A Most Remarkable Year

In the last 12 months, U.S.-backed combat operations drove ISIS from its last bits of territory. America withdrew from the Paris agreement on climate change, UNESCO, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The House and Senate have come within sight of overhauling the tax code and dismantling Obamacare. Most recently, Donald Trump -- in a spectacular departure from his predecessor's Middle Eastern diplomacy -- has moved the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

It is as if a hurricane has swept through Washington. Each fallen pillar represents a very deliberate reversal of the status quo ante policies of Barack Obama. The entire edifice the former president erected in his eight years in office is in the process of being systematically demolished. Unsurprisingly, Crain's Chicago Business reporter Greg Hinz reported a very unhappy former president warning that Trump was nothing less than a new McCarthy, Nixon, or Hitler while speaking at the Economic Club of Chicago:

Obama said the United States had survived tough times before and could do so again, mentioning the age of McCarthyism and the attempted impeachment of former President Richard Nixon as examples. ...

"things could fall apart quickly." Hinz writes Obama then brought up the specter of Adolf Hitler, who came to power in Democratic Germany amid the financial crisis of the 1930s. "Sixty million people died … " he reports Obama said. "So, you've got to pay attention. And vote." ...

What Obama understandably neglected to mention was that a substantial percentage of American voters elected Trump precisely to undertake that teardown, an endeavor referred to as draining the swamp, aimed at nothing less than shrinking the size of government and breaking the perceived power of the elite. The commitment to that goal is reflected in the Deplorables' willingness to ignore the media:

...survey of federal government employees has the liberals over the Deplorables by almost 19 to 1. Over 99% of Department of Education employees backed Hillary. Trump’s best showing was in the Department of Defense — and even there Hillary had 84% of contributions. Add to this the liberal dominance in the media (93%) and academe (92%) and in Big Silicon, and it should be a case of progressive Goliath walking over conservative David.
Yet for a variety of reasons, the contest is much closer than the liberals could have imagined. Even the term “Resistance” implicitly accepts the status of equality if not actual inferiority. One possible explanation for the surprising competitiveness is the existence of some weakness which prevents liberals from generating their nominal power potential. In fact, the inability of the Resistance to generate net thrust is indirect confirmation that the toxic lying, wasteful spending, institutional incompetence, and ideological madness of which they have been accused are at least partially true.

Excellent analysis.

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