It's Not Just Trump - Conservatism Has Returned And Is Here To Stay

Progressives are still whingeing and whining about Donald Trump and his devilish, autocratic. insurrectionist Presidency.  The mania has turned to hysteria and progressives everywhere have turned into dervishes - possessed, howling streetcorner preachers shouting that Armageddon is around the corner, and the End is nigh. 

 

The miasmic scorn for Donald Trump and the complete unhinged disassembly of rational political belief of the Left is indeed something to watch.  Political opposition is part and parcel of democracy, but such opposition has been turned into unremitting hatred.  It has become a blood-curdling affair, a steaming, high blood pressure eruption and uncompromising insults.

The ranks of the Left resemble the wild, mad screeching and incontinence of a Bosch painting, the worst demented wards of an insane asylum - a madhouse, a loony bin, a crazed, wild, anarchic place. 

Somewhere along the line, the progressive Left's simple, labor-oriented, socialist, communal politics got twisted out of shape, and became the feral, untoward tangle of hatred it is now. There seems to be no point to liberal politics today, no distinct, unique policy proposals, no initiatives, no reasonable answers to questions of economics, finance, or national order. 

The progressive charter, its canon, its creed is Trump hatred and an ancillary, universal condemnation of all conservatives, branded in an instant as racist, that all-purpose, all-encompassing, meaningless term to express scorn for and mistrust of any opposing values. 

'Racist', they howl at the moon and at anyone who dares question the native, primal supremacy of the black man; the certainty of the gender spectrum, and the evils of capitalism; and it is a howling and a maniacal one. 

Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, having seen the savage primitivism of the African tribes, the human sacrifice, the cannibalism, and their raging bestiality realizes that he is no different, and worse, all humanity at heart is the same. 'The horror...the horror', he says on his deathbed. 

There is something of this horror in the awful, violent, unrestrained, almost pagan hatred of the Left for Donald Trump and all conservatives.  Their shutting down of any opposition, their incessant branding of any different ideas as damningly racist and profoundly ignorant, their book burning, midnight cabals, and emotional savagery beggar belief. 

Donald Trump having taken the brunt of this hatred for ten years, virtually his whole political life, is unconcerned, nonplussed.  He goes on with his conservative agenda and laughs at the impotence of the Left.  There is nothing stopping his fundamental, systemic reform of American government.  

Just as Javier Milei, conservative president of Argentina says each time he eradicates one ponderous government bureaucracy after another, Afuera!, Donald Trump repeats as DOGE goes about the business of dismantling government agencies. 

Trump is unbowed and unintimidated in his opening up the country to oil and gas exploration, building pipelines and refineries, and expanding ports and shipping, lowering taxes and reducing regulation, taking a strong America First approach to foreign policy, and ridding the country once and for all of the pernicious, divisive DEI (Diversity Equity Inclusion) movement of the Left. 

One by one big corporations are eliminating DEI departments, cancelling Pride activities, refusing affirmative action and returning to a merit-based workplace.  Free speech is returning as the formerly intimidated now speak their mind on formerly taboo subjects of race, ethnicity, and sexuality.  There is a firm No! to unrestricted immigration, and a forthright statement of a return to originalist principles and a central, European Christian ethos. 

These changes are not cosmetic, but the Left is still whaling away at Trump, never once addressing the systemic issues that these changes represent or the fact that they will soon become ingrained, embedded, permanent, and unshakeable principles once again. 

Conservatism is an ethos which has remained valid ever since the emergence of William F Buckley, Milton Friedman, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan and before that Cleveland, Taft, and Coolidge.  The core principles of conservatism - small government, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and low taxation - have not changed although the effort to apply them became much more difficult after the long four-term tenure of Franklin Delano Roosevelt who used the Depression as the justification for strong, interventionist government and whose example was followed by successive Democratic presidents, most notably LBJ whose Great Society was modeled after Roosevelt's programs. 

Donald Trump is no different, and beneath the Sturm und Drang of his aggressive moves to further the conservative agenda, it remains fundamentally unchanged since the early days.  In fact, the terms of Washington, Jefferson, and Madison were the first conservatives; and enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution are the foundational elements of the new republic - a nation of individuals acting out of self-interest but with consideration of the common weal, supported by a limited government which would apply the rule of law and little else. 

The progressive movement, a radical, socialist model of communalism and state authority, has in recent years made inroads into this conservatism, and convinced much of the American public that government is not only the guarantor of their Constitutional rights, but their interpreter and activist engine.  It is government which sets the rules of engagement and approved behavior.  

Free speech was limited to exclude any speech that was seen antithetical to progressive social reform; minority groups were promoted to the exclusion of all others based on a tendentious definition of traditional American pluralism - diversity, equity, inclusivity, and the free market was controlled, limited, and directed by government to favor their economic/political vision.  

Now, under Donald Trump, all these historically heretical notions are being denied, refused, and eliminated.  Free speech means any speech - let the listener and the speaker beware.  Free markets mean untrammeled ability to innovate, create, and produce wealth.  A free society means one based on talent, ability, and ambition. A strong national defense means not only military security against international threats, but creating an internally strong social and economic fabric - no unlimited immigration, a robust program of energy independence, and the restoration of a clear national ethos.

There is nothing new or surprising about the Trump initiatives, only the aggressive, confident, uncompromising way he is going about business.  Reduce the size of government? Just do it, and send in the butchers, bulldozers, and wrecking balls.  Energy independence? Free the oil and gas sector to dig, mine, and explore; create a nuclear capacity; and reinvigorate clean coal. Lower taxes and regulation? Executive order and insistent Congressional initiatives.  Free speech? Use every federal governmental, judicial, financial, and economic authority to rid the nation of pernicious, useless, divisive DEI programs. 

The Left, flummoxed and flabbergasted, has yet to mount a cogent, responsible response.  It has been too caught up in Hate Trump to consider anything else but removing him from office, and so must sit by, whingeing, wailing, and howling while the juggernaut makes its way from coast to coast 

Not only is conservatism back for the period of Trump's term.  It is here to stay, for the President is not just using levers of federal power but restructuring government from the bottom up. 

Progressive redoubts on the coasts have become fearful, tremulous, agitated places still concerned with deposing Trump and cancelling any and all his supporters; but the time has passed as had the torch.  No longer will the country put up with the Left's fantastical, imaginary premises and Orwellian authoritarianism. 

Not only is Trump back but radical conservatism is as well.