A Remarkable Year

The past year has been remarkable in a number of ways. The electorate rejected the elite policies of the past 30 years, exemplified most prominently by the Obama years, and elected a man whose style is grating, but whose policies better align with the public's desire to reign in Big Intrusive Government (BIG) domestically and project strength and resolve internationally. Those on the Left who champion BIG have used every tool at their disposal to demonize and cripple a new president, whom they despise. At the same time, they have reacted to a rejection of their version of political correctness by doubling down. Every opposing view has become "racist," "misogynistic," "bigoted," and "anti-immigrant." An #Resistance" has formed to not only oppose the new president, but in the fever swamp of hatred, depose him. Even the trained hamsters in the media soft-petaled the fact that 58 Democrat Congress members voted to impeach Trump this week. As all of this occurs, we conjure the faint image of communist Chinese reeducation camps in which history had to be expunged (think: Confederate War Monuments) of any reference that offended the politically correct.

Meanwhile, the new president continues his crass ways, infuriating #Resistance, but Winning Bigly." Any objective assessment of the past 12 months indicates that Donald Trump has accomplished more in one year than the previous president accomplished in eight. On the domestic front, out-of-control regulation has been pulled back, a business-friendly atmosphere has re-emerged, energy production is way up and resultant energy independence is within our grasp, energy prices are down, unemployment is way down, the labor participation rate is way up, the economy has seen successful quarters of 3 percent GDP growth, economic optimism abounds, the tax code will likely be reformed, the bureaucracy has been reigned in (at least a bit), healthcare reform is still a possibility, immigration reform has been placed squarely at the center of the table, and the media has been put on notice that its bias and fake news will not go without a response. A Foreign policy Team of 8s and 9s has replaced the past Team of 2s; we have extracted ourselves from trade agreements that are unfavorable to the United States and from Climate accords that do nothing to improve the climate; we have seen positive signs of anti-Islamist sentiment in (of all places) Saudi-Arabia, defeated the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, are now unafraid to suggest that Islam must take a stand against Islamists, have taken the appropriate stance against North Korea, and at long last, recognized that Jerusalem is Israel's capital.

Richard Fernandez comments:

It is as if a hurricane has swept through Washington. Each fallen pillar represents a very deliberate reversal of the status quo ante policies of Barack Obama. The entire edifice the former president erected in his 8 years in office is in the process of being systematically demolished. Unsurprisingly Crain's Chicago Business reporter Greg Hinz reported a very unhappy former president [Obama] warning that Trump was nothing less than a new McCarthy, Nixon or Hitler while speaking at the Economic Club of Chicago ...

What Obama understandably neglected to mention was that a substantial percentage of American voters elected Trump precisely to undertake that teardown, an endeavor referred to as draining the swamp, aimed at nothing less than shrinking the size of government and breaking the perceived power of the elites ...

Opposed to the Deplorables are "liberals turned radicals" called the 'Resistance'. In the words of the New York Times "Donald Trump’s election inspired such moral revulsion and political outrage that ... parts of the American electorate had taken to calling themselves 'the resistance,' evoking the guerrillas who took to the hills and fought the Nazis during World War II ... self-styled revolutionaries."

After a period of sheer disbelief these liberal revolutionaries are now going head to head with the Deplorable rebels. The game's afoot and nobody can easily call it off.

Which will win has yet to be determined by history. All one can do is compare their present strengths and strategies. In the matter of strength there should be no contest. A survey of federal government employees have the liberals over the Deplorables by almost 19 to 1. Over 99% of Department of Education employees backed Hillary. Trump's best showing was in the Department of Defense -- and even there Hillary had 84% of contributions. Add to this the liberal dominance in the media (93%) and academe (92%) and in Big Silicon and it should be a case of progressive Goliath walking over conservative David.

I suspect that one of the things that maddens progressives and fuels Trump Derangement Syndrome is that given their significant advantages noted above, the Left should win this contest easily. It's a lot like a sporting event in which the overwhelming favorite has been defeated once by a hapless underdog and the rematch is much, much closer than expected. The favorite begins to press and as a consequence makes mistakes (e.g., "People will die"). An easy victory becomes anything but.

Fernandez continues:

Yet for a variety of reasons the contest is much closer than the liberal project could have been imagined. Even the term "Resistance" implicitly accepts the status of equality if not actual inferiority. One possible explanation for the surprising competitiveness is the existence of some weakness which prevents liberals from generating their nominal power potential. In fact the inability of the Resistance to generate net thrust is indirect confirmation the toxic lying, wasteful spending, institutional incompetence and ideological madness of which they have been accused is at least partially true.

Though they won't admit it they've realized this. This quiet acceptance has driven their strategy. The Resistance's need to rid itself of weakness explains the choice of rectification, also known as purge, as a major activity. Purges have traditionally been used by "progressive" movements to rid themselves of "undesirables". In 2017 the purge took two forms. The first was directed against the Clinton wing of the Democratic party and the second became a vigorous, almost hysterical campaign against sexual predators in liberal ranks. The need to clear the decks was so great that even liberal politicians like Al Franken and John Conyers find themselves reclassified as expendable.

An honest and unbiased media would report recent events for what they are—a Democratic purge. But the meta-game is never analyzed when the Dems are involved. It's all about "a need for new ideas" and "our demonstrable respect for women." The scumbag AL Senate candidate, Roy Moore, has already been characterized by the trained hamsters of the media as the face of the GOP, while an equally despicable John Conyers and the buffoon, Al Franken, are depicted in subtly more compassionate tones.

And as all of this moves us toward the end of 2017, a battle rages. Fernandez concludes:

In a wider context the stakes in the conflict between the Deplorables and the Resistance are probably higher than either realize. Apart from who wins in their dispute against each other both sides are also in contention with the challenges of the world. The dangers of war, runaway advanced technology, natural disaster and economic downturn are never far away from either.

The idea that politics was settling into some singleton framework supported by an historically inevitable permanent majority proved illusory. Obama may have been right in his Chicago speech to warn of danger but not in the way that he meant. The danger grew in his time in office. The status quo ante over which he presided was complacent. It was already falling apart. He just never saw it, until this remarkable year.

Thinking about it, it may very well have been that #Resistance honestly believed that politics had resolved itself and that they were the "historically inevitable permanent majority." Much of what has happened during this truly remarkable year has been driven by the fury that arose when Donald Trump demonstrated clearly that the Left is not yet a permanent majority. And, it may never become one.