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Washington Is Running on Empty
American Conservative ^ | 9/6/2022 | Douglas Macgregor

Posted on 09/06/2022 5:36:15 AM PDT by whyilovetexas111

When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, many Americans believed he would turn off the life support system that sustains the D.C. swamp of corrupt politicians, contractors, bureaucrats, and litigators. Instead, Washington’s wealthy ruling political class triumphed with help from the Federal bureaucracy. Trump, the disruptor, the carnival barker, was subverted, obstructed, and forced from office.

A time-honored article of faith for both parties in Washington, D.C., is that American citizens are too shortsighted and uninformed to make good policy choices. Washington’s ruling political class must act for them. But the widespread expectation in both political parties of a return to business as usual in Washington, D.C., turned out to be wrong.

(Excerpt) Read more at theamericanconservative.com ...


TOPICS: Government; History
KEYWORDS: 2016election; 2018election; 2020election; 2022midterm; 2024election; 2026election; bloggertrash; douglasmacgregor; election2016; election2018; election2020; election2024; election2026; joebiden; nevertrump; nevertrumper; nevertrumpers; nevertrumpertrolls; trump; uspolitics
Love this author. He has you know whats to say what is right.
1 posted on 09/06/2022 5:36:15 AM PDT by whyilovetexas111
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To: whyilovetexas111

[Excerpt] The Biden administration that came to power in January 2021 is more than the antithesis of the “America First” that voters supported in 2016. The Biden administration is a program of de-nationalization: an apparatus of political hygiene designed to cleanse first the government, schools, police, and the armed forces, and then, all of American society of its historic malady—white supremacy.

Since white Americans have been the dominant racial group in the history of the United States, the removal or vandalization of historic monuments and markers that memorialize America’s history and ascent to greatness in the months before the 2020 presidential election was viewed by many on the so-called conservative right as a panacea for an aggrieved black minority’s anger. Others thought the determination to redefine America’s past was simply a temporary groundswell of Marxist-inspired, anti-Western, anti-white, and anti-Christian forces, old hatreds that sank deep roots in the Democratic Party of the 1960s.

These observers are wrong. The redefinition of U.S. national identity, culture, and history is national policy, not just the reaction of parts of the American electorate. In service to this policy, the Biden Administration holds unchallenged command of the Department of Justice, the U.S. Armed Forces, and the surveillance state, in combination with enormous support from the mainstream media, Hollywood, and funding from U.S. and foreign billionaire oligarchs facilitates the demonization of any person or organization that objects to this de-nationalization.

This explains why “cancel culture” is widely encouraged and sanctioned.
[rest at link]


2 posted on 09/06/2022 5:52:50 AM PDT by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: whyilovetexas111

tic...tic...tic...


3 posted on 09/06/2022 5:57:46 AM PDT by dforest
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To: whyilovetexas111

He expresses the causes, but unless I missed it, he offers no solutions. He does provide criticisms though, but that is the easy part. I’m left wondering; Where is the beef?


4 posted on 09/06/2022 6:01:35 AM PDT by Robert DeLong
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To: Robert DeLong

Solutions do seem hard to come by. Everything I can think of is pretty darn extreme.


5 posted on 09/06/2022 6:10:09 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (We are already in a revolutionary period, and the Rule of Law means nothing. )
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To: whyilovetexas111

Empty suits with resumes.


6 posted on 09/06/2022 6:22:46 AM PDT by Mashood
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To: ClearCase_guy
Everything I can think of is pretty darn extreme.

Exactly. The only peaceful one is a mass return to belief in the Lord.

7 posted on 09/06/2022 6:41:01 AM PDT by Robert DeLong
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To: Robert DeLong

He implies pretty clearly that the solution is voting for Populists/Nationalists who will take everything Biden has done and slam it into 180 degree reverse.


8 posted on 09/06/2022 6:50:03 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: whyilovetexas111

Koyaanisqatsi, man...

It’s “life out of balance.”

It’s “distorted life that begs for renewal and reform.”

or — my favorite — “Crazy Life.”


