Every Republican Candidate for President Must Withdraw and Back Trump
Trump's indictment means the final battle for the soul of America is now. It's time to choose.
The republic has fallen. This is not hysteria. This country is not a republic, though I can’t yet discern which form it fits. Oligarchy?
We have 3 options:
Capitulation: Accept the Orwellian oligarchy and bid a fond farewell to the America we once knew.
Resignation: Declare the Constitution void and form new governments with like-minded states.
Reboot: Crash the system and try to restore it.
To nominate anyone other than Trump is to accept capitulation. Further, any Republican who refuses to end his campaign and back Trump favors capitulation.
Resignation means we forget about national elections and work on our state legislatures to declare the Constitution breached (under the Guarantee clause, amonth others) and form new governments with states that share the American Ideal.
Reboot means uniting behind Trump and supporting the crash and recovery. The “crash” is not necessarily economic and does not intend to crash the US government. Rather, it’s a crash of the party system, and the Republican party in particular. It means putting the current US Constitution before partisanship.
Think of the American people like a heroine in a thriller movie.
Night. A house in the country. We see a small house with a detached garage. The garage has a jagged black hole where the white overhead door used to be.
Cut to a dark lonely highway. A woman driving desperately to get help. Sweaty blond hair stuck to cheeks and forehead. Blood on her knuckles. Bleeding, swollen lips.
Attacked in her home, she escaped to her car and floored it. Through the garage door, down the driveway, and into the street. Now, she’s driving like her life depends on it.
She hears a thump on the roof of the car. She sees a gloved hand—just fingers—at the top of her windshield where it meets the roof. The killer is on her car. Her gas gage is on empty. She has twelve miles to town.
What does our heroine do?
She checks her seatbelt, mashes her right foot on the gas pedal, and steers the car toward a bank of trees lining the road.
She’s betting her life on the seatbelt and air bag. She knows she might die, but she’d rather die fighting and take the sonofabitch on her roof along with her. Heroically, she plows her 2015 “Burnt Orange” Jeep Cherokee into a tall, solid oak tree.
Fade to black.
Two years later. Same small house in the same big wood. Garage door repaired. Camera trolleys closer and closer to the front door. We hear people talking and laughing.
Now, through the vestibule and into the living room. Through a door, we see people in the kitchen. Movement. voices and clinking grow louder. Trolley into the kitchen to see our heroine at a dark high-top table holding a glass of chardonnay. A subtle smile rolls across her lips hiding the faint scar in right dimple.
“You seem great, Carrie,” a woman says.
Carrie looks up at her friend. “I am, Elise. Thanks. Better than ever.”
Slow fade.
Roll credits.
Cue the Crash Scene
As you might have guessed, my preferred strategy is Resignation, which is basically what I described three years ago:
I favor this because of my background in systems. There’s just too much solid research in a variety of fields showing that complex systems that stop working need to be torn down and started over with simple systems that work. Attempts to fix broken complex systems always result in disaster. And, I believe the disaster we’re heading into is a long, low-level civil war—the bloodiest in history—that ends with the US as a vassal state to either China or some global order.
But, I also realize two things that make Resignation unlikely.
Most Republicans at the state level are hopeless optimists who thing a return to the 1980s is just one election away. They believe the United States is exempt from the lifecycle of empires. They are not stupid, but emotionally weak and fearful of anything that upsets their childhood dreams of being a Republican Big Shot.
Most Americans—even most MAGA Americans—would rather see us all go down together than to break the country apart. The idea of saluting a different flag is repugnant. The idea of chanting something other than “U-S-A” terrifies them. They are more attached to the country’s form than to its founding principles.
Overall, Americans are exhausted. We’re tired of being the world’s leading super power. We’re tired of the goalposts moving. We’re tired of our faith being, first dismissed, then mocked, now banned. We’re really kind of tired to being Americans. As a people, we lack the energy to fight such a large political battle.
My second-favorite Reboot, though I harbor strong doubt that it would work. In this scenario, the conflict between good and evil on the political and cultural plane is forced to a head. It means everyone even slightly on the side of good girds his loins and prepares for impact. It means people with White House ambitions set those aside for the good of the country and their posterity. It means we go all-in for Trump in 2024 and stay faithful as the bad guys are prosecuted and the system overhauled back to pre-Progressive Era state. (Think repeal of the 16th and 17th Amendments, elimination of most government departments, and scaling back defense spending to pre-WWII level vis-a-vis GDP.)
