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During the final hours of the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) program in National Harbor, Maryland, in March, Trump addressed the crowd. It was one of the most forthright and powerful political speeches I’ve heard. Trump said many bold and controversial things in the course of his speech. I’ll concentrate on two themes. The first—it was the thing that really set heads spinning—revolved around the word “retribution".
“In 2016,” he said, “I declared, I am your voice. Today, I add, I am your warrior, I am your justice, and for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
And just in case you missed that last bit, he repeated it. “I am your retribution".
The pundits love-hated that, just as they were appalled by this promise: “I will totally obliterate the deep state.” I think he meant it, too. “I will fire the unelected bureaucrats and shadow forces who have weaponized our justice system. I will put the people back in charge of this country again.”
’Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.
Here’s a bit of unsolicited advice that I have for the former president should he be elected again: Stay out of Washington as much as you can. Washington really is a swamp and it will [or at least try to - ed.] consume you.
And here are a few particular bits of advice:
- Have the inauguration in Mar-a-Lago.
- Govern from Florida as much as you can.
- If you decide to indulge in the theater of the State of the Union Address as it has evolved, deliver it from, say, Kansas.
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Disband the FBI. We should never have allowed a national police force to come into being.
Move the bits of the government you can’t actually destroy to other parts of the country.
Do these things instantly—the day you take office. The deep state will howl. The bureaucrats will oppose you. The lawyers will sue you. Do it anyway. Act first, deal with the consequences later.
Conduct metaphorical dawn-raids on their people and institutions just as they weaponized the Justice Department against you and your supporters. That would not only be the retribution you seek, it would also be reciprocity. Speed and thoroughness will be of the essence. If you hesitate, if you are half-hearted, you will be lost.
The focus should be on eclipsing Washington, D.C. as the seat of government. It has long been obvious to candid observers that there is something deeply dysfunctional about that overwhelmingly Democratic, welfare-addicted city. It is a partisan sinkhole. Jefferson wanted the capital moved from New York to Washington in part to bring it closer to the South, but also to place it somewhere that was officially neutral. There is nothing neutral about Washington today. The city has some impressive architecture and urban vistas. They should be preserved and staffed as tourist attractions. But the reins of power should be relocated.
The more I think about our situation, the more I believe the only hope for the republic is to downgrade the place of Washington in our public life. The business of Washington is to make government bigger—forever. That is not what the people, who pay for it, want. Legitimacy is draining out of our governing institutions at an alarming rate. Stanching that debilitating flow requires that we redirect our attention away from the greedy puppet show in Washington to the true source of legitimacy, which is with the people.
The actual government of the country should be moved to some neutral ground, out of the overwhelmingly corrupt cesspool that is Washington.