Ideas Whose Time Has Come. Part I: The Middle Kingdom, Democracy, Globalism, and Islam

“May you live in interesting times.” Thus, an ancient Chinese curse. Yes, a curse – the idea being that life is better without wars and strife and contention, and that the alternative is much less desirable. Of course, the “Middle Kingdom” prided itself – as it continues to do to this day – on being a center of stability and predictability, especially where government is concerned. This is, of course, a long-term goal, and the occasional punctuation of revolutions, the Red Guard, the Great Leap Forward, and “continuous revolution” are the exceptions rather than the rule. One might say that the Chinese are better at consolidation than they are at revolution. Add to this the fact that China has been – perhaps uniquely among large and developed societies – less than enthusiastic about establishing and maintaining overseas empires. That particular virus has only infected them to the extent of supporting North Korea and North Vietnam, which, after all, do border on China; contrast that with the European empires of old, and the American empire of the present day, for which no place on the planet is too remote, or too lacking in value, to be a candidate for imperialism and empire-building. Aside from North Korea, the focus of China at this point seems to be limited to the South China Sea – a non-trivial matter but still no match for our own lust for the Near East, Latin America, and other regions – and, once again, at least on its own border.

Imagine, if you will, a large and wealthy country stable enough, and content enough, to mind its own business. Unheard of! And yet China has been pulling it off for millennia – once again with occasional exceptions. The concept of empire, which, in our time, means an overseas empire, seems almost universal by comparison. The European powers tried it, and succeeded – for quite a long time, but eventually gave up on the idea, through sheer fatigue and through finally getting real about the true economic and social costs. We have not yet reached that stage, and Russia is giving it another shot, although quite modest compared to the Iron Curtain and international communism of the 20^th Century.

Of course it can be argued that the empire urge is no longer characterized mainly by military attack, conquest, and occupation, but is now more along economic lines. And by this criterion, the Chinese have, in fact, established, and are vigorously pursuing, an economic empire, which has crossed our doorstep and is firmly ensconced in our own economy. And the American Empire is, likewise, much more than military, and is also largely economic – and yet, there is a military aspect to it as well. When economic activity doesn't suffice, then we have the military as a kind of Plan B. But what is at least as common is that the military is Plan A, and economic consolidation is Plan B, with diplomacy constantly running to catch up with the status quo. Diplomacy is, if you will, in charge of rationalization of actions already taken and having succeeded up to a point. Diplomacy is, in other words, a tool of the consolidation stage, where the big battles (if not the war) have already been won. And yet there is always a residual military aspect to things, which, I guess, amounts to a reminder of what can happen if diplomacy fails. Why else would we still have troops stationed in all of the defeated nations we fought against in World War II – Germany, Japan, and Italy?

So yes, these can be considered “interesting times”, and no time in American history has been as interesting as the very present, i.e. the Trump administration. Search all you like through books on American history, and you'll fail to find a case where an elected, sitting president was accused of treason. Not acting in the best interests of the Republic (as defined by whoever is trying to make the case), fine – that's nothing new. But actual treason – being on the side of the enemy (real or alleged) – this is something truly new under the sun. And yet, not only has this been the theme of mainstream media coverage for more than two years, it seems to be believed by a goodly portion of the American public. And the fact that it's outrageous – that it's straight out of La-La Land – doesn't seem to deter those who promote the idea.

But the real question is not so much about the facts of the matter, but about why this idea has been widely accepted. Or, to put it another way, why it has been promoted by people who may or may not actually believe it, and then widely accepted by people who really do believe it (the classic model of propaganda, by the way). There are many reasons to consider this as a milestone of sorts, and the most compelling one is that it may well signal the end of democracy as we have come to know it, and the beginning of contention (that word again) among nothing more than warring parties, interest groups, victim groups, people with a “cause”, and people with a vested interest in totalitarianism. Because the strategy and tactics of the “opposition” do not differ, in any significant way, from the strategy and tactics of totalitarian movements of the 20^th Century, to include communism, fascism (the real kind), and Nazism. It has become the dream of Friedrich Nietzsche, who – having despaired of all alternatives – declared that power, and the lust for power, were the only real, and genuine, and desirable, characteristics of the human condition, everything else being illusion, misguided idealism, weakness, and plain foolishness. We are, in a sense, at the portal of a Nietzschean world, where it's all about power and nothing else, and that all of the pretenses and cloaks (e.g. of “democracy” and “freedom”) are only that – food for fools, for the duped and the ignorant, who prefer their illusions to reality.

