After the Republic

Worth Reading: After the Republic. By Angelo M. Codevilla

http://www.claremont.org/crb/basicpage/after-the-republic/

Excerpt: Over the past half century, the Reagan years notwithstanding, our ruling class’s changing preferences and habits have transformed public and private life in America. As John Marini shows in his essay, “Donald Trump and the American Crisis,” this has resulted in citizens morphing into either this class’s “stakeholders” or its subjects. And, as Publius Decius Mus argues, “America and the West” now are so firmly “on a trajectory toward something very bad” that it is no longer reasonable to hope that “all human outcomes are still possible,” by which he means restoration of the public and private practices that made the American republic. In fact, the 2016 election is sealing the United States’s transition from that republic to some kind of empire. Electing either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump cannot change that trajectory. Because each candidate represents constituencies hostile to republicanism, each in its own way, these individuals are not what this election is about. This election is about whether the Democratic Party, the ruling class’s enforcer, will impose its tastes more strongly and arbitrarily than ever, or whether constituencies opposed to that rule will get some ill-defined chance to strike back. Regardless of the election’s outcome, the republic established by America’s Founders is probably gone. But since the Democratic Party’s constituencies differ radically from their opponents’, and since the character of imperial governance depends inherently on the emperor, the election’s result will make a big difference in our lives. (Written before the election, it still brings up really excellent points about what has gone on in the society over the past decades and especially the most recent decade. And it says that just maybe all the factors will combine to bring Trump a victory..... very prescient! But it also says there's no going back to 1950 or even 1975. The question is simply what good ideas and practices can be implemented, what really bad ones can be at least discouraged and minimized if not wiped out? Because there is no wiping out the kind of thinking that a significant fraction of people have fallen into, or been indoctrinated into. There is only restoring some positive practices and pride and understanding of what we have, what we have been, what we can strive to be. And pushing at least a few basic policies on a stronger military, a tighter border, a less arrogant set of federal agencies, and a more effective foreign policy. We all wait in hope to see how it works out. Here's one clue to look for. The waiver for General Mattis to serve in the government should be a no-brainer, go through fast and easy. But if, as one major Democrat leader has promised, all that group will do is vote "NO" to anything and everything that comes from Trump and the GOP, then we know that we will be stuck with a Congress mired in mindless, obstinate partisanship. Let's hope they aren't that silly. --Del) The Coming Collapse of the American Republic: And what you can do to prevent it. By Robert A. Hall

http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5

All royalties go to a charity to help wounded veterans. For a free PDF of this 80-page book you can read on your computer, write me at: tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. ~Bob