A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics

Excellent Analysis – How the American Republic Came to This Point of Collapse September 28, 2016

I found a really good piece by Angelo M. Codevilla examining the background to the election in 2016 and the dire portents for the future of the American Republic.  Codevilla goes to significant lengths to prove the nightmarish, evil influence the self-anointed elites have had on this country, and how their self-serving beliefs portend only widening hatred of Christians, increasing persecution, and growing national malaise followed by ultimate collapse.

Codevilla quite rightly notes that the rise of Donald Trump is much more an expression of exasperation by a broad swath of the populace with the ruling elite who have all but destroyed this nation than it is an indication of a clearly defined set of policies.  Certainly, there are aspects of Trump’s popularity that have to do with policy – his claims to reduce or eliminate muslim immigration, build a wall to contain illegal immigration from south of the border, and his erstwhile support for some kind of return to an actual rule of law in this country – but most of all, he is supported for being perceived as an outsider, even an enemy, to the ruling class that has insulted and persecuted millions of Americans for decades, and which millions see as driving this nation off a cliff.

But Codevilla notes a danger here, on two fronts: one, even Trump, and many of his most fervent supporters, seem enamored of the same kind of rule by decree, punish your enemies philosophy that has been the primary tool of the leftist elite in this country for decades.  Secondly, Trump may well fail to “Make America Great Again,” leaving tens of millions even more aggrieved, more antagonized, more disenchanted with the political process in this country, and potentially open to revolution, or really, what might be a violent counter-revolution against the slow-moving revolution of the Left we have endured these past 50 years or so.

Thus, the prospects that Trump will return the US to some kind of pre-revolutionary Constitutional footing, the America That Was, seem slight, at best.  Having spoken with a number of ardent Trump supporters, however, many seem cognizant of this “long shot” aspect to Trump’s candidacy, but given the choices in 2016, many were willing to role the dice on a perceived outsider, hoping against hope that he might somehow find a formula to roll back the entrenched attitudes of the leftist elite, or even, even more miraculously, somehow displace that elite with a new elite, much more in line with traditional American values and support for the Constitution.

And there are glimmers of hope for this.  Trump has displayed an uncanny ability to both survive virtually unscathed the usual left-wing attacks that leave other politicians gravely wounded (or at least severely cowed), and to squash the fatal conceits and internal contradictions of cultural marxism.  Cultural marxism/political correctness has been the primary vehicle by which the ruling elite – which Codevilla repeatedly notes, includes both demonrats and Republicans, all sharing the same assumptions and hideous errors – has imposed its will on the American people.  It is one of the aspects of Trump’s rise I find most attractive.  But will Trump simply be a “reactionary” version of the same thing we have been enduring for decades, with rule by decree, executive action, secret handshakes, and all the other contra-Constitutional behaviors that have defined the ruling elite, only turned around and directed at those who have held sway for the best part of 56 years?

Codevilla’s work is long, but very much worth reading from beginning to end.  It’s also quite dense, and not easy to excerpt, so I’ll only provide his conclusion below.

His overall takeaway, however, is that whatever Trump is, and whatever good he might do, it is probably too late to preserve this Republic.  The toxic ideas of the marxist-inspired Left in this country have sunk in too deep, done too much damage, and influenced the thinking of far too many LIVs and other useful idiots to be checked by a single politician, even an exceptional one (which is far from certain, to my mind).  This is precisely my view, and has been for some time.  America has fallen beyond the realm of a political savior.  Politics is downstream of culture, the leftist pseudo-religion has definitively won the culture war (in terms of getting a large majority of people to accept their false precepts and diabolical doctrines), and only a religious renewal on a massive scale can possibly turn this country around.

I see little evidence of that, however.  What I fear will happen is just more of the same, but with limitless boundaries, as Codevilla notes, as this country transmogrifies into some kind of socialist pseudo-dictatorship of the oligarchy, with endless repression of Christians and traditional beliefs, generally.

Codevilla’s conclusion:

Trump’s slogan—“make America great again”—is the broadest, most unspecific, common denominator of non-ruling-class Americans’ diverse dissatisfaction with what has happened to the country. He talks about reasserting America’s identity, at least by controlling the borders; governing in America’s own interest rather than in pursuit of objectives of which the American people have not approved; stopping the export of jobs and removing barriers to business; and banishing political correctness’s insults and injuries. But all that together does not amount to making America great again. Nor does Trump begin to explain what it was that had made this country great to millions who have known only an America much diminished.

In fact, the United States of America was great because of a whole bunch of things that now are gone. Yes, the ruling class led the way in personal corruption, cheating on tests, lowering of professional standards, abandoning churches and synagogues for the Playboy Philosophy and lifestyle, disregarding law, basing economic life on gaming the administrative state, basing politics on conflicting identities, and much more. But much of the rest of the country followed. What would it take to make America great again—or indeed to make any of the changes that Trump’s voters demand? Replacing the current ruling class would be only the beginning.

Because it is difficult to imagine a Trump presidency even thinking about something so monumental as replacing an entire ruling elite, [how could such even be accomplished? Shut down all Ivy League and most other colleges, most public schools, where the indoctrination is so firmly entrenched rocing a change seems essentially impossible?] much less leading his constituency to accomplishing it, electing Trump is unlikely to result in a forceful turn away from the country’s current direction. Continuing pretty much on the current trajectory under the same class will further fuel revolutionary sentiments in the land all by itself. Inevitable disappointment with Trump is sure to add to them.

We have stepped over the threshold of a revolution. It is difficult to imagine how we might step back, and futile to speculate where it will end. Our ruling class’s malfeasance, combined with insult, brought it about. Donald Trump did not cause it and is by no means its ultimate manifestation. Regardless of who wins in 2016, this revolution’s sentiments will grow in volume and intensity, and are sure to empower politicians likely to make Americans nostalgic for Donald Trump’s moderation.

Two last things: first, I don’t take this piece as anti-Trump.  I think it realist.  I have become increasingly anyone-but-Hillary in the past 2-3 months, but I am highly skeptical that Trump will really turn things around in this country.  I am skeptical that any man, especially a politician, could do so.  We’re in the hands of God at this point.

Secondly, I am increasingly doubtful there will be some kind of revolutionary or counter-revolutionary reaction against the entrenched elites.  I mean, given the insults, persecutions, and unjust treatments we’ve already swallowed, what will we not swallow?  The elites are absolutely banking that we’re far too spoiled, comfortable, and afraid of losing what we have to do anything radical.  I see little evidence they are not right.

But should they begin to truly impoverish Americans en masse via things like carbon taxes, banning of fossil fuel production/use, implementation of hard-socialist policies a la Venezuela or Bolivia, then………maybe.  Note, however, that even in Venezuela, strident protest and violent reaction against the country-destroying socialist regime has been really quite limited, and the government is not experiencing an existential crisis just yet.