And this argument is easy to make! We venture overseas in order to spread, or defend, “democracy”, and the result is, more often than not, death and destruction, and nothing even remotely resembling democracy as we have known or understand it. But what does this mean? That democracy is an illusion after all? That it's just a cover for some other kind of tyranny? That it is, to steal a phrase from Karl Marx, the true “opiate of the people” (given that pure communism was too strong a dose – a fatal one, in many cases)? But this would be to oversimplify, since it can be shown that, in fact, pretty much any form of government works, up to a point, for someone, and that no form of government works for everyone at all times and in all places. But why is this? It gets back to – as I've pointed out before – national character – you know, that elusive thing that makes some political systems succeed and others fail depending on where, and how, and when, they are implemented. There are places in the world where any form of democracy is doomed from the start, and it may have something to do with economics in the abstract sense, but is much more dependent on culture – on people's world view, on their concept of government and of authority, on their willingness to negotiate and compromise, but most of all on loyalty. Loyalty not to political ideas imported from elsewhere, but to family, tribe, ethnic group, religion – you know, all those annoying things that the globalists abhor and are trying their best to wipe out.

But globalism is a belief system as well, every bit as much as other materialistic belief systems were and are. Communism was originally meant, in theory, to be applicable to any country, any culture, anywhere on the planet – and it has certainly, over time, made inroads pretty much everywhere, with varying degrees of success. But even communism, as monolithic as it seems (or would like to be), has taken on a multitude of characteristics depending on where it crops up and where it is implemented (or imposed). There is not just one “flavor” of communism – it is far more dependent on those “eternal verities” (family, ethnicity, religion) than its promoters would like to admit. But the same thing is true of democracy. So the “world war of ideas”, if you will, is forever being fought on one level, while the substrate of culture remains (either openly or underground).

The globalists would like to claim that, when it comes to government, one size fits all – and that anyone who objects, or resists, is simply not with the program – is ignorant, is not enlightened, is too stuck in the past, is “clinging” (to use the word of a famous globalist) to old and ancient forms of human society and organization. And this is our misconception as well. If “democracy” worked so well in the United States, there is no reason why it should not work equally well anywhere else on the planet.  (And even if democracy in America had, and continues to have, its flaws, it's still preferable to any of the known alternatives -- you know, things like monarchy and theocracy, etc.)

But this would be to miss something that is seldom pointed out. In a sense, America as a society started out as a kind of tabula rasa – a blank slate – a platform, if you will, upon which any form of governance could be tried, because the populace was, to a considerable extent, deracinated – i.e. deprived (either voluntarily or by accident) of any sort of roots, or connections, to enduring cultures. It has been said (and mostly in a tone of approval) that America was, and is, an “experiment” – that's it's something new under the sun, and a golden opportunity to establish, and maintain, a government that is based on principles and ideals rather than old ways, traditions, habits, and superstitions. We cherish our self-image as a free people, gifted with a new continent upon which to make our mark, and in which anything that occurs to the mind of man is not only possible, but desirable, and (by logical extension) worth fighting for, and (by further logical extension) worth “spreading”, through whatever means necessary, to the relatively benighted regions of the planet which have not been so blessed.

All of which would be highly commendable, except for that pesky thing called human nature. It followed the Pilgrims to Massachusetts Bay, and continues to beset us 400 years (as of next year) later. It's the very imperfectibility of man that dictates that human societies will, likewise, be imperfectible – and that any attempt to do otherwise will inevitably result in tyranny. And this is not to say that “Utopias”, on a limited scale, cannot exist, because they can exist, and have, and continue to exist, but only in a very limited and specialized way. Any ideal can be realized, at least for a time, on a small enough scale. It's when we try to convert an entire nation, or continent, that we run into trouble – and regardless of the nobility of intent, these attempts are doomed to failure, if not totally then at least to a significant degree. Thus, we cannot, without pulling up the plant by its roots, “democratize” foreign cultures, and we are having an increasingly hard time democratizing our own culture (such as it is – “culture” implying something that is uniform and stable, which ours most definitely is not).