9 posted on 09/06/2022 6:55:03 AM PDT by William of Barsoom (In Omnia, Paratus)
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To: FLT-bird

Really? Where does he do that? He called Trump names, such as carnival-barker, but he doesn’t name this populist we must vote for. So, to my understanding he doesn’t support populist leaders, and doesn’t appear to support Trump. So, is he suggesting we vote for DeSantis? If so, why didn’t he come right out and say so? What do we do if DeSantis lives up to his promise that he will not run if Trump runs?


10 posted on 09/06/2022 6:58:43 AM PDT by Robert DeLong
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To: whyilovetexas111

The Wilsonian Administrative State is deeply entrenched in DC. These nameless, faceless, petty bureaucrats prevent any chnage for the good to take root.

Death by 1000 bureaucratic cuts.

Like Lilliputians tying down Gulliver with a zillion little strings.

Entire branches need to be eliminated completely. It’s the only solution, or they will just reform and come nack.


11 posted on 09/06/2022 8:16:55 AM PDT by Basket_of_Deplorables (Putin is behaving rationally.The war is on Biden and Obama. )
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To: whyilovetexas111

“...the U.S. political system “presents Americans with candidates who are accomplished people, but they are really people who’ve accomplished nothing.”

So true.

McCarthy? McConnell? THEY are going to turn around this sinking ship?

McConnel, especially, needs to go!!!

Rick Scott for Senate Majority Leader! He ain’t perfec, but the closest (actually electable) we have to implement actual reform.


12 posted on 09/06/2022 8:26:16 AM PDT by Basket_of_Deplorables (Putin is behaving rationally.The war is on Biden and Obama. )
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To: Robert DeLong

The American Conservative does not need to be excerpted according to the Free Republic list. I have posted their complete articles here myself. I will post this full article here.

As an aside let me say that MacGregor is a big fan of Trump. He says Trump is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. MacGregor worked closely with him and Trump tried to appoint him to higher positions but the left called him a racist which made him a “no go” for Republicans.


Washington Is Running on Empty
The Biden administration is a program of de-nationalization: an apparatus of political hygiene designed to cleanse American society.

Douglas Macgregor
Sep 6, 2022 12:01 AM

When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, many Americans believed he would turn off the life support system that sustains the D.C. swamp of corrupt politicians, contractors, bureaucrats, and litigators. Instead, Washington’s wealthy ruling political class triumphed with help from the Federal bureaucracy. Trump, the disruptor, the carnival barker, was subverted, obstructed, and forced from office.

A time-honored article of faith for both parties in Washington, D.C., is that American citizens are too shortsighted and uninformed to make good policy choices. Washington’s ruling political class must act for them. But the widespread expectation in both political parties of a return to business as usual in Washington, D.C., turned out to be wrong.

The Biden administration that came to power in January 2021 is more than the antithesis of the “America First” that voters supported in 2016. The Biden administration is a program of de-nationalization: an apparatus of political hygiene designed to cleanse first the government, schools, police, and the armed forces, and then, all of American society of its historic malady—white supremacy.

Since white Americans have been the dominant racial group in the history of the United States, the removal or vandalization of historic monuments and markers that memorialize America’s history and ascent to greatness in the months before the 2020 presidential election was viewed by many on the so-called conservative right as a panacea for an aggrieved black minority’s anger. Others thought the determination to redefine America’s past was simply a temporary groundswell of Marxist-inspired, anti-Western, anti-white, and anti-Christian forces, old hatreds that sank deep roots in the Democratic Party of the 1960s.

These observers are wrong. The redefinition of U.S. national identity, culture, and history is national policy, not just the reaction of parts of the American electorate. In service to this policy, the Biden Administration holds unchallenged command of the Department of Justice, the U.S. Armed Forces, and the surveillance state, in combination with enormous support from the mainstream media, Hollywood, and funding from U.S. and foreign billionaire oligarchs facilitates the demonization of any person or organization that objects to this de-nationalization.

