The Classical (Trumpian) Liberal

America is both an idea, and a physical reality. To sidestep either element of her would strip away much of her glory, and much of what she has to offer so many people. This stark divide separates the American people, placing idealists into the camp of hopeless dreamers and dangerous ideologues, while the realists are condemned to the underworld of the uncultured and racism (and any other ‘ist’ or ‘ism’ one can cook up in this toxic cultural brew we call civil discourse today). While both are necessary to keep the promise of America and Western excellence alive and bountiful, with one side is gaining at the unacceptable expense of the other.

Idealism is written into our Founding. Saying that all men are created equal, that men have the right to govern their own affairs, that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are rights endowed from a Creator, these are still bold and dare I say it? Progressive… yes progressive, as these ideals are beyond much of the human experience. Much of recorded history is that of kings, warlords, strongmen and others who decided that force was the way to power and to maintain civilization. Instead, the American experience, guided in large part by the British predecessors and contemporaries from across the ocean, sought to render this brutal and brutish calculus moot.

The history of mankind is replete with atrocities: slavery, raping, pillaging, plundering, massacring, and so many other lamentable crimes, it would be an unending task to properly name them all. However, America, knowing that it is always possible for these evil elements to rear their ugly heads, due to living in an imperfect world, combined with the relative constancy of human nature, decided that instead of using force to either promote or temper the debaucheries laid plain just now, the Founders charted a new course. On this perilous plunge into the unknown, they decided that laws, customs and tradition would reign in the American colonies, not tyrants or mobs, as most other lands have been ruled throughout the ages.

This was the idealism which created the United States. This system, constitutional republicanism, was a great departure in the history of the West, even from very liberal England. That a man could be his own ruler, within a set of rules and laws which governed all men, this was truly revolutionary. While it didn’t manifest itself in full for quite sometime most blacks, women and many lower class white men, it began a tectonic shift in how the ruled viewed their rulers, and how the rulers became more cognizant of their people and their needs. In our time, we tend to take this all for granted, not thankful at the massive progress so many nations have taken in the past 250 years, in large thanks due to some measure of direct or indirect mimicking of the American experience by so many nations and peoples across the globe. There is no toast or any other simple measure of gratitude given for all those who came before us, and toiled and struggled to get us all to this point… so many forget so soon…

Fast forward to the present day, in which the world finds itself gripped in the virus from Wuhan, and racial tensions in America are at noxious levels not seen for many decades. While there is plenty to be frustrated at, from the lock downs, the incompetence or miscalculations of many government officials (not to mention the health experts), and revolting images of incidents displaying police brutality, the widespread looting, violence and calls for defunding police, realism and leaders practicing realism should be our safe harbor.

While America was Founded on idealistic principles, realism didn’t falter and find itself on the proverbial scrapheap. In fact, realism, an ability to identify an imperfect people and imperfect world in an ever-changing sea of circumstance, was also critical to cementing the gains of the Revolution. The Articles of Confederation, which proceeded the current federal government we have now, created too much discord, too much uncertainty, too much unease. Instead of a velvet-gloved iron-hand of Westminster and the King of England maintaining peace and order, the colonies began to slip into quasi-anarchy and there is almost no doubt the men who had won the war were worried that tyranny would be replaced by that other governing evil which history has constantly warned those who cared to listen, since the time of the ancient Greeks: the mob.

The realism secured in the Constitution set forth boundaries that both protect and encourage the rights of citizens who wish to participate in civil, economic, political and cultural life. Instead of shunning those who are unpopular, it created a countrywide forum for a man to speak his piece, regardless of fame and fortune. It allowed for the airing of grievances without the need for mob violence, or the need to tear down the system erected in the hallowed Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. The mob is therefore rendered unnecessary, and yet it remains.

Unfortunately, the mob of today either doesn’t care/know enough about these parameters, let alone the long path of history that led to this mighty inheritance few on this earth ever have bestowed on them, or they curse this beautiful system because of its past inequities, including slavery, no suffrage for women, socio-economic disparities, the Indians of the frontier, and so on and so forth. As an aside, it might be also wondered if the protesters and agitators of today despise the wigs the Founders wore, especially the white ones, as their color is both racist and their use likely unhealthy for the environment…

These inequities cannot be explained away, nor should they be. In fact, they are part of the American story. However, the constant improvement is conveniently overlooked (not unlike a socialist overlooking an A-list Hollywood actor making far more than almost any company CEO in America), and the ability to place oneself back in time while reading history in proper context going forward, is practically non-existent. Preaching from on-high is possibly all well and good in the present moment, but not understanding context and other factors, including the aforementioned propensity for that pesky human nature element, is a mortal sin.

Using slavery as an example, America didn’t create this institution out of whole cloth, nor did America create a new version of slavery based on race. Slavery is a part of being human, and it has been a dastardly practice which has afflicted all races, and still afflicts the globe to this day. Yes, America should hold itself to a higher standard, because of our Founding documents and our national heritage of self-improvement, but nevertheless, all should tread carefully before judging too harshly. For America is also made up of imperfect people, lest we forget.

