I’m beginning to think that classical liberals need to start planning for the era beginning in 2021 AT. No, not AD as in after the death of Christ, AT as in the time After Trump. Right now, it is hard to see how Trump does not get the GOP nod and no matter which of the two very, very flawed Democrats win the Donkey Party’s nomination, the turnout to date in the Democrat primaries is pretty uninspiring. The people who are coming out are enthusiastic for either the potential female felon or the Santa Claus socialist but there just aren’t many of them. Actually, there is quite an enthusiasm gap between the Jackasses and the Pachyderms.
Let’s face it – as long as Rubio and Cruz split the anti-Trump vote, we are likely looking at yet another extra-constitutional president running an administration based on executive orders, reversing many of Obama’s EO’s and likely creating many of his own – but so what? If it is short term, is that really a bad thing?
Assuming it isn’t a death blow, when faced with an inevitable situation, it is best not to continue to resist the eventual event but to plan how to come out of it with some forward motion. Think if it as accelerating into and through a curve, steering into a skid or using the gravitational pull of the Earth or the moon to slingshot your Firefly class interplanetary freighter on a trajectory to Mars.
I’m not advocating giving up the primary fight and I am certainly not saying we should just “lie back and think of England”, it is learning to play the long game and redirecting forces to serve your ultimate goal. I’m just saying it we are looking at Candidate Trump after Super Tuesday, we better have a backup plan.
A Trump presidency is likely to be a mixed bag for conservatism, a dog’s breakfast of winning and losing but it is very likely to do one thing – create motion. Trump is certainly not “low energy.” The sheer force of Typhoon Donald may not be stoppable but it may be manageable, we may be able to use the unfocused energy to slingshot us in a direction that is more favorable to classical liberalism and fealty to the Constitution than we might have once thought.
I’ve often said that conservatives need to learn to play the long game as well as progressives do. They are truly like a dog with a bone, they never let go of anything. They even use Hollywood to re-litigate the past in an effort to change the outcome of settled issues like Rathergate (Truth), the legitimate blacklisting of communists in Hollywood (Trumbo) and the evils America is presumed to commit (Rendition, Stop Loss, In the Valley of Elah, Redacted).
I can guarantee that progressive Democrats see the two Obama terms as a disappointment – but they know it is only a waypoint on a longer journey to a completely communist state. Understand this – without Obama, there is no way the presidential campaign of a Soviet era socialist relic from Vermont would be greeted with anything other than disdain and a two second laugh before being dismissed out of hand as pure insanity – yet, here we are, feelin’ the Bern!
Why is that? It is because progressives never waste a crisis, a political opportunity or energy of any kind. They use whatever is at their disposal to keep progressivism relentlessly moving even if the current vessel containing their ideology is imperfect. To borrow a little hip hop vernacular, it ain’t about the playa, it is about the game, dawg.
Sort of explains why they are relentless in trying to implement coercive collectivism even though history has proven that it never has worked.
Perhaps we should stop resisting the inevitable and start thinking about how we slingshot the good starship USS Constitution (NCC 1776) around the yuge gas giant, Planet Narcisso, through the DonTrumpian asteroid belt and plot a course back to a limited, tripartite government operating within its enumerated powers.
Maybe classical liberals need to hit the gas and start accelerating into the curve.
The Rio Norte Line 
Utah,
If Trump is the GOP nominee, then America will be voting for a Progressive either way: no matter which Party they vote for, they will be voting for the rule of men and not of law.
History tells us that nations do not come back from this. We are finally at the door. Either this nation votes for someone who will follow the law or we go the way of every other republic. At the moment, the ONLY person with a history of following the law is Cruz. If there was another, I’d be happy to support that person, because I am NOT looking at the person, but their record. DO THEY FOLLOW AND UPHOLD AND DEFEND THE LAW? If not, then they represent the death of the American experiment. So far, I only see Cruz.
As for Trump…? Well, I have said it before: we are re-living the transformation that turned a Christian Germany into a secular Socialist dictatorship. Those who know the history of 1930’s Germany should be able to see the patterns. Heck, I have been against him for a while now, but Beck nailed it today when he said the guy running Breightbart is a modern-day Goebbels. So are Drudge and FOX. Just look at what this election is doing to what remained of this nation.
Obama has succeeded: he fundamentally changed this nation — by changing her people. Sadly, America is no longer great because it is no longer good. If it were, the top three people (Hillary, Sanders and Trump) would NEVER have reached this point. Heck, Hillary would be on trial — if not in jail. But instead, we are all arguing for which LAWLESS candidate we want to be our king. This is not America. This is Europe!
