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“The beginning of all this was the anti-globalization movement,” Steve Bannon tells BuzzFeed News.

Redstate News

Date: March 5, 2007 Speaker: Evan Sayet Writer, Lecturer and Pundit Host: Becky Norton Dunlop Vice President, External Relations, The Heritage Foundation Loc...

Partisan-stoked doubts about the legitimacy of the president (of whatever party) have become fashionable in the 21st century, but in the run-up to President Trump’s inauguration, their intensity has spiked. No doubt many in the media and the partisan opposition would be lobbing some of these attacks against any Republican; the claim that Trump is shockingly terrible would be more persuasive if similar denunciations had not been leveled against Mitt Romney, John McCain, and George W. Bush. Nevertheless, the fierceness of the anti-Trump backlash is striking. Popular narratives to the contrary, Trump’s election is less a cause of our current crisis than a sign of it. In the months ahead, then, we need to attend to the conditions that have led to such a radical disruption in our politics. Normally, radical outsiders don’t win the presidency. In looking for a president, the American people usually balance a taste for novelty with a respect for experience. So it’s telling indeed that Trump is the first person elected to the presidency without any prior experience in elected office or other government service. Only when the mandarins of consensus have proven both so parochial and so inept could such an outsider have smashed his way into the White House. A series of institutional failures led to President Trump’s ascendancy. We have been treated to the spectacle of an elite that has promised too much and so often failed so spectacularly. Our public rhetoric has been frozen by nostalgia and an elite reliance on what Josh Barro has called “no-choice politics” to enforce a narrow consensus on immigration, trade, and other issues. Trump’s campaign was powered by denunciations of various debacles over the past decade, whether in foreign affairs, the economy, or national security. The populist insurgency takes place in the context of plummeting faith in major institutions, from Congress to large corporations to the press. Partisan political organizations aside, many institutional agents in American life resisted Trump strenuously — from major media organizations to the professional classes who dominate the Beltway. After reveling in his political electricity in 2015, TV news channels portrayed much of the 2016 general election as a trial of his alleged shortcomings. Few national newspapers endorsed him; USA Today, which had never before endorsed a presidential candidate, outright anti-endorsed Trump. By and large, those who occupy the commanding heights of culture — in the media, the academy, and Silicon Valley — treated Trump as an existential foe. Even many marquee conservative names opposed him. And yet Trump still ended up with the most commanding Electoral College majority of any Republican in a generation. Although that majority hangs on a relatively slim number of individual votes, the fact that Trump achieved that result despite massive institutional opposition is a sign of how dissatisfied voters were with the status quo and Hillary Rodham Clinton, the alternative it offered. (That American politics offered only Hillary Clinton as a plausible, competitive alternative to Trump in the general election is itself a searing indictment of the current status quo.) If we are interested in defending republican governance, we should not cheer this crisis of institutional faith. Institutions diffuse power and cultivate the networks of trust and competence that are crucial for maintaining civil society. In order to address the current crisis, we should focus on the reform of institutions rather than the destruction of them. It might be troubling, then, that many of the institutional actors who flailed against Trump’s rise should then double down on some of their tactics that inadvertently fueled it in the first place. There maybe a touch of the apocryphal in the famous Vietnam-era declaration “We had to destroy the village in order to save it,” but it provides a helpful image for the way some institutional stakeholders in the media and elsewhere have responded to Trump’s election: We have to destroy the public square in order to save it. If we are interested in defending republican governance, we should not cheer this crisis of institutional faith. In that narrative, President Trump is a threat to the republic and must be “resisted” at all costs. Paranoia should replace fact-checking. Accusations of treason or malice should supplant the presumption of patriotic good faith (even when we disagree). The monologues of those who fancy themselves the virtuous should replace a vigorous public debate. This is like plucking out your eye because you think that you have glaucoma; this procedure might remove glaucoma from your body, but you still won’t be able to see. If you think that Trump’s election is a republic-threatening crisis, blowing up the cultural norms necessary for republican life is a counterproductive strategy in the extreme. Believing that President Trump is himself destroying those norms is no excuse for torching them yourself. The Republic will be preserved by nurturing the soil of healthy political norms — not by a race to create a wasteland. Instead of projecting all the ills of America onto President Trump, we should confront them directly. Those who aspire to political power need to recognize their obligations to the electorate they serve. Leaders should look at the challenges of the moment with open eyes instead of simply exulting over past successes or wallowing in past failures. The snideness that has too often proven a handmaiden for complacency should be put aside. In facing these challenges, any effort to “get beyond politics” will likely be a distraction. Political contests arise because we disagree, and some of the problems of the present can be attributed to an effort to enforce a stifling conformity on many cultural and political issues. What we might need to recover instead is a way of doing politics: mediating disagreement, expanding political rhetoric beyond vituperation and preaching-to-the-choir bromides, rebuilding constitutional norms, and shaking off the debilitating comforts of nostalgia. In facing these challenges, any effort to “get beyond politics” will likely be a distraction. A significant component of these present challenges involves rhetoric that reflects, and reinforces, certain intellectual commitments that have calcified our politics. But there are more directly practical tasks, too: revising the federal bureaucracy, updating foreign-policy and national-security strategies, reinvigorating the economy, and working to rebuild a sense of civic belonging (so that Americans feel cooperatively responsible for rather than alienated from the institutions of governance). Some of these tasks will weigh more on congressional leaders, some more on the executive branch. Some are federal; others, local. Most of them, though, will involve efforts by both elected representatives and the citizenry at large. In Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson proposed that “the manners and spirit of a people . . . preserve a republic in vigor.” The Founders recognized that the health of a republic relies on the moral and intellectual constitution of its people. Civil government depends on civil society, which itself is made up of the efforts, habits, and beliefs of the citizens of a nation. Our current political crisis is in part a product of broader cultural trends. We can face these challenges by embracing a spirit of charity, by striving to listen, and by attending to our commitments to our fellow men and women. In the maelstrom of disruption, we should hope for the best and try to see it in each other. — Fred Bauer is a writer from New England. He blogs at A Certain Enthusiasm.

