Timothy Birdnow

Friend and contributor Daren Jonescu has an essay over at his website in which he makes the point we all seek to hide from ourselves; Obama did not lead the red revolution in America, but rode the wave. Hard as it is for us to face, he is right; America in fact wants what the BHO has been peddling. Obama didn't start the fire.

And while Trump beat the Democrats one must look at what that really means. Trump did not do it by appealing to actual conservatism but rather by courting the 'forgotten man" in the rust belt. His victory came from his appeal to FDR's natural constituency. In fact, a number of conservatives stayed home, upset by Trump's vulgarity and lack of conservative bonafides.

Trump is essentially a Truman Democrat in a socialist America. He won by winning over other New Dealers. He has promised to make America great again, but his program is largely about government action. He just isn't about government coddling.

And this could easily have gone the other way. Hillary was perhaps the worst candidate to ever run for President, and that she actually won the popular vote (well, maybe stole it) is horrifying. America should have rejected the Norn by a huge margin.

Yes, the Democrats took a beating across the country. But that is as much a function of their trying to go to far too fast, and of their happy corruption and internationalism. Americans are afraid of the rising tide of Islamism, and didn't want to play footsie with a bunch of potential terrorists. And they want their jobs back. Nobody wants to live on the government dole, barely scratching out a living, while a bunch of illegal aliens come in and take their jobs.

In short, kitchen table issued prevailed, not conservative principles. We need to remember that.

In the end the Conservative Esstablishment failed us. They are the ones who strategized, who came up with the political, social, and media tactics. They are the ones who chose to maintain this patrician air, to play ball with the enemy, to go along to get along. That strategy failed for precisely the reasons many of us "mongrel conservatives" knew it would; you can't win by saying "mee too". Trump refused to play this game that we have been losing at for so long, and he won.

If you are not advancing you are retreating. Our leaders have been happy to retreat for a long time now.

We have an opportunity to perhaps stop the slide into the abyss, but it will require we launch a bold campaign, a counter-attack. Too often we have allowed openings to slip by us. There are many economic conservatives who do not understand that economics is a function of the health of society, and the social conservatives are ultimately right. They will point out that Trump won not on the social issues but economic, and they will have a point, but the two go hand in hand and we cannot allow the issue to slip from us. Every time we win we start the economic program to fix the damage done by the liberals and let them advance the social issues. Then we lose again, because they are able to get society to move to the Left. In fact, we end up victims of our own success as the public forgets what the Democrats did to the economy. We must advance on all fronts, like Eisenhower did with the American army during WWII.

And we absolutely must stop playing footsie with the media. There has been our most critical mistake; we give them power over us by kowtowing to them. The media is like Satan, whose power comes entirely from our own surrender to him. The media likewise has no power except that which we give it. Trump found a way around them, and we need to press this home. We should take steps to marginalize the media at every turn.

How? Stop quoting them, stop using them as the authorities. I grow disgusted at the way conservatives are always linking up Politico or some other MSM outfit when they don't have to do so. I find it repulsive that we adopt their language, their style, their use of words. They present "facts" and we often accept them. Move on! That was the thinking of Karl Rove, for instance, and it ended with his client George W. Bush having some of the lowest approval ratings of any President. You can't move on. Trump is right; you have to fight at every turn.

I hope we learn the lessons of this last election, but fear we may not. We are NOT in the ascendency, but rather have won an important tactical battle. Do not become drunk on a stopgap victory. The war is just heating up.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:13 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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