Beyond American Carnage

I can confess with five years of detachment that I did not like Donald Trump’s inaugural address in 2017. It was depressing and somewhat clunky. The parts that weren’t so clunky were even more depressing.

Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories, scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge; and the crime, and the gangs, and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.

I’ve always been a Nixonian optimist, and I prefer the thick Americanism of the ’68 convention speech. It’s the exact same hard reality, rock-em-sock-em style and disdain for those who are responsible for America’s decline. Yet it was paired with a sunny vision of the best of America and the hearty communitarianism for which our 37th president once was so beloved.

It is best remembered for its seminal speech on “law and order”, but it was much more. Even in 1968, Richard Nixon could still speak without irony about “a great American city,” about the silent majority of Americans who had not lost their minds, about a future in which the good life would be attainable for the average citizen.

I wanted to believe in 2017 that we could still do the same. Perhaps everything is falling apart over the past half-decade. Or maybe you just moved to Washington D.C. Whatever the reason, this week, President Trump came back to Washington to give a sequel to his speech at America First Policy Institute about “American carnage”. I was much more open to hearing him speak.

He described America two years ago using terms that were a bit hyperbolic but difficult to disagree with.

Booming economic recovery like nobody has seen before; the strongest and most secure border in U.S. history; energy independence, and even dominance; historically low gas prices; no inflation; a fully rebuilt military; and a country that was highly respected by other leaders, other countries. We had made America great again. And we did this by placing workers and families first, as well as America’s interests first.

However bright the Before Times may have been, today’s scene is as dark and depressing:

But now our country has been brought to its knees, literally. This could have happened, who would’ve thought? Inflation is the highest in 49 years–9.1 percent, and a lot of people think it is much higher. The country’s highest gas prices in history are at the moment. Our nation has become an energy guzzler, becoming a beggar country. We have millions of illegal aliens swarming our open borders and flooding into the country. It’s an invasion. All-time records for murder are being set by Democrat-run municipalities.

Our country is suffering humiliation upon humiliation on the international stage. Our basic rights and liberties at home are being threatened. If this economic and socio-economic attack on civilisation isn’t reversible, the American dream will be ripped to pieces.

Before any ambitious projects for civilizational restoration can start, it is necessary to clear up America’s public areas, where the “criminals have been allowed free rein .”

Our streets are riddled with needles and soaked with the blood of innocent victims. Our once great cities, from Chicago to New York and L.A. to the American Dream where the middle class once flocked to the American dream, are now war zones. There are countless stabbings and rapes every day. There is no mercy in violent turf wars. The parents are concerned that their children might be shot while on the way to school …..

Drugged-out lunatics attack innocent victims at random. Gangs of thieves rob the shop and then leave with all they have. They’re left to their own devices. They are left alone. It’s time to put it back. Homeless encampments have taken over all public parks and green spaces in once beautiful cities. The dangerously insane roam the streets of our city with impunity. One primary reason we live in another country is that there is little respect for law and no order.

Nobody has ever spent time in blue cities these last few years would dispute that statement, at least not truthfully. Trump continued to list a variety of horrifying examples that are worth hearing if you can stomach them. The streets are chaotic and Americans cannot leave their homes without being shot or walking through parks in public without being stabbed or hurt. They can send their children to school with the assurance that they will return home.

Another concern, although less pressing, is just as urgent. How will they go to school? Attacks on America’s future generation and attempts to force them into radical ideologies about race, sex, and gender will be the most serious challenges for the Republican next-generation leadership. Trump sees the problem clearly and has a solution.

Federal, state, and local government should aggressively enforce existing statutes to stop the perverted sexualization of minor children. The statutes are there. We have the statutes. A society which refuses to provide protection for its children will not soon be in a position to offer any assistance to anyone. This is the hallmark of social and cultural decay and we must fight it back quickly. This is not something we can afford to lose.

The sickos who push sexual content into kindergarten and give puberty blocks to young children…are more than just engaging in depravities. They should be prosecuted for breaking many laws.

This is evident to anyone but the blue-haired and tattooed kindergarten teacher, who has BLM/Pride/Ukraine flags hanging in her class, and then spends every minute scrolling through TikTok. But Trump went further, taking a two-handed grip of the third rail of American politics circa 2022: transgenderism.

If our 45th president weren’t already on show trial in absentia, his remarks on women’s sports might have been enough to set the ball rolling. “…Then this guy comes along.” An audience member laughs, and the show trial in absentia is canceled. Now he’s encouraged: “I’d be the greatest woman’s basketball coach.” Weirdly, LeBron James is not my favorite, Michael Jordan is much more appealing to me. But I’d go up to LeBron and ask him: “LeBron, have you ever wanted to be a women ?'”

?”

The remarks about transgenderism receive the greatest applause. Trump admits to having been told by his advisors not to touch the transgenderism issue because it was “controversial”. It is a speech that garnered the most applause of any of the speeches. One can only hope the positive outcome encourages Trump to adopt a more social conservative stance, even though the consultants and other members of the GOP elite try to restrain him.

This is his biggest weakness. Donald Trump surrounds him with people who want to soft-pedal facts that are as trivial as the existence and function of women and men. Brooke Rollins and Larry Kudlow were among the people that he thanked for their support in his speech. Kellyanne Conway was also present. It is likely that America First Policy Institute will fail in fulfilling its mission of being a holding area for the next administration.

The progressive elite on the other side has Trump more aware–and is in top form rhetorically. Adam Schiff: His head is, as you all know, shaped like watermelon. Quite an unattractive man…. He is quite unattractive. An evil, sick and very poor human being.”

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One wonders, after a moment, if Trump does know who he’s talking about: “Never forget: everything this corrupt establishment is doing to me is all about preserving their power and control over the American people.” As he delivered the line, the crowd erupted in chants of “Four More Years.”

Trump is aware that all the cards are against him. Trump knows that the deck is against him. He replied, “Does give me a choice ?”

To borrow from Trumpism, “A lot people are saying …”