Ironically today, imperfect people still exist to this very day. All of this despite the effort to build the new ‘Soviet man’ or the attempt by Maoist China to make a clean break with the past of ancient China, yet mankind and many of the stories remain, no matter how brutal or repressive the ‘progress’ element of society forces. As the statues keep coming down across the country, regardless of Confederate, Union, abolitionist, American backgrounds, they are all now under siege, because they represent an American past, an imperfect past. These men were not perfect, the history isn’t perfect, but the lesson should be remembered that these men as makers of history, speak to us from beyond death. The lessons of their imperfection in an imperfect world should be teaching moments, American moments in time, instead of destructive moments.

Destruction and mob justice are what the country is seemingly choosing now however, reason and thoughtfulness be damned. Learned lessons aren’t apparently worth the time. These men must be forgotten to achieve utopia, end Americana. The greatest of ironies though, is that heroes of yesterday can become the villains of today. The mob, not exactly the exemplars of thought and intellect, has not thought this through, refusing to check their destructive, and eventually self-destructive behavior and precedence-setting. Their heroes could disappear almost instantly in another flurry of violence and mayhem.

As a parting thought, not only could your hero become unrighteous in the blink of an eye, but you yourself could be pilloried by the mob now or in the future, because you weren’t ‘woke’ enough by their standards of now, or the future. You can never out ‘woke’ the mob at some point, particularly if you aren’t tethered to anything but the mob’s delusions…

In the midst of this current chaos enveloping us, and the recent dramatic slide towards radicalism, Leftism and just a basic lack of historical knowledge, it was high time to speak up. Whether or not you like President Trump, whether or not you want a ‘green economy’, or whatever your claim or stance happens to be, honest debate in this country has fallen to the wayside, and most of this is being fomented by one side. From Twitter shadow-banning people, to the New York Times not allowing certain Senators to express themselves in the Opinion section (while letting the ultimate ‘puppet-master’ Russian President Vladimir Putin write one as Russian forces were assisting the Syrian government in breaking the rebels during the height of the Syrian civil war), it is clear one side of the aisle doesn’t want the debate to be honest and fair. Why is this?

Because they know they would lose. They know most of their ideas are either based on fantasy, are unacceptable to most Americans, or would create tremendous heartache (most celebrities and rich folks have plenty of money for private security, so they have little to fear from police being reduced or withdrawn). While there are crazy loons who believe like Lenin that the worldwide spread of communism is inevitable, or there are green energy zealots who believe wind power is going to save humanity from the scourge of global warming (albeit, in a future world with far less birds, as they are picked off by wind turbines by the bushel), most of these ‘change’ advocates aren’t that stupid or naive. Most of these advocates are concerned with one overarching goal: power.

Power, not money, is the root of all evil. Being able to dictate your own terms is exhilarating for most people. Not only controlling one’s own destiny, but controlling others puts the powerful in the catbird’s seat, in a position similar to a god. Enforcing one’s will as an ideal drives many opponents of the American Revolution, who see individual freedom and effort as either wasteful at best, or purely evil at worst. To them, the collective is superior; the Soviet Union was a great model, but it was run by the wrong people and/or it was a bit too harsh on the proletariat; China of today is a beacon for a promising future, just hopefully with a bit more emphasis human rights to keep the masses quelled (maybe not locking people from the outsides of the doors to their apartments during a health crisis might not go amiss as well?).

People are things that need to be controlled, vessels to create this brave new world, and this is something that must be wholeheartedly stood against. Masquerading around as if the stealing of rights, the erasure of history, the silencing of decent people, all of it is a saintly gesture, then it is preferable to be on the side of the demons. For too long I’ve seen this monstrosity grow, from being a student in the academic industrial complex, to the urban centers, whether it be the affluent, decadent white-dominated zones, to a poor forgotten part of an inner city with an almost total minority population. With these and all of my other life experiences, it is a small wonder of the world why this pen has not been lent to the struggle. Should this blog be too late to sway (inspire?) anyone, or even move the needle in the slightest direction towards Americanism/Westernism, at least this blog dared greatly, not among those timid souls Theodore Roosevelt castigated so long ago, for not entering the arena.

In this preamble, I close with that scene from the HBO show John Adams, when many of the future signers are gathered in a debate to sign a declaration of independence. After Mr. Dickinson of Pennsylvania eloquently argued for continued moderation towards the British Empire, John Adams issued his reply. While the scene is not perfect history, there are two elements from the speech which drive this blog. When speaking of the Declaration of Independence, the future of which both America and mankind stood on edge, Adams passionately says, “All that I have, all that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now ready to stake upon it.” And after he pauses, he concludes, “While I live, let me have a country… a free country!”

Ladies and gentlemen, America is in trouble. Western civilization, and all of its bounties are in peril. History is being cleansed. Still, all of it is worth fighting for, no matter the odds, because without these most beautiful of ideas, manifestations and memories, we would be nothing. If we care about individualism, freedom and liberty, the rule of law, free markets and free minds, it is therefore our duty to go out and defend it, as our ancestors have done so many occasions, even in the olden times, which we have seemingly forgotten.

All I ask for now, is that I have a country… a free country…

Sincerely, your humble servant,

Winston Publius