It can be argued – counterintuitively – that “democracy” and “diversity” are profoundly incompatible, and we see evidence for this on a daily basis. How can we “spread democracy” if we can't figure out how to make it work here? The answer is, we can't. So what we wind up spreading is not a political ideal, but an empire of hypocrisy and pretense. We can talk or coerce people in foreign lands into going through the motions – into putting on a show – but the result is something that we would never tolerate here... except even that is no longer the case. If democracy never “took hold” in any meaningful way in most of the world, despite our best efforts, the real tragedy is that if it ever took hold here, it's been sufficiently compromised and corrupted that it, for all intents and purposes, no longer exists. An ideal which had its day in the sun has become an illusion, and yet we cling (that word again!) to the language, and the rituals, and the structures, as if it still functions in any sort of meaningful way. (Perhaps living with illusions is preferable to facing reality. Certainly most people have already chosen which way to go, even if unconsciously.)

And this is the true tragedy of America. We were, and are, an “ideational” nation, but those ideas have become compromised, co-opted, and shopworn over time almost to the point where they may as well never have existed at all, except as faded writing on brittle parchment in dusty libraries. And one reason – the main one, perhaps – is that ideas and culture have very little to do with each other. Ideas are abstractions, whereas culture is real. Culture persists even in the worst of times, whereas ideas can come and go, and can ultimately be blown away like chaff, not that they might never reappear in a new and often distorted and inferior form. This is what we are facing now, in these times – when power, that age-old fact of life in the affairs of men, has become so predominant and so overwhelming that ideas, and ideals, wilt under a scorching sun.

You may have noticed that nowhere in this discussion have I dwelt at any length on the subject of politics, political parties, or Donald Trump and his administration and its opponents. That's because these are all superficial, symptomatic, and epiphemonenal. Our current crop of politicians and “leaders”, as well as their facilitators and opponents in the larger culture, may feel that they're making history, but the fact is that they are history, and a relatively trivial part of it at that. They are like a man riding a raging bull or a large whale, imagining that they are in charge, whereas they are, if anything, victims of historical forces that are totally out of their control. Even the people who really are in charge – whoever they are and wherever they may be – are part of history. It can be said that, for the last century at least, America has been in the driver's seat – but the same can just as readily be said of Russia (at least in the Soviet era). It's all in the point of view. In the global pecking order, it seems that the E.U., despite all of its problems, has an edge over the U.S. But in the meantime, China is on the move and Russia (post-Soviet) is watching and waiting. And then you have the rise of Muslim militancy, and mass migrations from the “third world” into the “first world”. So there are “top-down” factors in play, and “bottom-up” factors in play as well. And make no mistake, the “first world” is trying its best to cope with grass-roots uprisings elsewhere on the planet, but it may turn out, after all, that demographics really is destiny... that sheer numbers of humanity can conquer the global elites, at least in some respects. Empires have fallen over the course of millennia, but human migration seems to be a constant, and to be pretty much irresistible.

And if the American Empire, and the E.U., are a force for globalism and deracination, the mass movement of people is the opposite – it's a movement for, once again, identity – race, ethnicity, religion. The leading edge of all this in our time is, of course, Islam – and nothing can be less deracinated than a mass movement of people who share one religion (despite the conflicts within the Islamic world) which serves as a unifying factor for ethnic, linguistic, and even racial groups. The empires of our time have no answer for this – not us, not the E.U., not Russia, not even China (although they are doing their best).

Historical ironies abound, of course. The Ottoman Empire came to a bitter end as a result of World War I, and much of its territory was turned into colonies by the European powers. So Islam became a sleeping giant for a time, until much of it threw off the colonial powers, and in short order it was even more fully awakened by the establishment of the State of Israel (a creation of those same colonial powers). Everything we now see happening in the Islamic world (and its extensions into Europe and the U.S.) can be traced to either a reaction against colonialism (or its extension, namely economic colonialism) or a reaction against Israel. Islam has a new lease on life – a new energy – a new determination – a new mission. And by comparison, our shopworn democracy cannot compete in the marketplace of ideas, but is driven to brute force... and the E.U. simply dithers. They fume and bluster about resurgent “nationalism” in Eastern Europe (and in the U.S.) but what do they have to offer as an alternative? Submission to a bunch of boring guys in horn-rimmed glasses and baggy suits with bad haircuts in Brussels? Please. And what energizes Islam is not only religion per se, but that it's an international movement – not unlike, guess what, communism. So if there's a new Cold War being fought, it's between, as before, two international movements – “democracy”, which means globalism, and Islam. And, by the way, between secularism and religion. And the history of secularism is relatively short – I'll trace it to the French Revolution – whereas the history of religion, basically, goes back to pre-history. So which one has proven to be more durable? This is something that should worry the globalists (both here and elsewhere).

