The short answer to that question comes from George Orwell: “Who controls the past controls the future.  Who controls the present controls the past.”  Packed into that pithy aphorism is the explanation of the bitter struggle centering on the person of President Donald J. Trump.

The dirty little secret of American history is that a largely left-leaning establishment has dominated our politics since 1932 and thereby framed our understanding of the past and goals for the future.  Only two Republican presidents have held temporary majorities in both houses of Congress since then: Dwight D. Eisenhower and George W. Bush.  Neither made a dent in the establishment’s control.  Indeed, during the past thirty-eight years, since the political establishment kicked President Reagan upstairs and out of power in the Iran contra scandal, the political establishment has taken the country farther to the left than ever before, centered on the policies of détente with Moscow, Beijing, and Iran.  In the process of attempting to create a new world order, the Democrat establishment left behind and totally alienated the American people.

The beneficiary of this widespread alienation was President Donald J. Trump and Republicans, who in 2016 swept to power across the country with strong majorities in both houses of Congress and a mandate from the people to reverse course.  Trump led the way, attacking the Democrat establishment’s narrative of the past and setting forth a new vision of the future.  “Make America Great Again” is more than a campaign slogan; it is a repudiation of the past failure of the political establishment.

It did not last.

Trump lost control of the House in 2018 and fell victim to a Democrat counter-revolution in 2020.  In less than four years, demonstrating a level of incompetence unknown in modern history, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris sank the nation into a quagmire of debt, opened the borders to an invasion of illegal aliens, condoned the virtual collapse of social order, and generated the highest inflation since Jimmy Carter.  Even worse, their feckless foreign policy projected sheer impotence, opening the door to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Iranian terrorist attacks on Israel, and the distinct prospect of war with China over Taiwan.

The 2024 election offers hope for the future.  Trump’s attacks on the economic system as being unfair to all except a privileged elite, the global trade regime as a bad deal for the nation, the alliance system as supporting free riders, and involvement in foreign wars that serve no evident national interest all have the same objective of wiping away the Democrat establishment’s longstanding hold on power.

At the same time, Trump is proposing to put in place a set of policies that will establish the basis for the Republican party’s claim to power for years to come.  Trump seeks to build a stronger nation; a fairer, wealthier economic system that benefits the many, not just the few; a more rational health care system; a more equitable tax system; and secure borders and safe streets.  He is attempting to reset our relations with friend and foe alike, to rebalance the global order.  He wants a world at peace and an international system in which our allies are more fully invested.

The nation stands at the cusp of a new era.  The Democrat vision of how the country should operate and of America’s place in the world lies in tatters, a catastrophic failure.  But President Trump’s vision is not yet in place, which is why the struggle is so intense.  Trump is shaping a new political, economic, and cultural order, which is why the Democrat establishment must oppose him at every turn.

If Trump succeeds, he will have done to the Democrats what the Democrats did to the Republicans in the thirties and cast them into the political wilderness as the party of opposition for decades to come.  This is why the Democrats and all those who benefited from the previous regime, including some Republicans, attack Trump, his policies, his person, his family, his friends.  They know that unless they can delegitimize him, the point of the Hitler rants, he will control past, present, and future, and they will fall into the dustbin of history.  For them, no compromise is possible —until a new leadership emerges with ideas and policies the public will embrace.

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