For me, the latest White House cabinet meeting and an exponentially growing financial scandal crystallised the continual obstacle – and ever-present political threat – President Donald J. Trump, his administration, and the Republican Party are facing on a recurring basis. An “obstacle” that has only become stronger and more fortified over the course of the last five decades.
That “obstacle” being what I define as the “five major megaphones” of our nation. Those being: the media, academia, entertainment, science, and medicine. Five megaphones, which during the last 50-plus years have come under the vice-like grip of the Democratic Party, the left, and the far-left.
Additionally, over the course of this last number of decades these “megaphones” – in seeming direct coordination with the Democrats and the left – have most negatively impacted the Republican Party – and Trump of late – not via direct rhetorical attack upon them or their policies, but rather via the outright omission of them, their policies, their arguments, and most especially, their successes.
This, in turn, brings to mind one of the most famous philosophical questions of our time: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Politically, the answer is a resounding “No.”
Two recent examples of this falling tree in a political forest showcase the increasingly higher hurdles being put in place before the Republicans. The first was last week’s full cabinet meeting in the White House. The second was the massive financial scandal in Minnesota tied to the alleged criminal misuse of Covid-era funding, engulfing both the Somali community in that state as well as Democratic Governor Tim Walz.
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During the cabinet meeting, each cabinet secretary outlined how her or his department was putting up real wins on the board for the American people. “Wins,” which will be almost universally ignored by most of the mainstream media. Just as much of that same media is purposefully ignoring the $1 Billion-plus financial transgression in Minnesota. As the most powerful water-carriers for the Democratic Party and the left, they have been sanctioned to erect “nothing to see here” signs with, not surprisingly, high degrees of success.
For decades now, Republicans, conservatives, and people of faith have been complaining nonstop about this “unfair” and “unethical” advantage enjoyed by the Democrats. To that I ultimately say: “Wah, wah, wah. Cry me a river.”
It has been estimated that among the hundreds of multimillionaire and multi-billionaire conservatives, Republicans, and people of faith in our nation, there is collectively at least $1 trillion in expendable cash lying around. Instead of whining, follow the example laid out by Teddy Roosevelt in his 1910 speech titled “Citizenship in a Republic,” now better known as the “Man in the Arena” speech.
Roosevelt rightly stressed: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again…who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
As we quickly approach the 250th Anniversary of our nation, it should be incumbent upon all Republicans, conservatives, and faith-based individuals of great means to remember that our Founding Fathers – at the greatest of risks to themselves and their families – jumped into that very arena to form our nation one hundred and thirty-four years before Roosevelt delivered his now iconic remarks. A reality I know well after spending a year researching the vision, courage, and sacrifice of the fifty-six men who signed The Declaration of Independence for my book “The 56.”
It should also be incumbent upon all Republicans, conservatives, and faith-based individuals of means to acknowledge – no matter if they like him or not – that President Trump also dared to jump into that same arena when so many other “cold and timid souls” sat up in the peanut gallery criticizing him and those in the arena. Knowing that, a critical question for those of means from the right is how the GOP will compete against the Democratic Party and its five megaphones once Trump is finally off the political stage? Admit it or not, he is a “once-in-a-century” personality able to reach tens of millions of Americans solely because of his “It Factor.”
National elections are historically won – or lost – by flipping slivers of one percent of the vote in various districts, counties, and states. The five major megaphones in allegiance to the Democratic Party are capable of flipping several full percentage points via attacks and omissions. Most especially, with Trump out of the picture.
If those on the right with the means don’t act now to create their own “megaphones” to protect the rule of law, sovereign borders, and the vision of our Founding Fathers, then a legitimate question to be asked is what ultimately befalls their children, grandchildren, and business empires? How much longer will they be satisfied with the millions and billions in crumbs being swept off the table in a calculated fashion by Big-Tech and Big-Pharma into their already bulging pockets before they ask the same two questions asked by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Teddy Roosevelt: “If not me, who? If not now, when?”
Speaking of Franklin, he was once asked what type of government the Constitutional Convention adopted; his prescient answer was, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Indeed. Freedom and security come at a cost. Follow the example set by Trump.
Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official and author of the book: The 56 -- Liberty Lessons from those who risked all to sign The Declaration of Independence. Follow him @DougOfSkye.
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