20+ for 2020 (and still counting)

Why are there so many declared Democratic candidates for president, with a year and a half until the 2020 election? One obvious answer is the generation gap – the Democratic establishment or old guard, AKA old white guys, vs. the wildly diverse Young Turks, who are, besides not being senior citizens, also arguably somewhat to the left of the old timers (though not enough to make a difference for any genuinely conservative voter). But that doesn't explain the sheer numbers, and the number of them who are not just grass-roots, but, basically, unknown, having either never having held elective office or having, at best, been at one time a member of some small-town water and sewage board.

In any country where, as it used to be said, “any boy born in a log cabin can grow up to be president of the United States” – and one has to substitute “girl or someone of indeterminate or undeclared gender” for “boy”, even if we leave the log cabin part in just for old times' sake – although “trailer” might be more apropos to the present day... it seems that people are starting to really take it seriously, as in: “If anyone can be president, then that includes me!” The impossible dream is no longer impossible, nor is it a dream – although, to look at some of these candidates, it might turn out to be a nightmare for everyone else.

But that's not enough to explain the 20+. It has to be based on the premise – held by everyone in the Democratic party, candidate or not – that anyone can beat Trump. Anyone! You wouldn't even have to be human! A yellow dog could do it! A cockroach! An amoeba! An inanimate object like Jeb Bush! So... with this premise, that being nominated by the Democratic Party is equivalent to being elected president, everyone with time on their hands is jumping into the race, because, well, what have they got to lose? Even if some other Democrat is nominated, at least a Democrat will still win... and maybe the sheer force of all those candidates will, in some way, help to insure success (image of countless sperm cells besieging an egg cell – one of them has to succeed, and the others ought to be glad to help out, and if they aren't, well, they just have a bad attitude, that's all).

But oh boy, here we go again with the “inevitability” thing. Can memories possibly be so short? A mere three years ago, Hillary was already picking out water-repellent wallpaper for Bill's White House playroom, not only assured of the nomination but also assured of victory in November. Bernie Sanders thought he was a contender, but the fix was in. And meanwhile, Donald Trump was already starting to knock off other Republican hopefuls like tenpins (except that tenpins generally have more sense).

The great thing about our political system is... no, it's not what you think, or what most people think. It's the White House. I mean, when leaders in many foreign countries take office, it's still kind of ambiguous, like, what do they really do (the term “ceremonial” comes up quite often)? And how much power do they really have, where do they live, how readily can they be thrown out of office, how do your pronounce their name, etc. It all seems so tentative, in a sense... so fragile... so ephemeral. But in our country the winner gets to move into the White House! They, and no one else save spouse and minor children. Everyone else has to come begging “around the back”. The president gets the limo, and the helicopter, and Air Force One, and “Hail to the Chief”, and all the things fit for a king – because he is, in many ways, a king – elected, yes, but the beneficiary of an immediate windfall of power and privilege that monarchs of old could only have dreamed of. European royalty are mere birds in gilded cages by comparison. Why, the president of the United States can start a war single-handedly, at any time and in any place! It happens all the time. I call that real power. (The main reason European countries no longer start wars is they've forgotten how. It has nothing to do with the E.U., NATO, or the U.N.)

But if the White House is more than symbolic, it can also become a prison, as it clearly did in Tricky Dick's case toward the end... and as it keeps promising to do in Trump's case, except that he's no Tricky Dick. He doesn't make mealy-mouthed excuses while hunkered down behind his desk in the Oval Office; he stands up in broad daylight and shouts defiance at the opposition on a regular basis. And this, of course, just drives them to new heights of hysteria – as intended. He plays them like a Stradivarius, as the saying goes, and they fall for it every time. It's a beautiful thing.

