worked out than one would have assumed.
Ben Jacobs Says:
November 9th, 2016 at 11:23 pm
We are no less deplorable and irredeemable in the eyes of the left than we were on November 7. There’s just more of us than they thought.
* * *
Which is why the Left is rioting in Blue states….
Left Coast Ron Says:
November 10th, 2016 at 2:30 am
We’ve won major battles last night, but are far from winning the long-term war.
…Nothing about last night’s election altered the fundamentals regarding the Progressive stranglehold on our culture. Long-term, , unless we tackle the deeper cultural rot, we’re still doomed.
So, two cheers–but the long term challenge is cultural—challenging the suffocating PC monoculture in the schools, on campus and promoted by the brazenly corrupt and partisan major media.
A few legislative initiatives might help begin turn the tide….Political victories are great, but to sustain these long-term we need equally dramatic victories in the campus, public finance and media culture wars.
* * *
Excellent essay.
“Nothing about last night’s election altered the fundamentals regarding the Progressive stranglehold on our culture. Long-term, , unless we tackle the deeper cultural rot” – AesopFan
Agree with this point. The challenge is how to do it via the government?
One place to examine are the laws that allow things like, for instance, the Houston mayor asking preachers for their sermon notes. Rather we eliminate them or box them in rather than add new laws.
Perhaps overall, radically reducing the size and scope of government can reduce the footprint in how the government funds or influences these organizations, and the potential for abusing the laws for political purposes (e.g. IRS targeting).
Outside of that, not sure where the government has many direct levers for changing campus culture, or media culture.
With 33 GOP Governors would it be a good time to have a Constitutional Convention? Two thirds majority.
It isn’t the governors who have the power to call a convention- it is the legislatures.
I think a convention is probably a good idea- it is time to reign in the federal government, or to at least try, by constitutional reinforcement and reminder.
Oh, sigh, I hate autocorrect- always trying to interpret what I am writing rather than just highlighting what I might want to look at a second time. That should have had quotes around the first part, and rein, not reign.