American Politics and the Cold Civil War: The Impact of the Trump Resistance Movement

Kimberley Strassel, a member of The Wall Street Journal editorial board and very articulate and credible journalist, published a book last year which has only gotten more relevant with the events of 2020.

As she makes very clear, her book is not about the critics of the President, or those who are working through normal democratic channels to defeat him in the upcoming presidential election.

Her book is really about the formation of an anti-democratic resistance movement which is plunging the United States ever more deeply into the Cold Civil War, and with events like Portland, turning it into a “hot” civil war.

The growing resistance narrative press, symbolized by the Cable Narrative Network, would be lost without the T word.

But as she noted in her book, the commitment to diversity in the media world and I would add the academic world, has nothing to do with diversity of ideas or shaping the framework for public debate.

As she notes: “The Washington press corps is almost uniformly part of the Resistance,; it hates Trump, no longer bothers to hide it, and works every day to undermine his administration.”

But what is being destroyed is not Donald Trump; it is the Republic.

And that really is the central point of her book.

As she described the Trump haters who have forged the Resistance:

“Those who view their targets their actions as illegitimate view themselves as justified in taking any action necessary to get reid of the occupier.

“Whether that be turning the awesome powers of the Department of Justice and the FBI against an unconventional Presidential campaign or amusing a Supreme Court nominee with uncorroborated sexual allegations, or using gah impeachment process for politics retribution, the resistance views itself in the right.

“But these actions aren’t right.

“In a poker match, one player might not like the look of the other, or his taunts, or his aggressive play.

“But that doesn’t give him the right to cheat — to slip an extra ace up his sleeve or mark cards. This has been the behavior of the Resistance leaders, and it has already cause harm to vital institutions.”

She highlights the extraordinary behavior of FBI Director Comey in interfering in political elections. Forget about the Russians; they were pikers compared the head of the FBI.

And then she looks at the behavior of leaders of the intelligence community engaging in political activities openly.

This is a major threat to democratic institutions.

Forget the “deep state.”

This is really about the born and bread bureaucracy in Washington simply taking over the United States and judging anyone that does not except their silent rule as an “outsider” and not part of their version of the “strategic elite.”

When one considers what Inside the Beltway has delivered in the way of “endless wars” and acquiescence in the Chinese effort to expand its influence within the liberal democratic world, one can easily ask why would Americans not want to elect an American not part of this so-called “elite.”

The book was chilling when published last year; what has happened with Black Lives matter, and the basement dwelling Presidential aspirant, is even more so.

And watching how the political establishment is making up the rules as it goes along to enhance their ability to control the lives of Americans under the guise of the COVID-19 crisis, the threat to liberal democracy is only going up.

And I don’t even need the T word to highlight what the threats are.

And to be clear, what she describes is NOT a political opposition in the traditional meaning of the word within American democracy.

It is a movement to disrupt and redefine the objectives of the United States without the need for a political election.

Any future democratic administration would simply be in the position of ratifying what the Resistance has crafted, created and shaped through its steeled negativity.