Which is, of course, still another reason why everyone from the assistant dogcatcher in Ash Flat, Arkansas on up thinks they're more qualified to be president than Trump, and why they're all running, or intending to, or seriously thinking about it. It could get to the point where there are so many Democratic candidates that they each wind up with one vote, which is the one they cast for themselves. (Try that out on the Electoral College!)

But getting back to inevitability – in 2016 it was Trump, and his campaign promises, vs. Hillary, and her promise to have the third Obama term. And Trump had no help – not from the Republicans, and certainly not from the mainstream media, who were all working for Hillary along with Hollywood, late-night TV, social media, and Obama's Department of Justice, FBI, and CIA. I mean... you'd think with that sort of playing field Trump would have made out about as well as George McGovern did in 1972. And yet, the “deplorables” turned out in numbers much greater than anyone (maybe even Trump himself) could have imagined, and the Electoral College did its usual quaint thing by awarding the victory to Trump even though he fell short in the popular vote (still another energizing factor behind today's Democratic candidate frenzy). (One theory is that the Democratic strategists only counted residents of trailer parks, figuring that anyone who actually lived in a house would never vote for Trump.)

But here we are confronted with an enduring mystery. Let's assume, for the moment, that the Mueller investigation didn't find any Russia “collusion” because there wasn't any, and that Russian “interference” can't be proven to have changed a single vote. Of course, the shadow of suspicion has now fallen on the formerly-sainted Robert Mueller & Co. now that they've failed to live up to expectations; “Say it ain't so, Bob!” But in any case, when you consider... and, by the way, even if the Russians decided that hacking our election in 2016 was too much trouble, the 2018 election showed that elections can, in fact, be hacked, despite protestations from the likes of Barack Obama (that was before the 2016 election, note) – at least at the grass-roots level. Can you say “Orange County, California”, or “Broward County, Florida”?  All it takes is a handful of operatives in key election precincts; who was it who said, “The people who cast the votes don't decide an election, the people who count the votes do.” Oh, right – Joseph Stalin. But the key is to have “boots on the ground”; if it can't be done via the Internet, it has to be a labor-intensive local operation. This tends to favor what we might call “professional political operatives” (formerly known as ward heelers)... and guess which party can claim the bulk of these. Enough said!

And yet... and yet!... Trump won. And this is what has the opposition in a state of continuing meltdown; it's like a nightmare from which one cannot awaken. Because, when one considers all of the above, it's impossible. Not improbable, but impossible... unless! Unless, for some deep, darkly mysterious reason, “somebody” didn't want Hillary to win, and/or did want Trump to win. And that “somebody” (or those “somebodies”) had the ability to make it happen. And no, “Russia” is not the answer, because they were helping, or attempting to help, both sides in 2016, supposedly to sow chaos and disorder (and if that was their aim, then “mission accomplished”!).

But wait! Maybe that is the answer. Because who would benefit the most from the utter political and social chaos which has overtaken the U.S. since Trump declared his candidacy, and which has only gotten worse since he took office? To put it another way, who benefits when Americans are distracted, demoralized, bogged down with politics, fighting the culture war full-time, and – in many cases – subject to hysteria and near-psychosis? Why, our enemies, of course – which, in our time, means economic rivals most of all, but also political (on the global level) and military rivals.

Here's where it gets a bit more complicated. If we're talking about military rivals, it's pretty clear that the main contenders are Russia and China, with North Korea as a sidebar (because without China they are nothing). Economic rivals? China, of course... but we also have an uneasy relationship with Canada and Mexico (still NAFTA partners) as well as the European Union and other countries that are, in most other contexts, considered allies. (We're unlikely to run into a trade deficit problem with the Central African Republic very soon.) The thing is, with the massive economic interlinkages that characterize the world economy, it can be argued that “no country is an island”, and that what hurts one hurts all to some extent. (Prime example – a serious economic crisis in the U.S. is going to make China and some other countries wonder if holding on to more than one-third of our national debt is a good idea. Of course, dumping it all at once could be considered an act of war – and it would be, in a way. So they're stuck holding our debt, and we're stuck with them holding it, since it's never going to be “paid”, nor was it ever intended to be.)