So, you may think we survive Trump — and we will, physically — but I do not believe liberty and the rule of law survives him. And I KNOW it does not survive another Democrat. For that matter, I’m not sure it will survive even with Cruz in office — because the rest of the GOP is as bad as the Democrat Party. And this is why I do not have much optimism. Not because I do not want to hope, but because I kow history, and I know what I am seeing all around me and I can do the math…
Yes. a blustering narcissist is not a good prospect as president. He is more likely to bring disaster than prosperity. He is likely to be more reckless than Obama in international affairs.
Some of us retired people with industrial experience have been talking with each other about our geopolitical situation. We feel that America has entered a particularly dangerous time, and we are seeking ways to improve our survivability. We know that islamists would dearly wish to damage or destroy our electrical grid, because our civilization now depends on it. Regional attacks could be attempted by sleeper cells, but would have limited usefulness as they could be repaired with resources from other regions.
The most serious threat is an EMP attack, and it seems to be increasingly likely. Our society is more divided than ever, and we are less likely to work together to recover. We have an administration which has greatly degraded our military capability and readiness. Our State Department has misread or bungled everything of consequence in the last 20 years or so. We have several dedicated and capable adversaries who are determined to expand their power. They independently study and carry out cyberattacks on various parts of our infrastructure. They are already working with each other to further their own national and collective interests.
Islam, although apparently divided, has an overriding goal to destroy Israel – and America. Their basic doctrine can unify the sects into a single-minded force. They do not now have much of a nuclear capability – only some older IRBM’s in Pakistan. EMP, however, is part of Iran’s ongoing plans and they have done missile tests for it. Is there a danger in the short term?
Note: EMP data can be found at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse
http://www.futurescience.com/emp.html
Russia and China have Polaris-class submarines. Both covet the energy resources of the Middle East. Both are working with the Syrian and Iranian governments. Do those governments have the motivation and the bargaining chips to bring Russia or China into action against us? Islam has the manpower to conquer Israel if its defenses are disabled by an EMP. In exchange for such assistance, Islam could offer Russia or China the Mediterranean ports of Israel, plus its recently discovered oil and gas fields. We would have to be disabled at the time, to prevent interference. An attack on America could be done from submarines, or by proxies such as North Korea or Pakistan launching from merchant ships in international waters. The responsible nation would be unknown, making retaliation unlikely even if our government wanted to. Such an attack would come across our east, west, and/or Gulf coasts and allow only 5 to 10 minutes’ warning even if our satellites detected something unusual.
An attack seems most likely in this calendar year, since our political situation is in flux. It seems likely that 2017 will bring an administration that is less flexible toward our adversaries. The EMP information on the internet indicates that our high-voltage transmission lines and the local distribution networks would be disabled for a long time, and transformers damaged. With nationwide damage, repairs would be very slow. Can our generating facilities be preserved, so that we can work our way outward from them? Given 5-10 minutes’ warning if NORAD detects suspicious objects incoming, is it possible to take the generating facilities offline and ground them to minimize damage? Are utilities on NORAD’s notification list, and would they actually go offline? Delays in decision-making could be critical. Or would we have to content ourselves with being part of the projected 90% casualty rate in the first six months after an EMP?
Since NORAD has decided to move some of its operations back into the buried complex in Cheyenne Mountain, and spend yet more money hardening it, others should probably pay attention. It is noted in the second of the above links that a Soviet EMP test caused a fire in a generating plant that was hundreds of miles away due to the EMP induced in an underground line.
Not sure why people are thumbing you down — except that they do not want to hear the truth of what we face.
Good comment.
Very Good Post !!
For contrast to the current responses, I’ll try brevity in my Comment.
This is precisely why a Trump /Cruz ticket. would be best at this time, given the circumstances of recent polling. Cruz would/ could act as a Constitutional balance……balast?….to swing you mention.
“… to THE swing you mention”.
If Cruz agreed to that, then he would be what they claim he is and I would not vote for either of them.
Sorry, Don, but if I want a Progressive in the White House, I’ll vote for Hillary.
I am trying to be optimistic about a Trump Presidency. For all his bluster and braggadocio, (well, it aint braggin’ if you can do it),I truly believe that Trump does want to make America great again. And I also think that he will take his oath seriously.
What’s wrong with undoing all or most of his predecessor’s executive orders. Even Cruz said he would corner the market on ink undoing Obama’s excesses.
Think about this…Trump is a multi-billionaire. He doesn’t need this gig. In fact, while he is President, I think he will have to give up all control over his wealth during his term.
Hillary is serious and sincere about making America great again, too — she just has a different idea of what that means…and so does Trump. Only, in Trump’s case, he has told us: it means whatever he feels like at the time.
Judging by how many people are willing to accept a man who has openly told them he will become whatever he needs to be to make whatever deals he needs to make to promote ALL the policies Obama advocates…
Well, let’s just say I do not have much hope for our future…what little seems to be left of it, that is.