A Senate of Benedict Arnolds...

Benedict Arnold was a well-respected and courageous officer in the American Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. He fought in half a dozen battles and was central to winning the critical Battle of Saratoga in 1777, where he suffered a leg injury that sidelined him for the next two years.

They say that idle hands are the devil’s workshop, and that appears to apply to legs as well. Over the next two years, Arnold’s inherent victim complex blossomed. Others were, he suggested, getting credit for his actions or getting promoted when he deserved such.

In 1779, Arnold would take a step that would change his life: He married Peggy Shippen, a member of a powerful loyalist family in Philadelphia. Eventually, his jealousy would get the best of him, and he contracted to betray the Americans. By at least as early as July of that year, he was giving the British information on American troop strengths, movements, and munition locations.

George Washington knew none of this and trusted Arnold and put him in charge of West Point in August 1780. One of the most important posts in the country, it was the spot from which the Americans commanded the Hudson River. Less than two weeks after receiving his command, Arnold agreed to a plan, in exchange for $20,000 ($3,500,000 today), to surrender the post to the British in September.

The surrender never occurred, however, because Arnold’s British contact, Major John André, was captured along with the plans for the betrayal. André was hanged, and Arnold escaped to join the British. The British immediately commissioned him as a brigadier general in their army, but most soldiers considered him dishonorable, and many refused to follow him.

Following the war, Arnold would spend most of the rest of his life in London, where the king liked him, but many British citizens and military men despised him. In America, his name has become synonymous with treachery.

Although Arnold’s ultimate plan never came to fruition, had it done so, it could have changed the outcome of the war. Washington said of the plan that “Such an event must have given the American cause a dangerous, if not a fatal wound.”

And that is the crux of why betrayal is so dangerous. It’s one thing to understand that your enemy seeks your destruction. It’s another thing altogether when one of your own, one upon whom you’re counting on to man the ramparts, turns and lets the enemy in. It might not be fatal to your endeavor, but it could be and most certainly will endanger the mission.

Sylvester Stallone recently called Donald Trump the new George Washington. That’s not quite true, but like Washington, Trump is trying to carve out of an enemy-infested wilderness a great nation seeking freedom and prosperity. Also, like Washington, Trump is faced with numerous people who are theoretically on his side while, in reality, aligning with the enemy.

And who is this enemy? The Swamp. The Borg. Basically, the government that controls virtually every element of American life, from baby formula to school curriculum to college funding to healthcare to retirement, not to mention banking and justice and speech…if you object.

Ostensibly, Trump should have a mandate given that he won the popular vote and the Electoral College, gave the GOP a Senate majority, and kept the majority in the House. The first test of that mandate came recently and it didn’t go particularly well.

In the Senate, with Mitch McConnell leaving his leadership role, there were three competitors to replace him: Rick Scott of Florida, John Thune of South Dakota, and John Cornyn of Texas. Hardcore MAGA firebrand Mike Lee or bomb-thrower Rand Paul weren’t even considered. Of the three considered, two are virtual Democrats, with the Conservative Review giving Cornyn a Liberty Score of 54% and Thune an abysmal 51%, while Scott scored a respectable 86%.

Both Cornyn and Thune are, at their core anti-Trump, while Scott has been a staunch supporter of the president. Thune, who said after January 6, “What former President Trump did to undermine faith in our election system and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power is inexcusable,” is seen as K Street’s favorite and endorsed Tim Scott in the GOP primary. In 2016, the immigration dove and gun control fan Cornyn ridiculed Trump’s border wall, was booed at the Texas GOP convention in 2022, and, in 2023 said Trump couldn’t win as his time had passed.

In a shameful last act, McConnell set a secret vote, and Thune came out on top. The fact that the Senate GOP dispatched an aggressively MAGA leader and instead elected someone who’s basically a Democrat tells you that Senate GOPers don’t care about what the American people are looking for.

What’s more, at the same time, in a closely split Senate, Trump’s pick for Attorney General, Matt Gaetz withdrew after it became clear there would not be 50 Republicans to confirmed. 