Then how about political rivals? The most obvious are globalists of every stripe, but this includes plenty of entities right here in the U.S., not the least of which is much of Congress and the “deep state”, not to mention multi-national corporations. So am I saying that a large chunk of the government and other economic players are actually opposed to our national interest as a sovereign nation, in the long run? Yes. This is not to say they are “anti-American” exactly (at least they don't consciously think of themselves that way), but that they don't value the U.S. as a sovereign nation with the right to make its own economic and diplomatic decisions without having to grovel and beg permission from one or more international organizations. (Wouldn't you love to know who members of Congress have on speed dial – other than D.C. call girls, of course.) And if you don't think that uncontrolled “immigration” is an economic/political attack by the globalists, you haven't been paying attention. (This is the case in Europe as well.)

Those with globalist inclinations would much rather we be just one of many – nothing special, no big deal. Kumbaya and all that. And the more radical elements firmly believe that it's time for America to get its comeuppance – and whatever form this takes is OK, and they will be glad to help the process. Please note that this is the present-day version of the wreck of the European colonial powers after World War II (or World War I in Germany's case). But they were replaced by economic colonialists, and the result has been much worse for the victims than old-fashioned colonialism ever was (with the possible exception of the Belgian Congo).

And the current debate over “nationalism” exemplifies this – is “nationalism” the same as “fascism”, for example? The opposition says it is. Which means, by simple logical inference, that it's the same as “hate”, and racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. etc. – you know the litany by now. The point being, while nationalism may be considered good for the country (although I would argue that old-fashioned patriotism is preferable), it is bad for the “world community” – which is why some formerly Iron Curtain countries are coming under so much criticism for reasserting their national (ethnic, religious) identity. (The fact that their captivity by the Soviet Empire is still so fresh in their minds might have something to do with it. Why trade one form of servitude for another? Is George Soros really preferable to Joseph Stalin? I suspect not.)

So the strategy, if you're a globalist puppeteer, is a delicate one – preserve the U.S. sufficiently to maintain us as the world's policeman (on behalf of the global elite) but suppress national pride and loyalty in all other respects, even if it saps morale. Which, I guess, is the modern version of the way the colonies of the European powers used to be tapped for “troops” who were sent to do the bidding of the colonials, not for any sort of benefit of their own country. And any sorts of stirrings (“the natives are getting restless”) were ruthlessly suppressed, the way stirrings of nationalism in the U.S. are instantly condemned by the opposition and its lackeys. One thing for certain – since Trump declared himself a nationalist, that term has fallen to the same level of disrepute as “fascist” or “Nazi”. So no matter what the term means (and it means many things to many people), it is suddenly forbidden to be used favorably in polite company (which, obviously, includes any E.U. confab).

It's like some sort of global cat-and-mouse game – keep America sick (but not on life support – more like a low-grade infection), demoralized, dependent, on the defensive, and subjugated on the one hand, but strong enough to provide a market based on consumer “needs”, and military muscle, on the other hand. Which means, by the way, that our so-called “world dominance” – our post-Cold War status as “the” superpower – is an illusion. We are much more like a dim-witted, stumbling giant controlled by unseen powers... and may, much sooner than anyone would like, become not much more than a beached whale, which is harvested for consumables while the skeleton is left to bleach in the sun. Of course, the global elite don't think much about sustainability, i.e. how long this situation can be maintained; that's someone else's problem, the way whoever let the Roman Empire slip away figured, well, how bad can it get in my own lifetime?

Imagine, if you will, a world without America. Poof, overnight, no USA at all, just a big vacant lot where we now stand – or, better still, a new sea caused by rising water levels due to global warming. The anti-America crowd would celebrate, no doubt – but Europe, and even China, might not be so sure. Israel would shit a brick. Russia, on the other hand, would consider it a golden opportunity. And for the global elite, well... they've been there before, and they always have another plan. But that's way down the road, if ever; how often do these “think tank” scenarios ever actually come to pass? Very seldom, thankfully. (Every day that goes by when most of us are still alive disproves the theories of another gaggle of “experts”. We have avoided utter annihilation at least a half dozen times since the 1960s.)