?Don’t know much about history . . .? goes the famous song. It’s an apt motto for the Common Core’s elementary-school curriculum. And it’s becoming a serious problem. A 2014 report by t…

This is the first article in a series that reviews news coverage of the 2016 general election, explores how Donald Trump won and why his chances were underrated by the most of the American media. D…

Can every child receive a good education? With school choice and competition, yes. The problem? Powerful teachers unions oppose school choice. Rebecca Friedr...

Israeli leader accepts invitation from Trump to visit US

An assault on Richard B. Spencer, a well-known far-right activist, in Washington after the inauguration prompted outrage — and mockery — online.

Reflecting on the Roe v. Wade anniversary.

Scott Kotesky had no idea how eventful his flight from Baltimore to Seattle was going to be – and how much extra leg room he would have. Armed only with a cell phone, he smiled at his fellow passengers – a husband and wife – as he took his window seat next to the unidentified [?]

Teachers unions are the only organizations that openly support segregated schools.

How much will he cut the federal budget?

The Women’s March doesn’t actually include all women.

Can every child receive a good education? With school choice and competition, yes. The problem? Powerful teachers unions oppose school choice. Rebecca Friedr...

Guest essay by Eric Worrall LA Times suggests the centrepiece of California?s green policies might be about to collapse in the face of an ongoing legal challenge. The immediate threat to Cali…

Chelsea Clinton has come to the defense of the youngest Trump, Barron, as many criticized him for his apparent lack of engagement throughout his father's campaign and Friday's inauguration.

It’s the strangest thing about these leftists - they're obsessed with Donald Trump, absolutely obsessed. Now, they will say we, with our logic and reason, ar...