Capitulation means giving up, though, and I think that’s exactly what most people want to do, including the “Keebler Elves”: Steve Bannon’s name for the Republican candidate for president who are not named Donald Trump.
For convenience, here’s a table showing the probability vs. my preference.
Is Reboot the Nash Equilibrium?
I haven’t done the math, but my gut tells me this situation has a Nash Equilibrium in Reboot. Even though it’s the middling scenario in both preference and probability, moving from Capitulation to either Resignation or Capitulation exposes a greater down side.
The downside of both Resignation and Capitulation is prolonged human suffering, either through a low-level, enduring civil war and economic depression, or through generations of enslavement to a cruel and foreign power. Both Resignation and Capitulation represent chronic conditions that will never heal. Reboot, on the other hand, is acute. Lots of short-term pain in exchange for long term peace, liberty, and happiness. Only Reboot leaves the United States intact as a republican form of government.
I say I prefer Resignation only because I doubt the Keebler Elves are heroic enough to drop from the race, and Capitulation is repugnant. Capitulation not only end the United States as a going concern, but also ends our experiment self-governance. Capitulation means everything in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence was wrong—that government derives its just powers from the cruelty of the government rather than from the consent of the people.
We should look at the outcomes facing the American people.
Most Americans will prefer Reboot because it leaves the country’s symbols intact.
I should add than any of these scenarios could result in civil war, but the kind of warfare is different. Capitulation and Resignation would likely be chronic wars, while Reboot would be an acute war.
Expect Capitulation
The United States has been on the road to Capitulation for over 100 years. It began with the Progressive Era, which saw fundamental changes to our system of government, including the Federal Reserve Act, the direct election of Senators, the imposition of the Income Tax, Women’s Suffrage, Prohibition, compulsory childhood public education, and numerous other “reforms” that transferred power from the people and the states to the federal government.
Franklin Roosevelt accelerated the loss of freedom by threatening the Supreme Court, winning dictatorial powers for a time.
World War II and the Cold War gave the statists an excuse to build a massive Military-Industrial Complex and maintain a large standing army, which the founders almost unanimously warned against.
The 1960s introduced and co-mingled cultural degradation to the mix, using the power of government, entertainment, media, and education to vilify Judeo-Christian ethics and replace them with the Satanic mantra: “Do what though wilt.”
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, various aspects of the Capitulation seem mutually exclusive and at war with each other. Reagan expanded the military and spy agencies but restored some of the Judeo-Christian ethics and manners that were suppressed in the 60s and 70s. Clinton tried to use the end of the Cold War to roll back the military, but shifted police power to the DOJ, FBI, DEA, and ATF. Bush 43 used 9/11 as the excuse to greatly expand the government’s ability to spy on American citizens and prosecute crimes before the fact, making “thought crimes” an actual offense.
These various roads to serfdom merged during the Trump administration as the Deep State demonstrated it operates completes independently from the elected government. We learned beyond a reasonable doubt that there’s nothing a president or Congress can do to force the voters’ will on the government at large. Even the US military operates independently of civilian control, making its own deals with America’s enemies and openly disobeying lawful orders.
With Trump’s arrest, we see that anyone can be charged with any crime simply for the convenience of that Deep State. It’s almost charming that prosecutor Jack Smith used an obscure and likely unconstitutional law—the Espionage Act—to charge Trump when he could have easily just made up a law out of whole cloth.
In short, there are now no limits on the power of the federal government. None. The Supreme Court lacks the coercive power (i.e., an army) to enforce its rulings. The states lack the will to retain their power. The people lack the emotional fitness to revolt. The aristocracy lacks the loyalty and has fallen in love with power.
The only thing to be done is to shock the system, and nothing would shock the system like the Keebler Elves walking onto a stage together to announce they are all withdrawing from the campaign and throwing their full support behind President Trump. The psychological impact would disrupt Republican donor and planner and consultants for months. Congressional Republican leaders would get the message that the days of “party first” are over. The media would have to deal with the reality of a Trump candidacy through the November election, and the election fraudsters would have to suspect the GOP would no longer turn a blind eye to their manipulations.