But – what about the Muslims? Have I forgotten about them? And if they are truly enemies and not just boogeymen, in what sense is this true? They have to be considered military enemies, since we find ourselves fighting them all across Africa and Asia, including in countries no American citizen has ever heard of (but even in those places, we're still fighting for “the American way of life”, don't forget that). But military rivals? A true threat in the military sense? Not so much. Our wars against Islam tend to be medium-tech for us and low-tech for them. If they fought the way we do, they wouldn't have a prayer – but when they fight their way (shades of the Viet Cong) they can do considerable damage.

So... is the Islamic world an economic rival? Hardly, unless you include the antics of the “oil-rich sheikhs”, and even their power is threatened by our increased domestic production of natural gas and oil.

OK then, what about politics, which means world politics in the case of Islam? As always, it's a matter not only of power and influence, but of “winning hearts and minds” (you know, that thing that we so spectacularly failed at in Vietnam). Islam is, at this point in world history, pretty much the only thing that can be described as “inspiring”, in the sense that it gets people excited, wins converts, and causes people to do radical and drastic things in the name of jihad – up to and including suicide bombing. Can anything comparable be said of Christianity, or of Judaism? Or of political systems like communism, fascism, capitalism, socialism, etc.? Yes, those have adherents, but many of these have ulterior motives, and just try and find a “true believer” who is willing to lay it all on the line as did the Bolsheviks and Maoists of old. Most of the world, and especially the “Western world”, is largely populated by jaded cynics who are content with eating, drinking, and making merry. And this, as much as anything, helps to explain the Islamic tidal wave that is taking over much of Europe (and making inroads here and there in the U.S.). It turns out that faith and demographics can win out over any amount of technology, sophistication, and even tradition if it's not defended properly. Power centers in Europe at this point are either the fortresses of the ruling elite or the Islamic neighborhoods operating under sharia law; everyone else is caught in the middle and feeling helpless because they are, in fact, helpless.

But, as with solving a crime, you need to define means, motive, and opportunity. Our enemies have a complex mixture of motives, best exemplified by the globalist dilemma described above. The means are primarily military at this point, in the sense of threats and of the renewed arms race, which can also be seen as a technology race. But economic and diplomatic means are another matter, and they are being applied with due diligence, along with a steady stream of propaganda directed at the American public in order to convince them that “nationalism” is bad and Trump is worse, and that their only hope is to get rid of both and return to the open arms of the “international community” (in order to be exploited all the more). Consider that Hillary, and all of Trump's rivals for the 2016 nomination with the exception of Rand Paul, were, and remain, hard-core globalists, and you can see how uneven the power relationship is. And Trump himself seems ambivalent about globalism; he opposes it in some ways but embraces it in others, but clearly not enough to satisfy the hard core.

But again, how to define the threat Islam represents? If not military in the sense of absolute power, then what? Diplomatically, the world seems pretty much divided between Islam and non-Islam, with us and our so-called allies all on the non-Islam side. That should make things simple – as simple as the comfortably black-and-white world of the Cold War. And yet, we find ourselves “engaging”, to a greater or lesser degree, with much of the Islamic world, for military reasons above all, but also for diplomatic reasons, and economic as well (if you include oil). The only Islamic country that is considered a hard-core enemy is Iran (thanks largely to Jimmy Carter's titanic blundering), and yet every time we approach the brink of going in and teaching them a damn good lesson, we shrink back for some reason. Could it be that we really did learn a lesson of our own in Afghanistan and Iraq? One can only hope. (Of course, a standoff is a good way to keep the pot bubbling; a back burner is better than no burner at all. And if perpetual war is our goal, it makes sense to be at knife points with as many other countries or other entities as possible.)

The main impact of our ongoing struggles with Islam are, clearly, economic – and, to be more precise, economic in the sense of transferring wealth from the productive sector to the non-productive sector, i.e. war. But while that sector is non-productive, it is certainly not unprofitable, and this is a key factor in explaining why we persist in what appears to be a fool's mission. We forget that while the Cold War, for example, could be defended as a stand against communism, it also provided a rich source of funding for the war industries – not as much as an actual “hot” war, but enough to sustain them at a high level for many decades. The end of the Cold War may have been considered, by the average citizen, to be a good thing, but to the great “military-industrial complex” it was a disaster, and something had to be done, and fast! Enter the War on Islam (not an official term, but a better descriptor than all the official ones combined – especially the ones that include the word “freedom”).

