“Hey National Review: the Revolution is on! Didn’t you get the memo?”
And of all the posts I have read tonight, it is this one that coalesces my concerns in the best fashion.
What Revolution do you seek - one after the French one, or the American one?
To the best of my understanding, the terms “left” and right” as applied to political leanings, are constructs of the French revolution. Having conservatives called “right wing” as they are has really been useful construct for progressives by creating a conflation of issues and terms that we should oppose as both wings are elements of the same revolutionary party or ideology.
It is useful for those who want to say Hitler=Right Wing=Conservative, but until perhaps recently, an entirely untrue analogy, propping up a conservative boogie straw man.
I say until recently because unchecked populism probably qualifies for the contemporary use of term “right wing” quite well, but is hardly “conservatism.”
We have been misled into thinking of the political spectrum ranging from left to right with the extremes meeting in the middle of the backside of the circle. Left off the line entirely is an actual position which can be labeled liberty, and we are thus distracted into fighting tooth and nail over positions that will not accomplish liberty in the end.
Is a national socialist a right winger and an international socialist a left winger? They are both socialists, and ultimately enemical to freedom. (Note bene: I am not specifically declaring any candidate to be one or the other, you can contemplate the apparent choice before us for yourself).
Trump may be end up being the leader for a battle or so that we want and need won, but I am not sure that even winning those battles - if we do - will win the theater. This is where I differ with those who champion action over ideology. Proper ideology without action is worthless, but action without ideology ultimately leads nowhere useful.
I fear that if the Revolution is now, it will be of the French sort, with its attendant chaos and death not far off. Do you think only conservatives have guns, as many do? Of course not. But to be honest, all those left wingers who don’t have (their own) guns probably properly anticipate us killing each other off and leaving them the spoils. We are busy taking shots at one another here already: “the wall first!” “immigrants!” “the second amendment!...the first!... the tenth!...” Every one of these is important, vital even, but still symptomatic of something else altogether.
I think we are past the point of no return, barring another Great Awakening, and perhaps even with one, on the road to a great cataclysm. The question I see before us in this election is how it will go down, and will we be considered just in our attempts to right it.
John Quincy Adams differentiated between the American and French Revolutions not as right and left, but “Right and Wrong”
This is not a call to “trust us just one more time.” I have not trusted them since shortly after the Contract with America. It is a call to think beyond sentiment and uncalculating reaction. You might even say it is a call for a revolution, as I am confident that even if she who will not be named became president, or a runaway convention of the states, or the Supreme Court declared the Second Amendment dead that We the People would at last be forced to say NO! [aside: I took an oath once...]
But I want the right Revolution.
American revolution and French revolution don’t even come close to describing it. Those revolutions were limited to individual nations.
It’s a whole ‘nother ballgame now.
And you touched on it with your national vs international socialist distinctions.
Although Trump is rightly described as an American Exceptionalist, he is actually leading up the fight in the new paradigm of nationalist versus globalist.
As a libertarian, I know exactly what you're saying regarding the phony left-right spectrum.
The real spectrum is authority vs. Liberty. Only legitimate authority is acceptable.
Arbitrary law is the very definition of Tyranny.
We see this in the Prohibitionist mind, as well as with political correctness, laws which destroy the Peoples' freedom of choice, freedom of association, destruction of privacy, right to keep and bear arms, etc.
That's why I utterly reject traditional right-left politics, because I'm not interested in choosing between the alternative versions of Tyranny which many on both (phony) "sides" of the political spectrum would like to impose.
I demand true Liberty, with all of its challenges, opportunities, perils, and benefits. Anything less is just another flavor of Tyranny.
My understanding of the French Revolution is that it started out well enough, but it degenerated into a Terror once populist "democratic" hysteria took hold.
Inasmuch as the Donald Trump Revolution is based in Conservatism, founded in principles of Liberty and Security, and inasmuch as the People who are driving it are true Patriots, I don't think the French mistake is a serious risk for America at this juncture.
If Bernie Sanders was leading this charge, or Elizabeth Warren, or even Hillary, I'd be a lot more concerned.
In America, we're the ones who had the right kind of Revolution, and we're wise enough to have the right kind again, should the need arise. And the need seems to have arisen. It might even turn out to be a bloodless Revolution. Who'd a thunk it?
The probability is that this phenomenon we're seeing likely won't end up being much a Revolution at all.
But we shall see. I'm kind of hoping for one...