Why Trump's Victory Matters

Shortly after revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans rang in the new year, a man named Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a pickup truck festooned with an ISIS flag down Bourbon Street, killing at least 14 and injuring dozens more. He then got out of his rented pickup truck and, clad in body armor, got into a firefight with police. He was shot dead.

Many questions quickly arose, along with the rush to low-information assumptions that social media rewards. Conspiracists pondered the lack of blockades against such actions on a street that closes to traffic every evening, forgetting Hanlon's Razor. Turns out the bollards that are normally in place were removed for maintenance in November, with no temporary provisions. Incompetence, not malice. And, of course, the moment the perp's name got released, the presumptions... nay, certainty that he had entered the US illegally flew about the Internet.

We quickly learned that he was American-born and a veteran. Radicalized after falling on hard times, he invested time and effort into preparing and executing this attack, and it is fortunate that the bombs he made didn't go off.

But you know most of this already.

The infuriating part of this matter - apart from the carnage itself, of course - was the rush by someone in the FBI and others in positions of authority to insist that this wasn't an act of terrorism. Yes, indeed, just like those prone to presuming every criminal is an illegal alien, people who should know better trotted out a narrative that fit their preferences almost before the incident was over.

These aren't randos on the Internet mouthing off. These are people entrusted by the citizenry to attend to public safety. Once again, they put ideology ahead of actually doing that job.

Since 9/11 established that Islamic terrorism is a real and persistent threat to modern civilization, when we hear of an act of this nature involving a Muslim-sounding name, we are inclined to think "terrorism." But, since Muslims have been granted a very high rank in the grievance hierarchy, since they have been deemed more "oppressed" than women or Jews or gays, anything that casts them in a bad light is to be diminished or quashed entirely.

There is much cognitive dissonance at play here. About 20% of the world's 1.9 billion Muslims hold the sorts of radicalized views that foment terrorism, the desire that Israel be destroyed, and that Western culture and values are decadent and to be resisted and ultimately eradicated. That's a population greater than that of the United States, and while I've known and been friends with many Muslims who are part of the other 80% and are not remotely part of the problem, it is beyond stupid to believe that the radicalized segment should be given "oppressed" status and deference as some sort of defense of the 80%.

This maddening example is just one of countless indicators of ideological capture in our government. The military's obsession with pronouns and DEI training over combat preparedness, the endless emphases on attending to people and communities "of color" before all others in emergencies, during the pandemic, and in providing public assistance, the perpetual insistence that Nazis and right-wing/Christian nationalist (aka “white guys”) terrorism are the biggest threats facing the country, the elevation of criminals "of color" over victims…you can certainly think of many more examples.

Worth noting, a three week old, lame-duck White House initiative that didn’t age well.

No, we should not judge all Muslims by the acts of some. But, you’d have to be a moron to ignore the real threat - both individual and systemic - of radical Islam. Islamists not only have no desire to assimilate into the Western societies in which they live, the high-fidelity reading of the Koran is one of conquest and global domination, and Middle East petrostates have spent billions in pursuing that end.

Denying this is denying reality. Yet, here we are.

The ideological capture we’ve been witnessing is a problem because it is in fundamental conflict with the values that the nation is founded upon, values that are at the heart of America and western civilization itself.

Ponder this quote from Richard Delgado, the grand pooh-bah of Critical Race Theory, from his eponymous book.

[C]ritical race theory questions the very foundations of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law.

In other words, equal treatment under the law, the primacy of the individual, "blind" justice, and rational thought itself stand in conflict with the ideologies and viewpoints gathered under the term "woke."

If you're looking for a definition of "woke," I offer mine;

Woke is coercion. Woke is divisiveness. Woke is a demand for submissive conformity. Woke is racism, sexism, and a fistful of other bigotries. Woke is the dehumanization of all who don't agree with you, so you feel less averse to treating them like shit, denying them their rights and liberties, and kicking them out of 'your' society. Woke is a club, in two ways: a weapon with which to smite your enemies, and a restricted space where undesirables are denied entry.

As a result of "woke" setting roots into our institutions - institutions that are supposed to serve all Americans without favor or prejudice - people in charge feel the need to misreport reality so that the identity groups that have been granted preferred status are not maligned.

I recently heard someone point out that Americans are gullible but not stupid. This past election they demonstrated the latter - they rejected the cultural shift that produces such idiocy as ‘the guy flying an ISIS flag as he drove into a crowd was not a terrorist.’ All his other flaws and failings aside, Trump’s non-wokeness is a critical asset and a big reason for his victory. If all he manages to do is uproot some of the leftist kudzu that has infested our government, his Presidency will count as a success.

Values matter, and the Western values that are at the core of libertarianism are under attack from both the Left and radical Islam. That these two diametrically opposed world views have become bedfellows (recall leftists rejoicing at Hamas's 10/7 attack, and note that hundreds of demonstrators marched in NYC in favor of Jabbar's attack) may seem bizarre. Recall, however, that coercion is at the heart of both woke and Marxism/Leftism, and that Horseshoe Theory is a thing.

There is a cultural rift in the West, between those who believe in Western values born of the Enlightenment and those who reject them. You may not see or note it in those terms, but that's its essence. Trump's victory is, for many of us, not an endorsement of the man or his particular politics, but rather a rejection of the illiberalism that has invaded our institutions, our government, and our universities.

Keep that in mind as the next few years unfold.