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The issue is the decaying legitimacy of our institutions. Increasingly, once-respected institutions like the FBI, Congress, the Justice Department, to say nothing of the educational establishment and corporate culture, have lost their claim on the people’s allegiance. That allegiance is not something that can be repaired by diktat. It is part of the largely unspoken compact that all social institutions require if they are to remain vital.
It’s time that Americans faced up to the reality that their governing apparat is a corrupt, self-engorging Leviathan.
A preliminary antiseptic would be to downgrade Washington in the political metabolism of the country. Indeed, I think the capital, if not the Capitol, ought to be dispersed. Washington, D.C., could continue to function as what it has already in part become: a sort of stage set where functionaries preen and simper before the cameras of a preposterous media and press corps.
Donald Trump made a few half-hearted stabs at dismantling the lumbering machine that is the Washington establishment, but that seems like a long time ago and, besides, the swamp closed almost instantly to reassert its prerogatives. In his next term, however, he should make the destruction of the Washington machine one of his highest priorities. It won’t be easy. To be frank, I am not sure, absent some world-shaking calamity, it is even possible. But it is nevertheless necessary if anything resembling the republic as envisioned by the founders is to be salvaged.
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Precisely to the degree that the modern bureaucratic state no longer operates by consent, protects our natural rights, or treats every individual equally, then to that extent America is no longer a constitutional republic. That’s not the result of the Declaration of Independence, it’s the rejection of it.
The political point is this: defending the founders’ republican principles—all of them—is the best and most effective way to fight our emerging woke tyranny, which categorically rejects those principles—all of them.
Exactly - if Trump makes it back into the White House, he should make “the destruction of the Washington machine one of his highest priorities”.
The only problem is, that machine has become a Leviathan that is devouring us like prey, and the prospects of defeating it look very grim.
But it’s still true that “defending the founders’ republican principles is…the best and most effective way to fight our emerging woke tyranny”.
Those principles will never become outdated, and have never needed improving on. The problem has always been the corruption and ignorance of the people they were bequeathed to.
I believe America is dead. Its Executive, long debased and now led by a demented shell of a man, is moribund. Its Legislature is irredeemably corrupted by duplicitous cretins. Its Supreme Court is filled with unprincipled political hacks.
The philosophy of the Enlightenment, which underlies the miraculous creation of the United States, is mocked and belittled everywhere.
A new Dark Age is upon us.
America RIP
I can’t help but think that there’s a good possibility you are right. But I also can’t think that we should give up fighting back and attempting to restore it.
Im a pessimist by nature. I’m in my dotage, and I don’t seem to have much fight in me. But we must all do what we can.
So Republicans (Conservatives?) stop when they should keep pushing onward, just like the Democrats (Communists?) do, is that it?
Trump stopped so he was unable to drain the swamp. Is that what happened? Or did the Conservatives fail to support Trump against the Communist attacks, which derailed all efforts toward that end?
That is an age-old problem in America and the people are to blame, because they behaved just as predicted, as did the elected. We were warned.
The Republic can, of course, be saved. It is right there waiting for us to return to it. It will be there as long as it is remembered. It will be there when it is forgotten and then someone will remember it and begin to fight for it.
Or maybe someone will come up with a better form of governing in some distant time and it will be the only improvement on our Constitutional Republic that is worthwhile.
I am an optimist/realist. The enemy is always us, but so is the friend.
Not everywhere, Cogito. America is a big country with lots of forgotten bits. Perhaps a new enlightened era is upon us when we get out of this hole we are in. Don’t give up hope. Let us witness what happens in the coming months and years before giving up all hope for our United States.
Oh, Jeanne! Your cry for a trace of hope is more an acknowledgment of all hope being lost than Cogito’s obituary of America.
Here’s a “paleoconservative” who argues that a “red wave” in the coming November elections should not be too confidently expected:
Well that about sums it up. The Democrats win for the usual reasons - corruption among the elected and ignorance among those who vote for them.
Not to mention the reliable plan B - election fraud.
Not at all, Jillian. I have a lot of hope that in the months to come…say by November, the hole will be empty except for Democrats. In a couple of years…say November 2024, we will bury them in it. That Alt-Left bunch anyway. And, that is a beginning on the road to returning to the Republic. I want to witness that.
Either the Democrat Party comes to its senses or it is done. Either the RHINOs come to their senses or they are done. Of course, if the Fascists win, then the US is done…for a while.
I do not reason that America outside of the Democrat cities will lie down and let it end. A win in the next elections will be the best case scenario. The alternative is a lot more messy, and I am afraid it would come to that.
That is, unless we are pushed into a world war or nuked by Russia in reprisal for the proxy war results. Then that scenario is something all together different.
Unsettling times we are in, are they not?
Yes, there’s no way to predict the outcome, because the world has never been in exactly this predicament before.
We’ve had commies, fascists, corrupt politicians, megalomaniacs, etc, but never all of them rolled into one, plotting a takeover on a global scale.
Another way the Dems cheated:
You may be right. The future is an unknown realm, but if history is of any help, America is done and with it the entire West.
Yes, you certainly can’t count on the assumption that “sanity will prevail”, because it not only hasn’t in the past, but there seems to be even less of it now.
It is not only such institutions as the FBI and Justice Department that has lost its way and the public trust, it is also our nation’s intelligence community.
Over the course of my long career, I witnessed first-hand, from the inside, the corruption and weaponization of our national intelligence agencies. Most of the rank-and-file analysts are dedicated, hard-working, and leave their politics at home. Some senior leaders, especially those who have risen in the ranks, are likewise decent and honorable. Too many senior leaders, however, are career bureaucrats who are appointed to their positions by the corrupt and power-crazed Washington elite.
I am by nature an optimist. I believe that sociological trends tend to be cyclic, and that we will eventually see the pendulum swing back towards an appreciation of individual liberty and freedom and away from collectivism and tyranny. What I am unsure of is when this will happen, and how much more damage our nation will suffer before it does.
What precedents are you thinking of for alternating periods of liberty and tyranny?
Upon reading my post, perhaps that language was a bit strong. What we do see, I believe, is a cycle between conservative trends and liberal trends in public opinion, which is reflected in election results…assuming no widespread election fraud, which isn’t really a safe assumption these days. When I look at a chart showing which of America’s major political parties controlled more House and Senate seats and the White House over the last century or more, the cycle is fairly clear. And it seems, based on an admittedly limited sample size, that the degree by which the pendulum swings is dependent on how far it was to one extreme before the swing. For example, Jimmy Carter – one of the most liberal presidents before Obama – was followed by Ronald Reagan. Barrack Obama was followed by Donald Trump. Perhaps it is wishful thinking on my part, but it seems likely that we will see a sociological swing away from the excesses of the current far-left nutjobs and towards more conservative views.
That is certainly desirable. Unfortunately, it is not inevitable.