2016: The Year of Revolution

Remarkably 2016 has become the year of Revolution. It started in June with citizens of the United Kingdom voting in the affirmative for “Brexit,” a national referendum to separate from the European Union and the long reach of its Brussels bureaucrats. Then the November 8 U.S. presidential election witnessed the American people voting in outsider Donald Trump, soundly rejecting the political establishment of both national parties and their unelected and unaccountable regulators and bureaucrats. Trump’s electoral victory was nothing short of a stunning upset -- with ramifications beyond politics. Trump, the outright political neophyte, accomplished the impossible:

Winning without the full backing of his own party

Winning without the backing of any former president in contrast to his opponent’s visible support and campaigning from Barack and Michelle Obama

Standing alone and leading his own rallies and delivering substantive speeches, in contrast to Hillary Clinton’s reliance on Hollywood celebrities and high-profile entertainers to draw crowds

Overcoming the bias and hostility of 91% of the media establishment

Succeeding in spite of being outspent by the opponent by more than 2 to 1

Prevailing despite having a disorganized campaign, vanquishing the political machine of a shrewd and ruthless opponent, who had been universally backed and coronated as the heir of the Democrat Party Trump confounded not only the media and the rest of the above, but also the pollsters, who got it all wrong. And in the end, circumstances unfolded that enabled him to turn Hollywood culture -- that legitimizes and glorifies immorality -- on his opponent. When the Clinton campaign and its surrogates and allies in the media tried to bring down Trump in the final weeks with alleged long past sexual misconduct and an 11-year-old secret recording of Trump’s locker room talk about women, the tables got miraculously turned when a treasure trove of 650,000 new emails -- assumed incriminating to Hillary Clinton -- was found by the FBI on the laptop of sexual deviate Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. With the electoral outcome running contrary to almost every human factor, one has to consider other explanations for Trump’s success. Many secular analysts came to recognize that Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War in 1967 was best explained by a supernatural and divine intervention and empowerment of the vastly outnumbered Israeli forces. Was the electoral upset on November 8 also related to divine intervention and the prayers of the American people? It may be. The record suggests that the cameo roles of the likes of Madonna, Beyoncé, and Jay Z to get out the vote for Hillary Clinton were no match for evangelicals, like Franklin Graham, who embarked without fanfare on a one-year effort starting in the fall of 2015 -- holding prayer rallies on the capitol steps of every one of the 50 states for the sole purpose of bringing clarity and new direction to the nation. The fact that Trump fell short in the popular vote while decisively winning the Electoral College vote, should not be interpreted as a reduced mandate. Trump’s message to Make America Great Again -- based on an oft-repeated relatively straightforward platform -- was the basis for his victory. People knew why they were voting for Trump and it was specifically to redirect the nation along the lines that the candidate had clearly and repeatedly outlined. In spite of an unrelentingly noisy opposition, Trump has a mandate to carry out the policies for which the people voted. After inauguration on January 20, 2017, President Trump should unhesitatingly proceed with: repealing and replacing ObamaCare; securing the nation’s borders; implementing the best proposals from U.S. military high command to decisively defeat ISIS; passing dramatic tax cuts and regulatory reform that will make the United States a destination for business development and job creation; passing energy independence legislation that will spur investment in extraction technologies, infrastructure and pipelines such as Keystone, and also accelerate the development of U.S. energy export capacity; and passing legislation to return education policy to the states -- fostering competition and reform such as expanded charter schools. The Left has always laid claim to being the vanguard of revolution and of moral superiority. However, electoral events of 2016 suggest that assumption is being undercut with new leadership in the U.K. and the United States. The Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s upset election are revolutionary for the common man and a huge blow to the elite governing establishment. The Left will not go out silently in the U.S., but many Americans can take heart for the same reasons that contributed to the Trump electoral victory against all the odds, as expressed so well by the prophet Jeremiah: “But the Lord is with me as a powerful giant; therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper; they shall have everlasting confusion which shall never be forgotten.” Scott Powell is senior fellow at Discovery Institute and managing partner of RemingtonRand LLC