Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

A belated sequel to a more cheerful article written following the election in 2016: https://ncc-1776.org/tle2016/tle898-20161113-06.html

It was Revenge of the Rust Belt when Donald J Trump became the 45th President of the United States—elected to office on the promise to drain the swamp that is our nation’s capital—aka the wretched hive of scum and villainy to paraphrase the famous line uttered by Obi Wan Kenobi on the bluffs overlooking Mos Eisley Spaceport right before the bar scene in the first Star Wars movie.

“You’ll never find a more wretched hive” and a more appropriate description of a city—this den of thieves, parasites and pathological liars—our political class and the upper echelons of an entrenched bureaucracy known as the Deep State. These were the people and the institutions that Mr Trump campaigned on the promise to at least to reign in and reform—and to put America first instead of last—which had long been the practice of the politicians and the civil servants who are anything but civil or servile. And unlike most presidents in recent history save Reagan and Eisenhower; he actually followed through with some of those campaign promises. Trump renegotiated bad trade deals that hollowed out the industrial heartland of the nation, he was serious about dealing with border security and enforcing existing immigration laws like all other nations do. He pursued sound energy and economic policies that restored prosperity and vitality, dealt firmly with foreign adversaries while resisting the temptations of the policy wonks to get us into another war in Iran and started the process of getting out of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

And to top it all off he created a Space Force—which meant we were finally getting serious about the existential dangers from beyond Earth. Namely the potential for extinction level asteroid impacts and strategic threats posed by unfriendly foreign powers.

Perhaps the best thing about the Trump Administration was that it rolled back the forces of the radical progressives and proto Green New Dealers who had free reign during the Obama years and held them at bay. Three good years at least. 4 counting the terrible days of 2020 that were not as bad as they could have been had the democrats been in power to impose the rationing and command and control economy they’ve always wanted every since World War II and the Great Depression.

That all changed the day after the inauguration of Joe Biden whose administration hit the ground running—as they said they would—with an aggressive green agenda. The Keystone Pipeline was canceled and fracking was banned on federal lands. Like my mentor Bruce the Historian said in regard to the local drilling boom before it stalled out on the other side of the highway just south of here; it’s balls to the wall. The push is on for the implementation of the Green New Deal and they are taking full advantage of the new Democratic majority in the legislatures and the damaged reputation of the opposition in the wake of the Capital Riots which are being deliberately blown out of proportion for that very reason and I’m really worried.

It was already a depressing week for that reason alone. In addition; the nation has been put on a heightened state of alert for “domestic terrorism” and there is talk suggestive toward criminalizing people who push “conspiracy theories” or propagate “falsehoods” which it does not take much of a stretch of the imagination to see disturbing parallels with the Woodrow Wilson era when it became a crime to say or publish anything that vilifies the government and public officials.

And if that were not enough—we now have rumblings of World War Three!

This week China announced that it would regard a push for Taiwan independence as grounds for war and the Russian leader Vladimir Putin was expressing angst that the Coronavirus pandemic has destabilized the world economy and could trigger a global conflict. Putin may be worried more about the destabilization of his own regime which is obviously on shaky ground and was so even before the pandemic. World War is the icing on the cake for the resurgence of statism because total war is the health of the total state. In addition to wanting to keep green policy wonks at bay that was my other primary reason for supporting Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

It was a good four years. Too bad we could not have four more. We might have run the clock out on some of the really bad things that are now being ushered in. I won’t go into great detail on this—but I am a big proponent of the Generation Theory of Strauss and Howe.

We are now nearing the climax phase of the current two decade crisis era that began with the economic crisis that hit in 2008. This puts us roughly where we were as a nation in 1940 when the Great Depression was winding down and World War II was heating up. The election of Donald Trump in 2016 may have been a fluke. It was something like Warren G Harding serving the second term of FDR because of a random twist of history and term limits on the Presidency. If these cycles of generational turnings repeated verbatim—then John McCain was supposed to be Herbert Hoover 2.0—but they don’t. The economic crisis that was analog to the market crash in 1929 came a year early—right before the 2008 election—and Obama ended up being elected to serve the term of Herbert Hoover and the first term of FDR.

Donald Trump was a unique opportunity in history to put the brakes on the progressive juggernaut of Big Government that has always taken advantage of crises to build power and dependent constituencies in Washington that are a clear and present danger to American freedom. That’s the swamp we elected Trump to drain. The Deep State. Which is not so much a dark and sinister conspiracy as it is an entrenched bureaucracy and coalition of special interests and career politicians that is sure to circle the wagons and resist efforts at reform. It began within days of the election and they grabbed at everything imaginable from false accusations of Russian interference to personal matters and they even attempted to impeach him for a technicality which amounts more to impeachment just because they didn’t like his policies and wanted him out of there at all costs. They finally got lucky with the advent of the Coronavirus and the social unrest sparked last summer by the death of George Floyd.

In the end, Trump fought the swamp and the swamp won. And it was a big loss for freedom. It may even cost us civilization itself as the democrats are hellbent on implementing green policies that will result in the premature phase out and replacement of conventional energy sources with inadequate ones that don’t have the lifting power to run a modern economy and infrastructure. Causing hardship to many. And it that were not bad enough, there is the possibility of total war brought on by an outwardly weak posture of the Democratic Party that has been historically soft on defense in time of peace yet more than willing to welcome crisis as an opportunity to grab power and crack down on the opposition. Or at least get them to put aside differences and go along for the sake of the nation. Like everyone did for World War II.

That will likely be the card this administration will play when the going gets rough trying to implement the Green New Deal. Much like it was with FDR and the Old New Deal. History repeats. Not verbatim but there is a pattern. Taking the dispassionate approach of a historian focusing on the interesting times aspect—as in the ancient Chinese proverb—takes some of stress and anxiety out of it. These are interesting times and a good proving ground for the Strauss Howe theories. We will know for sure in a few more years.

And all those 75 thousand people who voted for Trump—they are still out there and they are not going away anytime soon. A lot of democrats too also want prosperity and freedom and they are going to be pretty disillusioned with the Green New Deal if it impacts them financially or causes gross physical hardship. There are also a good many people out there who ordinarily don’t get involved in politics who might also be motivated to get involved if green policies bite them.

The swamp creatures in the Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy should not be so smug in their victory because if this is anything like the second Star Wars movie: The Empire Strikes Back—there may be yet another sequel the likes of The Return of the Jedi.