End The Empire

The coalition that Donald Trump built isn't about tweaking electoral politics. This election was about a revolution.

Nor let Ambition in thy Bosom rise,

Nor Conquest, purple-rob'd, thy sight allure,

Their trappings fascinate unwary eyes,

Though baneful as the robe Alcides wore;

To thirst of empire Rome a victim fell,

For thirst of Empire is a thirst of wealth;

Soon follows Luxury with baleful spell,

The deadliest foe to Liberty, and health:

Far be such fatal Joys remov'd from thee,

Columbia! be thy sole Ambition to be free.

St. George Tucker

Part XXVI of Liberty, a Poem; on the Independence of America (1788)

The American Empire sits at a moment of determination. We are certainly past the election and hullabaloo of a presidential campaign, but we are far from finished in our need to hold vigilant guard over liberty. Our system is sick. We have been lulled to sleep by affluence and magnificent power. Our government has been set on course for empire since the early 20th century, and no one has wrestled it back from her destined fate. Depending upon one’s political persuasion, there have been figures and politicians who have had the rhetoric of unwinding the trajectory. Still, once they find themselves in the Executive’s Home on Pennsylvania Avenue, their soaring ideals are squashed by the expert class and the presidency becomes a prison of following orders while pretending to the rest of the world that you are the most powerful human on the planet.

There are too many coincidental shows of power used against anyone with rebellious enough ideas about unwinding the empire to believe that we “just haven’t quite voted hard enough yet” to make a difference. Our government runs under the gravity of its own weight. The deep entrenchment of lifelong bureaucrats in the most corrupt city in America is not because we took our eye off the ball for a few election cycles. America suffers from a cancer that is in every cell of her existence. The small local governments cannot make empowered decisions about anything of meaning without first begging for permission from that swampy district.

All governments require two things: Restraint and integrity. Without those, the leaders and rulers of the world will thirst for empire and thirst of wealth. Without self-control and an honest vehicle to expose the inevitable lack of integrity that comes with hard decisions and piles of offered money, the dark end of that republic is what we have in our hands today. Nothing is immune. Not even the smallest of players in the system have immunity from the pervading corruption. Anyone near the empire of the American government has been infected by the “just dewin mer job” virus. They are, at the very least, threatened by the lack of employment and, at the worst, enjoy the power that comes with such authority. The nobility of being a whistleblower is unobtainable by all but the very few who suffer consequences like Julian Assange or Edward Snowden. The state wants anyone who chooses a path that exposes the sinister actions of this deep corruption to pay the ultimate price. They are made an example of so that no one ventures into the same space.

Perhaps that is why this round of the election cycle felt so different to so many of us. When Robert Kennedy Jr. suspended his campaign for reasons that appeared to be beyond his own desire for the presidency and were oriented towards helping the children of our nation, it seemed more consequential than the typical flywheel-style election. He chose to set something down for the greater good of the nation and it gave most of us permission to participate in what is feeling like a revolution.

Of course, as others joined in with him and supported Trump, the momentum demonstrated itself to be larger than the apparatus could control. This altruism by many in the coalition, paired with the worst candidate of my lifetime, led to a victory that was as large as any modern electoral victory might be in our divided land. Right on cue, the typical faces made their veiled threats about what they fear the most: a true revolution to the machine.

From Chuck Schumer: "To my Republican colleagues, I offer a word of caution in good faith, take care not to misread the will of the people, and do not abandon the need for bipartisanship. After winning an election, the temptation may be to go to the extreme. We’ve seen that happen over the decades, and it has consistently backfired on the party in power. So, instead of going to the extremes, I remind my colleagues that this body is most effective when it’s bipartisan. If we want the next four years in the Senate to be as productive as the last four, the only way that will happen is through bipartisan cooperation.”

And from Adam Schiff: Voters elected Donald Trump to bring down costs. Not take a wrecking ball to our national security, democracy or public health. We should be working to help people who are struggling to make ends meet. Not whatever this is.

Still one more from Mitch “The Turtle” McConnell: “It’s been quite evident to me that a credible check on majority rule was worth preserving even when it didn’t serve my party’s immediate political interests. Because wild swings in policy with every transfer of power don’t serve the nation’s interest. For consequential legislation to endure, it should have to earn the support of a broad coalition.”

The message is clear - you can have your little election win, but we’re the ones in charge.

But here are the things the people are talking about:

The elimination of the IRS and a flat tax

The shuttering of the Department of Education

Releasing the JFK files

A Department of Government Efficiency

Defunding Gain of Function Research

Safety Testing for Vaccines

Eliminating Liability Immunity for Vaccine Manufacturers

Stopping Congressional Stock Trading

Pushing for Regenerative Agricultural Practices

Creating a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve

Auditing the Federal Reserve or Eliminating it.

Unwinding Forever Wars

Solidifying Free Speech as a paramount right in a free society.

None of those things would measure up to what Washington wants. Their vision of over-hyped fights about inconsequential things is nowhere to be found in that list. Those are transformative ideas that aren’t looking for a “credible check on the Majority,” as Mr. McConnell would say. What Washington fails to understand about what the people just voted for is that we actually do want a revolution. We are tired of living life, subjected to the wickets of the leadership class that keep us penalized, tired, and sick. I don’t need another lecture from Chuck Schumer about the lessons of the majority or temperance about the system. The empire has failed us - plain and simple and the people want something new.

President Trump won this election despite his media-portrayed personality because he found people like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, who said that the people need this coming revolution. President Trump built a coalition of people - not the kind that the Washingtonians say he needs, the ones full of them - but one where the people are airing their grievances and the leadership is listening. From here, the fight is real. The slander will be thick, and the long knives will be out for all of these people we pronounced loudly on November 5th that we want to lead the charge. Thankfully, what Washington also fails to understand about this group that President Trump has selected is that they have already passed the test of slander. No one in this group cares what the elite says about them because they’ve already eaten dogs, had affairs, compromised American security, and so on. The people of this country don’t care. The Government’s willing propagandists in the media have lost their influence.

So when they march Scott Gotleib out, a man who obtained his wealth because of his connections to Pfizer, to say, "I think if RFK follows through on his intentions ... it will cost lives in this country ... There's a lot of things they can do day one very easily, administratively and I don't think there's a thing Congress can do." No one cares what he says. No one is listening to the slander any longer.

We want the revolution. We want the wrecking ball.

The American landscape has been wrecked by the ambitions of people who wanted an empire. The good people of this nation know the reality of St. George Tucker’s warning:

For thirst of Empire is a thirst of wealth;

Soon follows Luxury with baleful spell,

The deadliest foe to Liberty, and health:

Far be such fatal Joys remov'd from thee,

Columbia! be thy sole Ambition to be free.

The system we have was designed for corrective, peaceful revolutions. We breached the first wall - now the hard work begins.