Trump’s first week. A flurry of actions, many of which I applaud. Or, to put it more appropriately in the language of many of my friends: as long as the dictator – through executive orders – is doing stuff I like, everything is cool.
I won’t list everything Trump has done here – others have written very good summaries, much better than I could do. And, of course, you all know what I consider the not good stuff. Like I said regarding Trumps actions: many of which, not all of which, I applaud.
I have written before, a month before Trump’s election eight years ago:
For those who fear that some form of extreme fascism is coming to the United States, they need not fear Trump; the fear is in who (or what) comes next – win or lose for Trump.
So, Trump won in 2016. But he lost (yeah, I know) in 2020. What if 2024 is the “who (or what) comes next” part”? He is acting like he is just that – very efficiently and quickly cranking out dozens of executive orders, halting certain expenditures, etc. Again, much of which I applaud.
What’s not to like?
Angelo Codevilla wrote, in anticipation of the 2016 election:
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.
What if the 2024 Trump is something closer to, but not yet, its “ultimate manifestation”? He is acting like it, and many on the right are cheering: we are winning!
The next year or so will be critical: does Trump change the fundamental direction on at least a couple of the dozen issues that threaten us. For example, the budget deficit, or the pharma-industrial complex, or whatever. I say “great.”
But someone will come after Trump. On the one hand, the revolution won’t be complete. Will JD Vance, or someone along those lines, be as effective as Trump.
Or, alternatively, what happens when the left gets a Trump of their own – one who has a flurry of executive orders, one who has all his or her ducks lined up to hit the ground running on day one.
Conclusion
Are we winning? Or, to put it another way: have some things, at least, moved in a better direction? I say, yes. But it all comes down to the “how.”
We will get either an even more dictatorial president soon enough – whether on the right or on the left. I will not consider that we are winning, either way.
But, given that I have no say in the matter, I know which evil is lessor.
Epilogue
If you were Roman Catholic in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, you welcomed Franco. No, you weren’t thrilled, but he was the lessor of two evils…and you had a chance to live, unlike if the communists and anarchists won.