I know you don’t know me. I know you don’t even think about me and when you do, it’s probably not anything nice. I’m the evil hegemonically masculine patriarchal oppressor to you feminists. I’m the jackbooted statist thug to you dope smokin’ long-haired hippies. I’m “The Man” to you racial activists. I’m the idiot who joined the military because I “wasn’t smart enough” to go get a liberal arts degree like you know-it-all 20-year-old college dipshits; and for some reason you hate me for that. I’m that guy with the rifle who signed on the dotted line for $24K a year so that you budding Marxist fucksticks could have the freedom to complain about me and the manner in which I provide it. I have a little message for you.I see you there, in Portland… In Chicago… In San Francisco… In Bumfuck Directional School Liberal Arts College… You’re having your temper tantrums because ever since mommy dropped you off at Daycare 20 years ago you’ve been throwing them to get your way. Now you’re super pissed about the results of a presidential election where the other guy (and the only guy in the race for that matter) won.I’m not here to talk politics, or explain the Electoral College, or to tell you what hypocritical douchebags you are for doing the things you’re doing. No. I have a much simpler conversation to have with you. See, I read what you post on Twitter, Facebook, and your various internet blogs. I see you on the news breaking things, setting fires, and assaulting people of the opposite political belief. I see you there with your fat ugly unshaven feminist women and black power slogan screaming race baiters, throwing rocks and bottles at the lines of police officers trying to keep order in your own cities. I know your rhetoric.  I know all your identity politics stems from the Marxist activists and 'intellectuals' who have pushed the American left farther left than ever before.  I know you believe your “progressive” views are the supreme moral authority on every single issue and somehow this perception allows you to justify your totalitarian social views and hypocritical violent outbursts. You profess to hate half this country for their alleged bigotry while carrying signs that say "Love Wins!"I also know you’re a coward.I know this because you keep screaming, and blogging, and protesting, and even rioting… but you won’t start this “uprising” you keep going on and on about. If you really believe that your cause is just, that the majority supports you, and that the United States needs to be overthrown to make way for your Progressive social utopia of sunshine and free shit… pick up a gun and start your revolution like every other communist group in history. See, I come from an organization that spent the better part of the last century training to fight a bunch of little commie heathens, and I have a pretty healthy respect for any Ivan who was willing to pick up an AK47 and parachute onto the continent ready to overthrow the USA. That takes some guts. You’re not like him though. You’re quite different actually. Ivan was in shape. You’re a bunch of ‘fat acceptance’ advocates who complain airline seats are too small for your 9,000 calories per day diet. Ivan was a proud masculine man. You have drag queens and fat feminist women with green hair. Ivan grew up mining coal and hunting wolves in the Urals. You want socialism because you’re upset that you can’t get a 6-figure job at age 24 with the bullshit arts degree you spent all that loan money on and haven’t done a day of physical labor in your life. Ivan was a veteran of Stalingrad, Afghanistan, and a dozen bush wars. You think “Call of Duty” is too violent and sexist. Ivan packed an AK47 and knew how to use it. Those among you leftists now who even have weapons ditch them after you rob the liquor store or 7/11 and go hide out at your aunt’s Section 8 housing. You don’t have the discipline Ivan did, at least he used the sights. Ivan killed jihadists by the thousands. You make excuses for them and want to invite them into our country.You all have your reasons for hating America and whether or not I agree isn’t even relevant. I took an oath as did all of my brothers and sisters in uniform to defend this country against all enemies foreign AND domestic. I will always protect your rights to free speech and expression through lawful and civil protest whether or not your cause is something I believe in. However, you seem to believe revolution and violence are the answer now, and that makes you a domestic enemy of the United States I protect and serve. Do it and I’ll teach you how we make the fuckin’ green grass grow. You keep saying you want a revolution, secession, a new Civil War and the election of “Racist/sexist/homophobic/Republican/Nazi/xenophobic/dictator/Islamophobic/rich guy asshole” Donald Trump is the catalyst for you to take action and destroy every evil you perceive this country to stand for…Well… We’re waiting. Shit or get off the pot.Iron MikeThe views and opinions expressed on this website are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of Gruntworks, the staff, and/or any/all contributors to this site.

Former Congressman Ron Paul believes that an economic downturn is on the way under Donald Trump, he told CNBC recently.

Newly minted Secretary of Defense James Mattis celebrated his first full day at the Pentagon by overseeing 31 strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Mattis entered the Pentagon Saturd

Redstate News

We mouth the formulaic words but reflect too little on the political miracle that is the peaceful transfer of power. The enormous authority entrusted to the president shifts from someone who leaves...

In an attempt to do something of deep import, half a million Americans across the country took to the streets on Saturday. Many donned pink hats they labeled “pussyhats”; these were knit caps with cat ears. Why? Because they were protesting the inauguration of President Donald Trump, who was infamously caught on tape talking about grabbing women by the “p***y” on an Access Hollywood bus some years back. Reporters even spotted police officers donning the “pussyhats.”

"The 'Women’s March' is an extension of strategic identity politics"