In any case, the War on Islam is a major hemorrhage – a sucking chest wound – on our economy in general. Even if it does benefit the few, it harms the many. (This is true both domestically and at the global level.) And it is, in fact, impacting our economy severely enough to hasten our demise. So, it is shortsightedness, or part of an actual plan? Get us involved in endless wars which will only end when we are no longer able to wage them? Hard to say, and I think both factors are in play. And Congress, and the vast bulk of politicians, are mere tools in all of this; they aren't in on the plan, and there is no reason to let them in on it. So they have to be won over by a combination of threats and bribery, and probably some measure of pathetic and delusional “patriotism” (as opposed to the real thing, which, unlike most members of Congress, has red blood and functioning reproductive organs).

So... to finally get back to Trump vs. the Peanut Gallery – or, not quite yet. We should think a bit about what all of this meant, or may have meant, when it came to the 2016 election. The impossible candidate won, and the inevitable candidate lost – and no, it wasn't just about that silly old Electoral College. But was it only about the 63 million “deplorables”? (And that, by the way, is a lot of people – not quite a fifth of the total population at the time, but still quite a few for the Democrats to completely write off, not only in 2016 but potentially for a generation.) True enough, they came out of the woodwork to vote for Trump, and they came out in the right places to swing the electoral vote, but... again, with the forces arrayed against Trump, I still can't imagine how he won – or how he expects to win in 2020 by hanging on – oops, I mean “clinging” – to those same 63 million.

One way of summarizing the perennial “conspiracy” issue is this: Either you believe that there are unseen forces at work, or you don't. And as I've pointed out before, everyone is, on some level and perhaps only in the most trivial of cases, a “conspiracy theorist” (when people talk about socks that never reappear once they're put into the dryer, they're only half joking). And on the opposite end (psychologically at least) there are people who believe that everything is a conspiracy, and that the CIA spends every waking moment keeping track of their dull, boring lives. (This is also known as grandiose thinking, but is far from the only way it can come about.)

Thus, the natural response to Trump's not only unlikely but impossible victory in 2016 was that over half the citizenry turned, overnight, into conspiracy theorists, including those who had, up to that point, been perfectly satisfied with outward appearances and with the establishment's “narrative” about pretty much everything. So they began groping around, desperately, seeking an explanation, the way law enforcement officials are always looking for a “motive” when it comes to shootings. And sometimes there isn't one – sometimes things really do just happen. But this cannot possibly be in the case for 2016 – surely randomness is far too weak an explanation... no explanation at all, in fact, although it seems to satisfy those very same people whenever they are talking about evolution, which is a much bigger and more important phenomenon than American elections.

But if 2016 cannot be explained in any sort of reasonable way, what does this say about 2020 and everyone's expectations? Will it be a “normal” election (in which case Trump should lose in a landslide), or will it be another spectacular anomaly, the way 2016 was? This is what is, or should be, keeping the 20-plus new-and-old kids on the block awake at night. And if the sum total of our enemies, for any reason, want to continue to assault us – culturally, diplomatically, economically – what outcome will they prefer? What feeds more readily and efficiently into their agenda? The American public, once the very image of naive optimism and confidence, has had its dreams and delusions shattered, maybe once and for all, by the results of the 2016 election and by ensuing events, regardless of what “side” any given individual was on. Everyone is scandalized... everyone is disillusioned... everyone is dismayed, for many reasons... and everyone is “out on the street”, either literally or in spirit, gearing up for still another “mother of all battles” next year. So if the ruling elite at one time felt that an anesthetized American public was their best strategy, that has obviously been discarded in favor of something much more violent and stress-prone... which may mean that we have come to a moment of truth for our nation and society, the way so many other societies have come to a moment of truth, almost always unexpectedly (which makes it even more traumatic). It may be time to be either openly enslaved or equally openly discarded – and quite frankly, whoever winds up running in 2020, and however the citizens vote, is not going to make a bit of difference if the die is already cast. Trump, and the 20+ (or whatever the final figure is) may as well just be chaff in the wind if America's fate is sealed.