The Trump Verdict And Beyond
A Manhattan jury and judge probably just gave Donald Trump a second Presidential term. That alone, however, does not mean a future of freedom for the United States.
Let us suppose that a jury and judge in Manhattan, just yesterday, guaranteed a second Presidential term for Donald Trump.
That certainly seems likely.
Oh, much can change between now and November. Of course.
Still, there are only so many election laws and regulations that progressive state secretaries of state can bend or ignore at the last minute to favor Democrats. At the same time, growing numbers of Americans who loathe Mr. Trump are now seeing him as a sympathetic character.
Wrap your mind around that fact. Take a glance at social media if you don’t believe me.
People who despise Mr. Trump and have never voted for him before are now pledging to vote for him, no matter what, simply to stick their thumbs in the eyes of elites who assume they can control the outcomes of elections through lawfare and other tricks they’ve built into the crony system they created.
Caught In A Web
No one likes bugs. Yet, when we see a video of a lone bug entangled in a web — about to be envenomed and devoured by a spider — we tend to sympathize with the bug.
Inside our own head, we are saying: “Get away little bug, go, go, go!”
Growing numbers of Americans are coming to view Mr. Trump in a similar way: A lone man entangled in a gigantic web created by political power-mongers, bureaucrats, and corrupt cronies who will envenom and devour anyone who threatens to disrupt their cozy, privileged lifestyles.
Yes, Mr. Trump is rude, crude, boorish. And, many bugs are gross. Still, we don’t want to watch the spider kill and eat the bug.
To boot, growing numbers of Americans are coming to appreciate the policies promoted by Trump, or at least some of them, especially as Americans watch prices go up and up and up, and their paychecks purchase less and less — as they watch personal grift and corruption of those occupying the highest government offices, openly flaunted — as they see examples of government incompetence followed by examples of government foolishness followed by examples of government injustice.
Growing numbers of Americans are not sympathizing with the political power-mongers, bureaucrats, and corrupt cronies. They’re sympathizing with the lone man fighting against all of them, reminiscent of the way audiences root for Harry Potter and Ron Weasley when they venture into the Forbidden Forest and get attacked by millions of giant spiders.
So, whether you like Mr. Trump or not, growing numbers of Americans see him as victim of a corrupt system, a hero who keeps fighting against that system, or both. The likelihood that he will serve a second term as President of the United States just went up, significantly.
Here's the rub: Our biggest problems today are bigger than one person, even one President, can solve.
The Bigger Challenge
There has been a concerted effort, for more than a century, to transform the United States from a self-governing constitutional republic into an administrative, bureaucratic, regulatory state — what Germans call der staat — and to transform self-reliant, responsible, independent Americans into dependent subjects whose only civic virtues are compliance and submission.
That effort has been largely successful.
Among the results that are visible to any ordinary observer: The United States government and most state governments no longer even resemble constitutional governments. Our governments are now power centers for unelected bureaucrats, government employee unions, and cronies who get rich from government largesse and political favors.
The vast majority of schools at all levels in the United States are now places that prepare citizens to become subjects. If students happen to learn some math or chemistry or history or English grammar along the way, that's incidental, accidental, secondary to the main purpose of most schools.
We have a nation of Americans for whom it is now typical, before doing anything, to ask first whether they have permission to do what they want to do. We have a nation of Americans who aren't even bothered that large chunks of the money they earn are confiscated from them and used to prop up the elite political class and provide lavish lifestyles for their crony friends.
Doublespeak
We call regulations laws. We call unequal protection equal protection. We call compliance justice, and obedience right.
When someone wants to keep what he earns, we call him greedy. When politicos take what others have earned, we call the politicos caring and generous.
We call men women, and vice versa — and it is proper to use the phrase vice versa because human nature remains stubbornly binary, regardless of the name games we play.
When a man runs a business, we assume his purpose is to steal, defraud, poison, and serve his own self-interests by any nefarious means possible. When that same man becomes a government bureaucrat, we assume he has no self-interests at all and serves only the “common good.”
What Is Required
The entire administrative state, at the federal level — which now includes three million unelected, unionized bureaucrats — was created by acts of Congress. (Shame on them.)
The bureaucracies at state levels — which include many more millions of unelected bureaucrats — were created by state legislatures. (Shame on them, too).
A President alone cannot repeal and abolish all the diseased layers of bureaucracy that have buried our constitutional governments and snuffed out liberty.
A President can do some things to help recover the conditions of freedom — and I have numerous suggestions for what a willing President can do — but no President can do everything that must be done.
Either We The People are going to demand the freedom to govern ourselves — either We The People are going to be fit and responsible and capable of self-government — over an extended period of time — either We The People are going to deprive the administrative state of the resources and power to lord over us and treat us as if we are perpetual children — or we are not.
Those questions are more important for the future and fate of our United States of America than whether a progressive New York judge and a Manhattan jury just gave Donald Trump a second Presidential term or not.