The last “wave” election was in 1980, when a unconventional candidate up-ended Washington’s apple cart, leaving the nation’s self-appointed intelligentsia and ruling elites shell-shocked, dejected, 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 was instant, and with his every success only grew more intense.
The American left is nothing if it is not consistence in its hatred for America and traditional American values.
Only weeks before that election, the polls were nearly unanimous that President Carter would be re-elected easily. Mr. Reagan, after all, was a near illiterate, a “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 stood well off from the frontlines ready to sue for peace as soon as the carnage was over.
When the smoke cleared, Ronald Reagan’s victory was stunningly complete, its message clear, and its impact immediately obvious.
Donald J. Trump just 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, he believed in economic nationalism. He thought globalism was a cancer.
No weapon was left unused. The willing media became a direct participant and collaborating agent of the left.
Squishy Republicans stood well off from the frontlines ready to sue for peace as soon as the carnage was over.
Yet, Donald Trump’s victory was deep, broad, and conclusive. 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.
Of course, Donald J. Trump is no Ronald Reagan; but likewise, Reagan was no Trump.
Each man was elected when the existing order was collapsing from the weight of its own corruption, and its own irreconcilable contradictions. President Reagan brought, as President Trump now brings, a unique perspective, personality and skill set that was, and is, perfect for the tasks at hand.
However, listening to the reactions to the new President’s inaugural address last Friday only amplifies how little the ruling elite, and even some on the right, understand what just happened, and how little they understand their own country. It’s ‘Deja vu all over again.’
The President’s stern inaugural message was a defining marker. He issued a death certificate to business as usual; the election had been about issues and if they could be summed up, President Trump stated clearly that “America First” was not just a slogan but a policy. After a generation of inattention and indifference, growing social and economic inefficiencies, and self-defeating foreign agendas, it was time to put the interests of our own country before the interests of everyone else. It was time to re-fuel the American dream.
To most Americans, that just seems like common sense, and long overdue.
The commentators have been brutal. Words like dystopian, dark, backwards, racist, and on and on were used by the media to describe the speech. Commentator George Will even claimed it to be the “most dreadful” inaugural speech in history.
However, President Reagan’s first inauguration was skewered as well. His first speech dealt with a different crisis, but attacked the status quo sitting right behind him on the Capitol steps just as bluntly. “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
As with President Reagan, the hatred for President Trump will do nothing but grow with each success, with Republican lawmakers and self-proclaimed intellectuals constantly nipping at his heels.
One more similarity of this wave election to the last: If President Trump is to be successful, it will be because a critical mass of Americans take to their phones and their computers for an “electronic” midnight ride, alerting the countryside that the war is afoot on the roads and byways of America. And they won’t stop.
The citizen warriors in this battle will have to be even more confrontational, more unyielding, and craftier than their counterparts four decades ago – 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.