by Jeffrey Lord
Cit’s all “Trump Revolution.”
The news that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — scion of the most notable, not to mention one of the oldest, Democratic political families in America — has endorsed former Republican President Donald Trump says a lot about the current state of American politics.
How American viewerPaul Kengor and entrepreneur Tim Mellon, former CEO and owner of Pan Am Systems, write in separate American viewer columnsRFK Jr. poses a solemn threat to status quo Democrats on his own. Combine that with the political force of nature that is Donald Trump, and the results present a solemn challenge to status quo American politics.
This does not include the news that emerged shortly thereafter that Tulsi Gabbard, the former Hawaii congresswoman and Democratic presidential candidate, had also joined Trump in personally endorsing him.
Regarding RFK Jr., as Dr. Kengor clearly stated:
Liberals have become enemies of Bobby Kennedy Jr. That was their job. They and their Biden administration have not treated Bobby Jr. like an ancient Democratic ally. They have treated him like a political enemy. They have pushed him away.
Following the words of another former Democrat, Ronald Reagan, RFK Jr. did not leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left him.
“I left the party,” RFK Jr. said last weekend. “And the saddest thing, for me, for the Democratic Party, in the name of saving democracy, the Democratic Party decided to dismantle it, not having confidence in their candidate, that their candidate could win in a fair election at the polls.
Exactly.
As someone ancient enough to remember my political hero, RFK Sr. — I was, um, 17 then (and I still have the Kennedy bumper sticker and pin I got when I covered RFK’s campaign in 1968) — the fact is that RFK Sr. was part of a revolution in the Democratic Party.
Before him as a candidate in the 1968 primary was leftist Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy, who with his horde of antiwar students had nearly defeated LBJ in New Hampshire. Within days, Bobby Sr. jumped into the race. And soon after, LBJ—like Biden today, the incumbent president—who was deeply unpopular with grassroots Democrats—dropped out of the race for reelection. The Democratic Party machine had been turned upside down. Neither the party—nor American politics—were the same.
There is no doubt that American politics is in the midst of what could easily be called the “Trump Revolution.” And the first “sign” of the presence of this Trump Revolution is the ferocity of opposition from the political establishment, which Americans have come to call “The Swamp.”
Look no further than this headline and the story that goes with it, but of course, Washington Post:
More than 200 former Bush, McCain, Romney staffers endorse Harris
The open letter warned that a second Donald Trump presidency would “harm ordinary people and weaken our sacred institutions.”
This Fasting the story begins like this:
More than 200 Republicans who worked for President George W. Bush, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) or the behind schedule Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have endorsed the vice presidential candidate Kamala Harriswarning in the letter that a second Trump presidency “will harm ordinary people and weaken our sacred institutions.”
This open letter with the endorsement, which was first published Monday in USA Today, garnered 238 signatures.
A group of former Bush, McCain and Romney staffers issued a similar letter supporting Joe Biden when he ran against Trump in 2020. In his novel, pro-Harris slate, alumni of those three leading Republicans join at least five former staffers of the behind schedule President George H. W. Bush.
Got it? A second Trump term would “weaken our sacred institutions.”
Like…the Department of Education? Which Trump, like Reagan before him, wanted to abolish?
By nominating constitutionalists to the Supreme Court and lower courts? As Reagan did—and as Trump himself did?
By supporting a national security policy based on the principle of “peace through strength”—as Reagan did—what won the Cold War?
Make no mistake. All these establishment Republicans are rallying behind the election of Kamala Harris — who openly campaigned on a pro-socialist, pro-Marxist platform. What they really want is for them to understand that a second Trump presidency that “will hurt real, everyday people” means they themselves will be forced to go out into the market and get jobs that have nothing to do with trading in their role as government insiders — swamp dwellers.
The letter is exceptionally cynical and, most importantly, makes the bold statement that the signatories are willing to abandon conservative principles in favor of socialism because it will facilitate them get or keep jobs related to the Swamp.
Significantly, Americans understand the game. That is why they are so staunchly supporting Trump and his novel allies — Democrats Kennedy and Gabbard.
The second volume wrote about The Age of Reagan: Conservative Counterrevolution: 1980-1989Biographer Steven Hayward writes of Reagan’s landslide victory in 1980:
To the Washington establishment, it was as if the city had been sacked by a horde of barbarians. “The city trembled,” another Fasting news headline… something of gigantic proportions had happened – it must have been happening for a long time – and the capital and political pundits were caught off guard… [A]n “anti-Washington,” “anti-establishment” warning of a political storm was overlooked by Washington and the establishment. Reagan had been predicting since the early 1960s that a “prairie fire” of conservative populism would one day sweep across the country.
Replace “Trump” with “Reagan” and it becomes abundantly clear that we are facing another “prairie fire” of conservative populism, and in today’s world, RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard are taking the initiative and joining the revolution.
How will this end in November? Trump and his revolutionaries seem likely to triumph at this point.
But regardless of the outcome, the conservative populist revolution — the “prairie fire” that fuels the heart of the Trump revolution — will not abate.
Wait for further information.
– – –
Jeffrey Lord, a contributing editor to The American Spectator, is a former assistant to Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp. The author and former CNN commentator writes from Pennsylvania at [email protected]. His novel book Swamp Wars: Donald Trump and New American Populism vs. Old Orderis now available from Bombardier Books.
Photo “Donald Trump” by Gage Skidmore.CC BY-SA 2.0.
