It’s “Déjà vu All Over Again”

It’s the darkness that the radical left’s host ideology demands. And it can and will get worse unless it is stopped. And it can’t be ended by a new president, only by us.  

The first “wave” election in the past 75 years was in 1980, when an unconventional candidate up-ended Washington’s apple cart, leaving the nation’s self-appointed intelligentsia and ruling elites shell-shocked, sad, angry, confused, and befuddled.

Ronald Reagan might as well have been slinging mashed potatoes in a crowded room. The irrational hatred and contempt for him were instant and, with his every success, only grew more so.

The American far left – the whole of the Democrat party, it seems now – is nothing if it is not consistent in its hatred for America and traditional American values.

Only weeks before the 1980 election, the polls were nearly unanimous that President Carter would easily be re-elected. Mr. Reagan, after all, was an illiterate “B” level actor, a secret segregationist, and had committed multiple sins; among them, he had dared speak about “states’ rights” and economic nationalism. He thought the UN was a useless joke. He talked about God, the Founding Fathers, and the Constitution.

Every liberal bromide was trotted out to join the battle. The willing media, including the three major television networks at the time, came to the front lines of the battle and unleashed furious bombardments against the “right-wing radical.” Nothing that could be fired at him was left unspent.

Squishy Republicans (which was virtually all the elected class then as now) stood well off from the frontlines, ready to sue for peace as soon as the carnage was over. They consider spinelessness much like a contortionist does, a means to change to any improbable position on demand.  

When the smoke cleared, Ronald Reagan’s victory was stunningly complete, its message clear, and its impact immediately apparent.

Donald J. Trump won the second “wave” election nearly four decades later. The polls were nearly unanimous; his would be a crushing defeat and might cost the GOP its Senate majority. Mr. Trump was, after all, a megalomaniac, a con artist, a secret segregationist, and had committed multiple sins; among them, he thought national borders were important, and he believed in economic nationalism – that taking care of your own family was important. He thought globalism was a cancer.

No weapon was left unused by the radical left. The always compliant and willing corporate media became their direct participant and collaborating agents.

Yet, Donald Trump’s scored a stunning victory. And for much the same reason as the election of 1980. Liberalism doesn’t work. National identity matters. Economic laws respond to Nature’s immutable laws. And God still reigns in the affairs of men.

As with President Reagan, the hatred for President Trump only escalated with his success.

Of course, Donald J. Trump is no Ronald Reagan, but Reagan was no Trump either. Each man was elected when the existing order collapsed from the weight of its own corruption and irreconcilable contradictions. President Trump, as did President Reagan, brought a unique perspective, personality, and skill set perfect for the tasks at hand.

Looking back to the furious responses to the inaugural speeches in 1981 and 2017 only amplifies how little the ruling class – and too many who claim to be on the right – understand what happened in those wave elections. Much less the Republic they seek to rule.  

Both elections were like cold air masses meeting warm air masses – tremendous storms resulted. President Reagan’s speech was a direct assault on FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society call for the ever-expanding federal government. President Trump’s speech was a direct assault on the nascent globalist order, nation-building, and President Obama’s pledge to “fundamentally transform America” through neo-collectivism and international subservience.    

After reckless inattention and indifference, growing social and economic inefficiencies, political corruption, and self-defeating foreign agendas, both President Reagan and President Trump, in their manner, purpose, and time, made it clear that a strong, prosperous, and generous America that first served the interests of its own citizens, ensured that it would be able to benefit and aid the world community – and that a weak, economically desperate and failing America could only serve to encourage despots and the worst of the world to do what tyrants always do.  

To most Americans, that was, and it is just common sense.

Now, in 2024, the fruits of former President Obama’s third term under the disguise of the hapless appointed President Biden are bearing the only fruit that collectivism and socialism can ever deliver: growing economic inefficiencies, poverty and inequities, social turmoil as deliberate group politics pit one against the other, delusional, unnatural and destructive cultural trends that destroy social comity and individual lives, and the gathering storm of enemies who see a weak America unwilling and unable to defend herself.  

But, the hatred has wrapped up to open warfare this time around. It’s the Marxist time-polished stratagem of ever-increasing pressure and ridicule, non-stop violence in word and deed, and accusing your opponent of doing what you are actually doing.

Hence, we have Soviet-style show trials and prosecutions of various opponents, including Donald Trump himself. Preposterous pronouncements and lies that go unchallenged by the willing media organs – such as the “border is secure,” “inflation is down,” and the “cities are safe.”  And, of course, the favorites, “Trump will end democracy” or “he’s a fascist!”

It’s the darkness that the radical left’s host ideology demands. And it can and will get worse unless it is stopped. And it can’t be ended by a new president, only by us.    

Nothing is new here. “Twas ever thus,” claimed Moore, Dickens, and Shakespeare, or in modern movie parlance, the Cycle of Life, and so on. Like all the never-ending historical cycles that pitch good against evil, this cycle is near its peak, or very close to it, and it will crest or recede, depending on how bad the bad is – and what average citizens consider “enough.”  

If President Trump is to be successful, it will be because a critical mass of Americans will take to their phones and computers for an “electronic” midnight ride, alerting the countryside that the war is afoot on America’s roads and byways. And they won’t stop.

The citizen warriors in this battle will have to be even more aggressive, more unyielding, and craftier than their counterparts – because the left is more radical, their hate more violent and irrational, and the consequences of failure more irreversible.

This war, like all wars, will have winners and losers. We dare not be the latter.