The Swamp, of course, is not just the Senate. With Trump’s picks of Pete Hegseth for Defense, RFK Jr. for HHS, Tuli Gabbard for DNI, and Tom Homan as Border Czar, larger Washington is reacting with horror and fear. Employees at HHS are threatening to quit, Justice Department lawyers are lawyering up and “freaking out“ while DoD employees are “alarmed“ and governors are promising not to assist in deportations.

But those fears, which are exactly what are necessary to begin trimming the bloat from government, only exist because of Trump’s picks, and those picks (and Trump) will only succeed if the Senate approves his nominees. And that’s a problem.

During his first term, Trump’s picks were approved at a rate far slower than Obama’s or Bush’s. With a McConnell clone running the Senate, there’s concern of a repeat. While the Senate is by design supposed to be a check on the tyranny of the masses, it’s rare that a president must battle his own party to do his job.

Obama had a similar mandate in 2008, and Democrats gave him everything he wanted and more. But Democrats are a core part of the Swamp while Trump is seeking to battle it.

And there’s the rub…

Democrats are the Swamp, and so too is the bureaucracy. But sadly, much of the GOP is, as well.

Trump has his work cut out for him in this uphill battle he’s taken on. But if there’s anything to be gleaned from his picks so far, it’s that, unlike in 2016, this time he knows what he’s up against and is planning to take the fight to the Swamp with bare fists and brass knuckles if necessary, and it will be.

If Trump continues to assemble a team more interested in solving America’s problems than in being feted by the elites, he just might triumph over the Benedict Arnolds who populate the establishment GOP, those whose primary goal in life seems to be to go along to get along, accumulating ever more power and money along the way.

 

Prosperity is the Best Revenge...

Now that that’s settled… From an historical perspective there’s some virtue in killing all of your enemies.  Julius Caesar didn’t and was killed almost immediately after having himself declared dictator for life. 

In 49 BC dictator meant something different than it does today.  Dictator was an honorable, temporary position that was only implemented when the Republic faced some dire or existential threat that required a firm hand to fix. Although vested with almost absolute power, a dictator would often be appointed for a finite period of time, perhaps 6 months, to deal with the problem and then would go back to being whatever he was before, a senator, a general, a citizen, whatever.  Caesar’s problem was he had kept extending his dictatorship until he had himself declared dictator for life. A month later he was killed by senators, some of whom were his friends, including, famously, Brutus.

His reign stands in stark contrast to that of his adopted son, Caesar Augustus. Augustus reigned for 41 years (the longest of any emperor), ruled over a relatively peaceful period of consolidation and prosperity and set the stage for the Romans to remake the western world, saying: “I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.” While speaking literally about the city, he was also metaphorically speaking about the Empire, having prepared the way for its long life.

The difference between Caesar and Augustus?  Augustus killed all of his enemies when consolidating power. By the time he took absolute control over the Republic and transformed it into the Empire, he had no enemies left, or at least none who were willing to stick their necks out to challenge him. Unlike most Emperors, Augustus died of old age…

As appealing as killing all of his enemies might sound in an historical perspective, I would advise Donald Trump to avoid doing so today. Some reasons are obvious, like the fact that Augustus didn’t have to deal with a hostile media and the army of lemmings who follow it. A more substantial reason is that again, unlike Rome, might does not make right, we have laws and traditions and morals that prohibit doing so.  But more persuasively is the simple fact that it’s unnecessary.

Augustus isn’t known as Rome’s greatest emperor because he killed all his enemies… no, he’s known as Rome’s greatest emperor because he laid the foundations for a relative peace and prosperity throughout the Roman world for two centuries.  Donald Trump can do the same in America without killing his enemies.

Last week I gave a list of 10 somewhat high level things Trump should do immediately upon taking office.  These included sealing the border, deporting illegal aliens and cleaning house in the justice / military departments.  Here I’ll suggest two specific things Trump can do that will set America up to prosper, and do so without rivers of blood.

First Trump must target those people in government who have weaponized the state in an effort to delegitimize him and keep him from office.  That doesn’t mean people who disagree with him, even if they do so vociferously.  No, the people he needs to investigate are those people who used the police power of the state to persecute him and illegally jail his advisors and J6 defendants.

