Donald Trump was a great president. He is a great man. But too good, too kind, too tolerant. His excessive restraint was a weakness. He was overcome by the bad, the cruel, the bigoted Left.
Kurt Schlichter wants and expects a Strong Man next, to restore America to its political senses; the Man who will wield the power of No.
He writes at Townhall:
Get ready for Strong Man Populism. The bad guys – the soft elite who think it can hold onto the societal power it inherited, but did not earn, through petty oppressions – will call it “authoritarianism”. Of course, they like authoritarianism when they are the authority – that’s why they feel no compunction about remaking our country and culture without bothering with obtaining our buy-in. But history teaches – not that they would know it, because they have never been taught it – that a backlash is inevitable.
We’re going to turn to someone who won’t be deterred by cultural caterwauling, who will not be satisfied with a status quo ante that is deeply anti-American, who will ruthlessly use his power to reclaim our society for us, and who will wreak vengeance on our enemies.
That last one is important. They must learn never to do this again.
We’re going to elect a Strong Man Populist because the current crisis is intolerable …
Drug-addled hobos, junkies, and degenerates infest our cities and, increasingly our suburbs. The elite answer is, of course, to destroy the suburbs.
Our teachers, in the rare cases they teach, teach our kids to hate our country.
Our warriors, in the all too common cases they war, lose, and also teach our kids to hate our country.
Our voices are silenced, we have no institutional advocates; the institutions designed to vindicate our rights won’t. …
But when the ordinary ways to have our voices heard are closed off to us, we’ll find extraordinary ones.
Trump was one. He was a warning. But he was, despite the mass-micturition of the elite – no radical. He had no desire to lay waste; he wanted to rule, but as a member of what he did not understand was a terminally ill ruling caste. Remember how he was caught up in institutional prestige – this college was great, that company was respected? This, as well as the fact that he showed up without a Rolodex and needed to rely on a bunch of establishment acolyte-kissers, made him too weak to truly use his power. Yet even with his limitations, he did many amazing and consequential things.
The Strong Man Populist coming soon will not have that weakness. He will not hesitate to use his power to clean house, to prosecute the criminals, to defeat our enemies, both foreign and domestic.
He will unleash the power of No.
No, hobos, you can’t live on our streets.
No, criminals, you don’t get to commit crimes.
No, Pentagon, you are going to focus on winning wars.
No, academia, you do not get to take our money and use it to turn our kids into little commie saps.
No, tech jerks, you do not get to decide what we can read and say.
No, climate cultists, we are not going to live in caves because of your bizarre, quasi-religious weather obsession.
No, media, you do not get to be partisan advocates and also treated like neutral truth tellers.
No, Democrats, you don’t get to steal elections.
No.
No is the weapon of the Strong Man Populist; it is our weapon. It is a rejection of elite hegemony, and the ruthless use of power to enforce it. And it is coming.
The establishment should have heeded the warning that was Donald Trump. But if it was smart enough to do that, it never would have botched its cultural curation so spectacularly that it made him necessary.
The best part of the coming Strong Man Populism will be watching them cry.
Yes, there are times when Schadenfreude is fully justified – and in any case irresistible. May such a time come soon!
But can such a Strong Man be found?
Can he already be seen on the political horizon?
Would you vote for him?