For Peace in America, We Must Return to the Rule of Law

A recent article that appeared in the March 28 Wall Street Journal, "The Two Americas Have Grown Much Fiercer," by Peggy Noonan, is part of an editorial trend of late decrying the divided state of America in these times. As is typical in these pieces, the author does not place the onus for our fractured state on one side or the other, but instead promotes a theme of "Can't we all just get along?" From the point of view of the "Trumpian" camp, this writer is here to reply with a resounding "no," at least not until the core issue that motivates the tens of millions of Americans who support our sitting president is addressed. Those who try to explain America's current divisions by citing polarization into "extreme" camps miss a major aspect of the Trump phenomenon: Trump really doesn't represent an "extreme" political figure. The "extreme polarization" model might have more teeth if we had elected say, Ted Cruz, who is a doctrinaire conservative on every issue, but Trump really can't be accused of that; this was a major factor in his appeal. Like Reagan, he too was once a Democrat. He has taken positions that are very much at odds with the stereotype of the "Daddy Warbucks" image of a rapacious, uncompromising tool of Big Money portrayed by the Left. For example, just this past week, he overruled his education secretary and insisted that the Special Olympics remain funded. Though there has been some tinkering at the margins, entitlements have not been slashed. Though generally supportive of gun rights, he banned bump stocks and is favorably disposed toward "Red Flag" laws that are staunchly opposed by gun rights advocates. His SCOTUS appointments, while decidedly conservative, are hardly extreme right-wing ideologues.

The Left has simply become evil. That is not to say all registered Democrats or Democrat politicians are necessarily evil, but the national-level leadership of the party and their primary backers represent a genuinely evil, oppressive, authoritarian, and — not coincidentally — anti-Semitic program (under the thin veneer of vicious, rabid anti-Zionism). They either represent this mindset outright (e.g., vice DNC chairman Keith Ellison, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, etc.) or are unwilling to summon the elemental courage to oppose these trends effectively in their own party (e.g., Pelosi, Schumer). What is more, almost uniformly among their leaders — to include the likes of Pelosi and Schumer — they will stoop to any level of dishonesty and corruption in order to obtain or maintain power (e.g., the Stalinesque Kavanaugh "show trial" hearings, the vote fraud spectacles we saw in Florida and California this past midterm election, advocating for illegal aliens to vote, advocating lowering the voting age to 16, etc.). Most egregiously, there is the outrageous Mueller affair — along with the associated scandals of the previous administration (weaponizing the NSA for partisan political purposes, and so on), that even barnyard animals can see was an outright fraudulent and illegal attempt at reversing the result of a presidential election, and distracting from the very real crimes committed by the Obama administration and the Hillary campaign. There is indeed some talk on the street about a shooting civil war. Whether or not it comes to that, we are clearly more divided as a country than we have ever been since the last shooting civil war. But really, whose fault is that? Has Donald Trump divided us? Five years ago, Trump was seen as nothing more than a flamboyant, perhaps slightly eccentric real estate mogul and show biz personality. His audience for television programs like The Apprentice crossed all political lines. All the Hollywood types who trash him today were perfectly happy to party with him and to hang out with him (as long as he was buying). Today, he has been built up into a monster by the Left and its media allies. The present "rage" against him is 100% manufactured and could serve as a case study in mass brainwashing techniques. Consider not only the Mueller debacle, but the recent spectacle of the Jussie Smollett case. These examples illustrate what we "Trumpians" are really so fighting mad about. It isn't so much abortion, or gun control, or any of the other traditional conservative rallying points; it is the rule of law, the very foundation of what America was supposed to stand for. We are perfectly willing to peaceably debate the merits of all of these other issues in the public domain (assuming that there is a viable "public domain" in the form of an honest mass media, but that is another issue). We have already demonstrated during the previous administration that if we cannot have our way within the parameters of the ballot box, we will accept our losses and simply try to convince more voters to see things our way at the next opportunity. What we cannot and will not abide is an opposing side within our national community who insists on simply ignoring the rules, corrupting our national institutions, and trying to impose new "rules" designed to ensure that only its leaders and its agenda will ever prevail going forward. Obviously, we have never perfectly lived up to our ideals as a nation; this would be humanly impossible. There has always been some corruption and malfeasance on both sides of the aisle. But in ten years, we went from being America to being "Obamistan": a high-tech, relatively affluent version of a two-bit banana republic. There has never been an American president who flagrantly abused his power and flouted the rule of law to anywhere near the extent that we have seen with Obama. There has never been a president who, once having left office, devoted all of his energies to blatantly undermining his successor. These facts, combined with the manner in which those who support him have absolutely refused to see his abuses for what they are, and a Democratic Party leadership who seems determined not only to sweep his crimes under the rug, but even worse, to continue with his style of governance, is what has The Rest of Us so damned angry. It remains to be seen if our internal divisions will explode into mass violence, but the likelihood of that will be determined by the extent to which the rule of law is re-established in this country. For if we don't have recourse at the ballot box (our elections are stolen by the likes of Brenda Snipes, "ballot-harvesting", etc.), and there is a wildly uneven application of the law (in the course of a now discredited investigation, Roger Stone is arrested with more firepower on hand than was used to take down Osama bin Laden, while the likes of Comey, Hillary, Obama, Brennan, Lynch walk free), then many Americans will conclude that there is nothing left to defend our rights besides force of arms. The collapse of the Mueller charade has served to move the hands of the civil war doomsday clock back a few notches, but now we need to see real criminals held accountable. Then perhaps we can talk about being one big happy national family again.