Of all of the things that distinguish a tyranny from a free nation, freedom of speech is paramount.  A close second is a police power that is exercised based on actual laws, not on the whims and lies of politicians.  If citizens cannot feel confident that they will be unmolested if they do not break laws, what is their motivation to obey any laws? 

I’m not suggesting people like Clinton, Pelosi, Schiff, Chaney etc. be jailed unconstitutionally.  On the contrary, I’m suggesting they be investigated, legally and transparently, and, if appropriate, charged.  And it’s not only the household names that must be investigated, so too should the leadership of every agency that played a role in putting the country through the last 8 years of unconstitutional hell and bringing her to the brink of becoming 3rd world tyranny.

Second, Trump should immediately rescind JFK’s most infamous legacy, from 1962:  “That year, JFK signed executive order 10988 allowing the unionization of the federal work force. This changed everything in the American political system. Kennedy's order swung open the door for the inexorable rise of a unionized public work force in many states and cities.

This in turn led to the fantastic growth in membership of the public employee unions—The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the teachers' National Education Association.

They broke the public's bank. More than that, they entrenched a system of taking money from members' dues and spending it on political campaigns. Over time, this transformed the Democratic Party into a public-sector dependency.”

That Executive Order, more than perhaps any in the 20th century, changed American history for the worse. From that point forward, federal employees – and later state and local employees – could and did unionize against the American people.  Rather than carrying out the directives of the Executive Branch, their goal was to extract as much money and benefits as possible from the American people, and do so while accomplishing the least amount of actual work possible. 

Skeptical?  In 2021 the average American private sector employee earned a compensation (salary + benefits) of $88,152 while the average federal employee earned $143,643, fully 62% more. And federal employees quit at a rate that is 75% lower than private sector employees. Today there are 2.95 million federal employees, or one federal employee for every 118 Americans, whereas in 1962 it was one for every 226. This is the enforcement arm of the regulatory state that has a chokehold on America. 

And this is where Trump has the opportunity to change the trajectory of America’s future. The Heritage Foundation states that federal regulation costs America somewhere between $300 & $700 billion a year. If Trump can rein in the federal leviathan, that money would stay in American pockets, potentially adding 1% to our GDP annually. To put that in perspective, GDP has grown by 2.1% over the past 20 years.  A 1% addition result in a doubling GDP in 24 years vs. 36 years at that rate. (Rule of 72) If he were to cut the federal workforce back to 1962 levels, Trump would eliminate another $200 billion from federal spending which would add to productivity. 

There is no single bigger opportunity today than freeing up Americans and American industry to compete and create. Create better widgets, write smarter AI, make more efficient cars or develop the next Pet Rock or Christmas antlers. As Johan Norberg chronicles in The Capitalist Manifesto, it’s not capitalism per se. that creates prosperity, its free markets and choice.  History shows that there is no one better at finding and filling opportunities than American businesses, no one better at creating products and services consumers desire than American entrepreneurs.  If Donald Trump can unleash American creativity and productivity even back to the 1980s levels (3.1% GDP growth) nevermind 1950’s levels (4.2%) he will vanquish his enemies to the dustbin of history far more effectively than he would by turning them into martyrs…

10 Things Donald Trump Can Do To Make America Great Again

As I wrote last week, I think Donald Trump is going to win. I think he’ll take office in January, but the two months between will be chock full of Democrat tricks trying to delegitimize his victory, coordinated riots seeking to push America into chaos before he’s inaugurated, and the swamp seeking to do everything it can to insulate itself from the potential consequences of a Trump presidency. 

January 20, 2025 will not be a checkered flag moment. On the contrary, it will be the starting line for a four year race to save the nation.  As such, we need to look at what exactly needs to be done going forward and below is a list of 10 things President Trump needs to do. There’s much more, but I’d suggest this is a place to start.

#1 – Seal the border and deport all 30 million illegal immigrants. Just like last time, Democrats, RINOs and activist judges are going to try and stop him.  He cannot let them succeed.  Begin by declaring the nation is under assault and deploying the Army to the border until the wall is complete. The first step in deporting the millions of illegals is stopping all of their benefits. Next, given that they will need food and shelter when the benefits are curtailed, establish exit processing centers where they can come and find shelter and food and be processed out of the country.  Next, stop all federal funds from going to “sanctuary” states and cities who do not cooperate.  Finally, enforce federal legislation against hiring illegals, and send employers to jail.  Of course none of this will be enough, but it’s a beginning.

