Today a new president takes office. He has been called the most divisive president in history during a time when America seems as divided as it has ever been. But, is our country really as divided as it seems? Yes, absolutely. We are in the midst of a right-wing renaissance powered by the internet. The right has always been a minority, but a very active, if disorganized one.
Once, Rush Limbaugh was the lone voice in the wilderness of AM radio, a barbarian raiding the flocks of the establishment media who paraded around with their pelts of objectivity–wolves disguised as sheep to keep the herd quiet and orderly. In the 1990’s, Fox News cut out its own territory and built a fortress, slowly expanding until it became as powerful the many leftwing media fiefdoms combined. The formerly marginalized barbarians on the right were finally becoming respectable after decades of marginalization. The Reagan revolution no longer seemed like an anomaly, but a founding mythology of a vast new civilization.
While the citizens of the right became self-aware, the establishment in the GOP maintained their policy of compromising to coexist, acting only as a governor on the progressive steam engine. Then Glenn Beck came along, rallying the newly self-aware right, educating them as he educated himself. The TEA party emerged and made an attempt to grab power, but failed in the end. They were not yet prepared to confront the Leviathan, and were beaten back by the inertia of the mechanical beast–the hydra heads of the donkey and elephant dispersing them with ease.
Beaten for the battle, but not broken, the right regrouped, and solidified their identities. As individualists at heart, and as political negativists, the Right could not come together as one under a single program of action, but could rally around the threat of the progressive Leviathan. Social media created the training grounds and settlements of communities needed for the endeavor. Today there are legions rallying against the progressive drive to marginalize the individual.
The man taking office today, Donald J. Trump, is the consummation of this movement, though does not represent our goals–he represents the leader we needed to fight the establishment. He is our Napoleon, for sure, the man who will take on the old regime, but, while he is our means to our ends, he does not represent the end, but a beginning. Trump is in power to give our movement the time it needs to develop. He was elected to clear the way and beat back the progressives, to raze their Empire of regulations, arbitrary power, guilt, and ressentiment.
Trump embodies not only the frustrations of the right, but their sense of humor as well. While most of us remain cautiously optimistic, at best, about what he will do when he actually takes office, we are certainly thoroughly enjoying that he has comported himself to be everything the left hates, even as he champions many of the liberal values. It is not liberalism that he seeks to destroy, but leftism, and the left has conflated the two entirely, believing that the only liberalism is leftist liberalism. He is not merely destroying the left, but reclaiming liberalism for the right, its proper home. The left is apoplectic and we are gleeful because of it.
With the inauguration of Trump the celebration will end and the hard work will begin. Where Obama brought conservatives together, Trump will ensure division. This country is divided as it appears, and that is because the right is finally standing up. We are no longer content with a right wing slant to a progressive agenda. We have compromised every step of the way only to learn that the left never wanted compromise. When the left spoke of compromise and unity they always meant us compromising and us being united under their agenda. That is the fundamental nature of progressivism.
We cannot compromise any longer without completely sacrificing who we are–a nation of individuals who agreed to come together with the common goal of ruling ourselves. We will not become a collective ruled by bureaucrats. With this inauguration we draw a line in the sand and plant our flag of individual liberty firmly. From this ground we will fight until we take back the nation from the resurgent old world mentality of control. We will fight for our founding ideals, because where we failed before was allowing the Democrats to perpetuate slavery, racism and moral relativism. We have learned from our past and will bring the founding ideals to fruition as they were meant to be, unclouded by the divergences and misdeeds of the past.
Today we have the chance to begin again, ensuring that we truly uphold our pledge to defend liberty, and justice, for all.