This explains why “cancel culture” is widely encouraged and sanctioned. If Americans fail to conform to expectation—to what the Biden Administration insists Americans are supposed to think, say, or do in schools, colleges, the military, and in the workplace—then, these Americans are ostracized, censored, or excluded from print, broadcast, and social media. Their means of income are diminished. And, the more critical the issue is to the Biden Administration, the more powerful the cancel culture. The outcome is a growing system of intolerance that rewards unquestioning compliance with the left’s policies and actively punishes dissent.

Resistance to the Biden administration has been slow to develop. In D.C., resistance is hardly noticeable. With the threat of Trumpism gone, everyone in Washington’s proverbial swamp stepped forward to sign the death certificate of the populist nationalist American right. Meanwhile, Washington’s depraved policy of arming a corrupt Ukrainian government for a fight with Russia that its people and its army cannot win is destroying the lives of millions, but keeps the swamp creatures flush with cash.

All is not lost. It has taken almost two years for “deplorable” Americans to awaken from their heretofore comatose state. The American voter’s weariness and frustration with elections that fail to change anything for the better, with broken political promises, with U.S. military incompetence that is never repaired, are combining to have an effect.

The damages resulting from progressive policies include the release of violent criminals into American society, the Mexican drug cartels’ managed migration of millions of illegal aliens, many with criminal records, the murder of tens of thousands of young Americans with fentanyl, and the American economy’s steep slide into a deepening recession. These disasters are helping to awaken Americans on both sides of the political spectrum from their slumber. But an effective structure for political action with skilled, dynamic leadership at the top is missing on the “deplorable right.”

In the words of Gore Vidal, the author of Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, the U.S. political system “presents Americans with candidates who are accomplished people, but they are really people who’ve accomplished nothing.” They are empty suits with resumes. In other words, Washington is running on empty, and more and more Americans know it.

Advocacy for law enforcement, gun rights, freedom of speech, national sovereignty, securing borders, expelling illegal and criminal aliens, and freedom of religion are inextricably intertwined with the hard questions of American national identity and national purpose. These questions touch the hearts of Americans driven to despair by the Biden administration’s hatred for them, for their historic role in American society and inside the U.S. Armed Forces. If the Republic is to survive, the right must answer these questions, not avoid them.

These points notwithstanding, the Biden administration is doing little to prevent American politics from degenerating into open conflict. President Biden now dismisses the political opposition on the right as “semi-fascist.”

Lenin warned, “Every society is three meals away from chaos.” The Biden administration’s policies are sending Americans down a path that is perilously close to the ongoing Sri Lankan experience. In America’s hyperpolarized society, an economic downturn combined with de-nationalization is a formula for divorcing Americans from their traditions, history, and values—and from each other.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Douglas Macgregor
Douglas Macgregor, Col. (ret.) is a senior fellow with The American Conservative, the former advisor to the Secretary of Defense in the Trump administration, a decorated combat veteran, and the author of five books.


13 posted on 09/06/2022 9:46:51 AM PDT by Cathi
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To: Robert DeLong

You realize he was one of Trump’s senior foreign policy advisors right? He’s a supporter.


14 posted on 09/06/2022 12:16:34 PM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: FLT-bird

With supporters who refer to you as a carnival-barker, who needs enemies. And his stint was 3 months, as Senior Advisor to the Acting Secretary of Defense, after the Senate blocked his appointment as Ambassador to Germany.


15 posted on 09/06/2022 12:38:47 PM PDT by Robert DeLong
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To: Robert DeLong

Relax. He’s an ally. By the way, he is someone who Trump still talks to. He will probably be an important advisor in the 2nd Trump administration.


16 posted on 09/06/2022 4:20:25 PM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: FLT-bird
He should never have called trump a carnival-barker. Trump may be a barker, but not one at a carnival. That's my objection.

He may be just fine, but I still think the term he used is fodder for the enemy to use. Not something you use to describe the president.

Does my explanation make sense to you? 🙂

17 posted on 09/06/2022 4:53:35 PM PDT by Robert DeLong
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