Initial Reactions - The First Shots of War

This was different than the usual rhetorical tossed salad of American speeches.

So it is done…47 is in place, and the people were assured of what is coming. My first impression of this is that President Trump demonstrated once again why he is loved and adored by so many. To stand in that place, with the resolution on your face he showed, and tell the criminals sitting behind him that all their work is about to be undone takes steel in a certain lower region that most men don’t have. There is a lot to love about this speech - and some to hold a little reservation about but here are a few of my favorites:

The Golden Age of America begins right now. From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. During every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put America first. Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end. And our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud, prosperous and free.

What’s not to love in that? The scales of justice being rebalanced is my favorite line. Americans feel beat up and abused. We feel it in everything we do. Small business is buried in paperwork and punitive taxes. Mothers and Fathers are told they can’t raise their children the way they see best. The dollars in their pockets are ruined, and the elite in this town laugh all the way to the stock exchange. While we struggle to put groceries on the table, they are busy gilding the Lilly. I am fairly certain that they are terrified of having the rabble run the show. They know what they have done to us at their very own hand and by the zeros in their bank accounts. I will take the rebalance of justice. As Jefferson said, “All Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.”

This was Donald Trump’s best impression of Jefferson. He won’t ever soar like TJ, but DJT got as close as ever to touching on what drove men in Jefferson’s era to undo the tyranny that destroys the soul.

“As we gather today, our government confronts a crisis of trust. For many years, a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens while the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair. We now have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home while at the same time stumbling into a continuing catalog of catastrophic events abroad. It fails to protect our magnificent, law-abiding American citizens but provides sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals, many from prisons and mental institutions, that have illegally entered our country from all over the world.

We have a government that has given unlimited funding to the defense of foreign borders, but refuses to defend American borders or more importantly, its own people.”

Watching him deliver this section of the speech was beautiful. For those of us in the Kennedy world, this was what we heard RFK Jr. talk about often. If there is an inability to have good government, it shouldn’t be awarded with more money or power. I love how bold this section was. It realigns the reality that the people are the ones that the government abuses in order to survive. We have been extracted from…not just in wealth and resources but in fear and overreach.

My recent election has a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal, and all of these many betrayals that have taken place, and to give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy, and indeed, their freedom.

From this moment on, America’s decline is over. Our liberties and our nation’s glorious destiny will no longer be denied, and we will immediately restore the integrity, competency, and loyalty of America’s government.

What more is there to say? Our liberties and our destiny will no longer be denied. We are a free people who are given by our creator the right to liberty, life, and eudaimonia. That is the primary role of a government. “That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.”

After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America. Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents.

Our rights are enumerated in the Bill of Rights, but we obviously have seen that a rationalist document has no hold on irrational government. I don’t like executive orders, but the tide must be held back somewhere. This is a good start. It will take resilience to keep pushing to move these barnacles out of power, but the fight is worth it - President Trump obviously thinks so, too.

Like in 2017, we will again build the strongest military the world has ever seen. We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.

My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier, that’s what I want to be, a peacemaker and a unifier.

And this section too about war:

In recent years, our nation has suffered greatly but we are going to bring it back and make it great again, greater than ever before. We will be a nation like no other, full of compassion, courage and exceptionalism. Our power will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that has been angry, violent and totally unpredictable.

This is straight from the Kennedy world. I love it and think it’s imperative that this is the highest goal in the next four years. Stay away from war and stop getting into wars that have no end available or those that are wanted by the military-industrial complex.

Some things didn’t land with me - the bit about the Panama Canal, the Gulf of America, and Mount McKinley - those feel empire-ish to me. But for all the Trumpers out there, they know some of this is the Art of The Deal stuff. Push hard and then back off and concede only enough to get what you really want. There is a strange arrogance in this town. You don’t really know it until you are here. Business in D.C. is mostly theater. Those in the deep seats of power allow this little charade to go on typically so that they can get back to work Tuesday, ruining the America that the founders intended. They know that most of us will go back to work and leave them alone after we have our little celebration. This is different. President Trump was resolute. There were no platitudes in this speech to the deep state as there typically is in an inaugural address. It is clear that President Trump has as much disdain for them now as they do for him.

The war just started.

I’ll be bringing my sword to battle.