For news junkies there is one consistent story at the moment: an ongoing and systematic attack on President Trump from without and within. On the outside is a web of the Fourth Estate, the Democratic Party, the Republican Establishment, the Academy and Corporate America that see in the president a threat to the prevailing left-wing cultural agenda. On the inside are the reformers who by dint of influence persuaded the president to rid his staff of Trump partisans so that the administration is essentially anti-Trump in ideology and orientation.
Notwithstanding the internal purge, anti-Trump campaigners foment fear about the White House and the often erratic and impulsive behavior of the president. Here is a Watermelon alliance of Islamists and left wing ideologues that recognizes their victory will come only after American ideals and political identity are destroyed. The major tactic this alliance employs in cultural battle is reducing American groups to silos of sex, race and class. Categorical rights, in the emerging scenario, will replace individual rights, even though this is manifestly in opposition to Constitutional principles.
Steve Coughlin, the Defense analyst, among others, has argued for years that political warfare of the Left operates under the cover of non-violent methods ultimately designed to undermine morale and serve as a prelude to violent action. The game plan was organized by Antonio Gramci in the 1920’s and is still used as the operational perspective against Trump. In fact, as George Orwell pointed out the language of political discourse must turn logic on its head. Tolerance is seen as intolerance, war as peace, truth as domination. Through these post-modern constructs Islamist groups can reach a modus vivendi with the revolutionaries even though policy narratives have them in different camps.
One area that has already captured the imagination of many Americans is the “hate speech” narrative. Hate speech memes are coordinated through a variety of domestic and international forums reducing – in ways once though unimaginable – freedom of speech. From television programming to the State Department the “hate speech” position is front and center limiting what one can say about Islam, immigration, feminism, etc. In fact, the overall objective is a more powerful government than we now have to police the violators of this meme.
The propaganda success of the Left cannot be overemphasized. News cycles are in thrall to the Marxist agenda, without the slightest recognition of the ideological content. President Trump is routinely described as illegitimate and dishonest. Clearly his impulsive response to criticism often reinforces those judgments, but even without his defensive tweets, those claims are repeated so often that they appear to be incontrovertible.
There is little doubt Trump will face this critique throughout his presidency. However, these attacks are not only about President Trump. Those seeking to bury Trump see in this administration as an opportunity to suffocate a vision of America, to place before the public a stark contrast between a “new” America that embraces Marxist assumptions and a traditional America reliant on the rule of law.
Who would have thought that the Trump victory would yield a result of this kind? This America of 2017 often resembles 1984. One wonders if we are going back or going forward.
Herbert London is President of the London Center for Policy Research, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of the book The Transformational Decade (University Press of America). You can read all of Herb London’s commentaries at www.londoncenter.org
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