The Whole Boot
Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog
All right, since disclaimers here are most necessary, I will make them. I believe that I have repeatedly made it clear that I am not in Trump’s corner, and am not going to vote for him. If Hillary is elected, America will have successfully avoided stepping in the dog poo. If Trump is elected, America will have successfully avoided stepping in the cow pie. We are merely talking about the about the bottom of the shoe versus the whole boot. Humanly speaking, we don’t have good options, and we should all know it.
But here is the problem. Consider Trump’s ongoing claim that the system is “rigged,” and his failure last night to commit to abide by the election results. That all depends, sez he. The response of the buttoned-up right to this attitude is the spectacle of quite a number of analysts with their dresses over their heads. And this reveals that they still don’t have a clue as to why Trump’s message is resonating with as many people as it has.
Now I am trying to explain something here, which is not the same thing as trying to plump, push, puff, or otherwise promote it.
There are two elements to this.
The first has to do with why his message resonates. Think about it. Why would the message the system is rigged against me resonate? With whom will it resonate? It will deeply appeal to people who feel exactly the same way. The system is rigged against me is a set of words that more than one person can say, and if one person says it on behalf of others, he might at some point find himself the most implausible presidential candidate ever. And whether or not Trump himself has any right to feel that way—more about that in a moment—there are multitudes of workers who have some justification they can point to. I am talking about coal miners, loggers, factory workers, and so on. You know, the denizens of fly-over country.
The second element has to do with whether or not there is anything to Trump’s claim. Now there is a type of “let’s keep everything stable” conservatism that instinctively recognizes not only that every election is an election between candidates, but is also a referendum on the system itself. A stable and blessed society enjoys orderly transitions of government, and calling foul on the electoral process itself is therefore a big deal. So is not surprising that a bunch of people are trying to hush Trump on this point because they don’t want people to lose faith in the system. But—news flash—the only reason why someone like Trump is where he is now is that a whole bunch of people already lost faith in the system.
And so, were they right to lose faith in the system? Let me think about it. The whole country is downwind of the Clinton corruptions, and the ruling elites are all pretending that we don’t have noses. Those people have a string of dead bodies in their wake. And the FBI did not recommend indictment for Hillary. Not only did they not recommend indictment, they also—in an attempt to keep a semblance of their dignity—publicly outlined all the reasons why an indictment would have been appropriate. On top of that, they conducted the investigation in unheard of ways—letting computers be smashed after the fact, allowing aides who had been given immunity to sit in on Hillary’s questioning, etc. And sting videos were just released showing leftist operatives inciting violence at Trump rallies, one of whom has visited the Obama White House hundreds of times. Has an official investigation on that been opened on that? Ha. But it is not running in one direction only. After the DNC had their emails hacked (the hack that led to the resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz), the blame for it fell on Russia. Of course it did. But according to one whistle blower at the NSA, that hack was domestic and came from within our intelligence community. If so, then domestic spying is being put to political purposes. Anybody want to maintain that something like that is impossible? And has anybody gone to jail yet over the political use of the IRS to target conservative groups? Ah. Thought not. Are you serious? Of course the system is corrupt. Of course it is rigged.
It is not rigged as transparently and as stupidly as, say, North Korean elections are. Our corruptions are decentralized and a little bit gaudier. There is also quite a bit of free-lancing. We have an accumulated heritage of liberty that we are still involved in squandering, which means we still have some liberty left here and there. But the evidences of our widespread and massive corruptions are manifest. I was born at night, but it wasn’t last night.
Let me go back to the point about the string of dead bodies. America is the most powerful country in the world. It is one of the great empires of world history. Anybody who thinks that political power struggles in such a place would have to be white glove affairs is a person who really needs to read a book sometime. Of course there are murders. Of course there is voter fraud. Of course officials are pressured to lie to investigators. Of course there are threats.
And the hair trigger defensiveness of people outraged by Trump’s comments is probably the most telling thing about all this you could imagine.
If you believe the system is comparatively honest, but that all the scoundrels running the house are corrupt, ask yourself how that could possibly happen. No, it doesn’t work that way. Honest systems are built and maintained by honest people. Tell me the truth. Are those the people governing us right now? Are we being ruled by honest and conscientious rulers? Or are we being governed by people who believe that no lie is too brazen to tell?
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