Putin, Xi, the Ayatollah, and Erdogan have had a good laugh over this weekend of 'No Kings' protests in American cities, yet another example of an exceptionalist, baroque democracy gone haywire. Each of these world leaders who has ruled in a monarchist democracy - a system of governance which hearkens back to the great imperialist eras of their history - the Chinese Dynasties, the Ottoman and Russian Empires - understands that a measure of centralization and strong leadership is the key to a society of common principles, ethos, and historical destiny.
They see America as a circus, a jamboree of trapeze artists, high-wire dancers, lion tamers, clowns, and trained bears - a side show of bearded ladies, dwarves, two-headed babies, and giants. What else to make of the transgender follies, bathroom politics, government run by social aberrants, runts of the litter, outliers, marginalia?
Ethos? Where was that storied ethical and moral center of Jefferson, Hamilton and Adams, the intellectual foundation derived from the English and Scottish Enlightenments- the set of common principles of individual freedom set within a commonwealth, an entrepreneurial economic system at the heart of free enterprise and equal opportunity?
America, unlike Russia, China, and Turkey has not only forgotten its past but has made deliberate attempts to cancel it, airbrush it from history, and pretend that it never existed. A republic of white men, the architecture of white privilege, the mechanisms of oppression, slavery, and misogyny - how could any self-respecting American look on that past as anything but corrosive, destructive, and worthless?
Whatever remains of a universal ethos there might have been in America, progressives have been bound and determined to replace it with a culture of identity. Race, gender, and ethnicity were to be the defining features of a pluralistic America, and each would have its separate, distinct, place in a multi-colored society.
Not surprisingly, whatever social cohesion existed before this inchoate movement, disappeared. The country became a hopelessly divided, arrogantly separatist, fragmented place, one whose very integrity and stability were threatened and whose geopolitical influence, status, and charismatic standing were questioned.
President Joe Biden was, because of his support of this febrile idealism, this dismissal of American values, this total disregard for its history and noble beginnings was one of the worst, most disastrous presidents in American history. His progressivism was not that of Gompers, LaFollette, Brandeis, and Debs - considerate, intellectual thinkers who saw America's social and economic divisions as dangerous - but a disordered, illogical, fantastical one in which the tables of reason were turned.
Black men, former slaves and African forest tribesmen were suddenly placed atop the human pyramid, icons of sensibility, intelligence, and insight despite the dysfunction of the inner cities, the disproportionate number of violent crimes, drug abuse, abandoned families, and social mayhem. Transgenders were similarly presented as the next generation of sexuality, an advance over heterosexuality, an end to sexual debate. Millennia of human society, Biblical injunction, and common sense overturned by executive fiat.
Principles of free enterprise at the center of human activity since the Paleolithic were dismissed as irrelevant, anti-social detriments to a genuinely harmonious society. Shibboleths were created and worshipped - the environment, Gaia, Mother Earth were revered and prayed to, and all the while the geopolitical powers of the world became stronger, more intent on hegemonic rule.
So, it is no surprise that the American public turned to Donald Trump for leadership - a man who rejected these fantastical, incoherent notions out of hand. In barely a year, the new President has reversed the dangerous course of idealistic progressivism, restated the sexually and racially obvious, restored a recognition if not reverence for America's past, and more than anything insisted that only without a common core, a central, patriotic, universal ethos, the country can never compete.
He like Putin, Erdogan, and Xi understands that a common ethical core is indispensable, and that it is based on religious principles. Christian Orthodoxy, Islam, and Confucianism are at the center of public and private life in Russia, China, and Turkey.
It was similarly no surprise that the new American President has taken full advantage of his executive powers and extended the reach of his political agenda in a forceful, uncompromising juggernaut of reform. He has challenged the courts to deny him, acting always within the Constitution, but more than any other chief executive has not been intimidated by them.
He went toe to toe with the other branches of American democracy, the judiciary and the legislative bodies, and was determined to promote, defend, and extend his policies, programs, and agenda.
'Democracy Matters' lawn signs sprouted throughout tony, liberal neighborhoods. Donald Trump threatens democracy, progressives said. His use of executive power is nothing less than an autocratic putsch, a dangerous foray into Third World president-for-life dynasties.
No one could explain exactly what the signs meant, how exactly the president was acting in an undemocratic way, or how his actions would lead to the demise of democracy; but the howling and protests continued, especially when the President and Elon Musk set about to reduce and remove the most offending agencies of the bureaucracy.
The 'No Kings' movement is an extension of this self-righteousness - a historically ignorant, politically unschooled, hopelessly naive expression of camaraderie. It feels good to demonstrate for good. Good matters. We matter; but just as the previous round of No Kings protests withered and died, sound and fury signifying absolutely nothing, a tempest in a teapot, Sturm und Drang without teeth, so this one will come and go.
America wants and needs a strong, decisive, unintimidated president - one who never kowtows, who is dismissive and abrupt, impatient with ignorance and political posturing, one who will have his way.
Autocratic? Hardly. Decisive, sure, and aggressive? By all means, and that is what disturbs progressives because they are in disarray, without a platform, policy, or political agenda. They are a carping, emotionally epileptic bunch.
Monarchist? A respect for the kings, queens, emperors, and shoguns who made the civilized world what it is? Aspirations to remake America in his image, one supported by a hundred million people? Absolutely.
Protests and demonstrations have always been about feeling good, emotional solidarity, identity, and purpose. The endless parades on the National Mall for women's rights, abortion, the environment and the black man, and just about every bit of the progressive agenda have left no more mark than trampled grass and trash.
The No Kings affair is no different - a jamboree of disaffected, ignored, unhappy well-wishers with no specific purpose, goal, or raison d'etre except for feeling good about being together.
God Save The King. A little monarchy never hurt, and in this case, might be very, very good for the sadly outmatched, failing American democracy.
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