The Reboot would be underway, and the shrieks from the left would be music to my ears. Immediately, a permanent, public alignment of Good vs. Evil would take place. There would be no middle ground to stand on. Mitch McConnell would likely leave the GOP, along with Lindsay Graham and a half dozen other Republican Senators and, perhaps, 50 Representatives. The DOJ would judge-shop until it found a judge willing to place Trump in jail without bail until trial. The FBI would begin investigating or arresting the Keebler Elves and ordinary Americans who have supported Trump on social media.
Events would move very quickly as state legislators would find their spines and stones to push back against federal overreach. States would bar state, county, and municipal law enforcement from cooperating with or accepting money from the federal government. Without local support, the FBI and DOJ would be unable enforce warrants, searches, or rulings from federal courts and judges. States would move quickly to ban electronic and third-party voting of any kind, requiring that votes be cast and counted in geographically convenient polling precincts by human beings.
Antifa and BLM terrorists would begin a reign of terror, but local law enforcement would stamp it out brutally and quickly, free from fear of federal action against them.
At this point, both sides would realize they are in a life-or-death struggle. The winner will take all and the loser will lose all. The Biden administration (if Biden’s still around) will order the military to enforce its dictates, but, without the National Guard would struggle to deploy. Reservists would refuse to muster, and right-leaning active duty personnel would sabotage their missions.
But let’s not sugarcoat this. The federal government will kill a lot of people in its quest to maintain control, and each act of government-sponsor terrorism would increase its need to retain power. As the magnitude of their crimes increases, so does their perception of the consequences they will face if apprehended. Would the Pentagon use nukes against Americans? I wouldn’t bet against it.
No Warranties Expressed or Implied
I don’t know who would prevail in this Reboot path. I won’t guarantee that the good guys would prevail. But I can promise this: the long, slow, chronic slide into despotism would end quickly, either in total victory or total defeat. That’s one of the reasons I prefer Resignation and a national break-up over Reboot. But, I also see that a Reboot might be required to motivate the Resignation, which is implied in the Reboot scenario above.
The Reboot’s greatest advantage is that it is Biblical. Both the Old and New Testaments laud those who bring conflicts to a head quickly and offer a binary solution, fighting it out to the end. Read 1 or 2 Maccabees or Matthew 10:34-36:
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.”
Our household is the United States and our enemies are wholly within. The time to choose is upon us. While many who choose a side will suffer and perish, they will do so with dignity. Those who try to remain neutral will die a coward’s death.
Professional politicians are masters at kicking cans down roads, but Trump was the master of bringing issues to a head. Trump accelerated the final battle on numerous issues: energy independence, the border, trade with China, and NAFTA, just to name a few. He was happy to draw fire on himself to force a decision and a direction. His entire career has been about confronting monsters immediately rather than hiding in fear for eternity.
There are many fates worse than death, and this country has experienced them all in recent years. A national reboot of everything would stop that cowardly, costly erosion of liberty. Would end up slaves or freemen, but nothing in between. We could stop speculating and put all our thought and effort into dealing with reality.
Best of all, regardless of the outcome, the Reboot would force us to accept or reject Christ as King. And that is why He deigned to become man and suffer and die on the cross. That’s why He brought a sword, not a dove. That’s why He said, in Revelation 3:16, “Because you were lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit you out of my mouth.”
“A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once. It seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”
―William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
History and Providence have put us on earth at this moment for a reason, just as the screenwriter and director put the woman in the car on a dark, lonely road with a killer on the roof and too little gas to get help. The cavalry isn’t coming to rescue us, just as the sheriff didn’t come to save her.
History has spoken: it’s time to choose.
The future of our country indeed looks bleak. I hold out hope that a large percentage of American people have wittnessed the same as I in the last few years.
Trumps current poll numbers (+30%) against the wanna be GOP nominees is encouraging and this is due to his relentless fight against Progressives & RINO's.
I've reached a point in my life where time ticks faster and I hope what votes I have left help keep America a shining city on a hill.