#2 – Resurrect the 10^th Amendment.  For those who don’t remember, the Amendment reads: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Most of the things the federal government does are simply unconstitutional. Assign a crack team of constitutional scholars / lawyers to go over the federal government with a fine tooth comb. Starting with the federal government’s list of its own agencies, examine every single department and agency and highlight those for which there is clear Constitutional authority. For every other one, craft a plan for their dissolution. For easy things like NPR, PBS, NEA etc. which are inconsequential, make the dissolution immediate. For others, like HHR and other wealth redistribution programs, where sometimes generations of families have been raised to suckle at the government teat, create a three year plan that reduces their budget by 33% a year for three years, ending with the complete dissolution at the beginning of year four.  For those agencies / departments that remain, implement zero based budgeting so that they are forced every single year to make the case for the money they are seeking from the federal government. 

#3 – Restructure the Justice Department, the FBI the CIA and the Pentagon.  Fire the leadership of all four – up to and including the top 100 senior managers / officers of each with severance packages. Investigate every one of them and for those suspected of treason / incompetence over the last eight years and charge them. For the rest, give them the opportunity to demonstrate they deserve to be part of the organization if they’d like their jobs back. Their success on that score should be based on two things, competency and a demonstrated allegiance to the Constitution. 

#4 – Ban every DEI program and race or sex based program in the United States government.  Make it crystal clear to Americans that every single job, scholarship or contract associated with the federal government is based on one single thing, merit.  At the same time make it known that corporations making policy based on DEI and the climate change cult are violating their fiduciary responsibility and that officers and directors collectively and individually are liable for those violations. 

#5 – Abolish the IRS and the income tax and implement a flat tax or better yet, the FairTax.  This will, perhaps more than anything but the 10^th Amendment action above, drive a stake through the heart of the swamp beast.  There is a reason that the seven richest counties in America (out of a total of 3,143) are suburbs of Washington, DC: government and lobbying.  And few things drive more lobbying than tax breaks. 

#6 – Negotiate a peace between Russia and Ukraine.  Neither wanted this war and a month after Russia invaded there was a peace deal on the table both supported, until it was torpedoed by Joe Biden.  This useless and wasteful war is accomplishing nothing while costing hundreds of thousands of lives and causing trillions of dollars of damage to the participants and the rest of the world. 

#7 – Remove the United States from the Paris Climate Accord. This globalist, anti-capitalist fiction is nothing more than an attempt to give elites control over the lives of citizens around the world and drives the destruction of prosperity everywhere its tentacles reach.  At the same time, eliminate every “climate change” or “green energy” driven policy in the federal government and make a plan for unleashing America’s true energy potential from fracking and nuclear power.

#8 – Use Congressional power vested in it by Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 of the Constitution (the Elections Clause) to guarantee federal election integrity by requiring Voter ID and paper ballots in every state and outlaw mail in ballots for anyone other than the military. 

#9 – Craft a plan that sunsets every law and regulation in the federal register within a decade.  Put a framework in place for Congress to reevaluate every law on the books over the following ten years and each one should face a renewal vote. Those that pass with 60% of both houses can remain on the books indefinitely while all others sunset after a decade unless passed again. 

#10 – Pass a law that explicitly states that it is illegal for government agencies to coerce or motivate private enterprises to accomplish desired tasks that are illegal for the government to do on its own.  This applies to bank coercion of disapproved industries, data gathering on US citizens or censorship of free speech among others. 

Of course, as Trump learned in his first term, the swamp is a tenacious beast that will not go gently into that good night.  There will be gnashing of liberal teeth, there will be activist judges with God complexes trying to throw judicial roadblocks everywhere and there will be RINO calls to work across the isle.  He should ignore all of that and march swiftly towards returning the government to its originally intended, natural, limited state.  Doing so will unleash an economic and entrepreneurial juggernaut never before seen and will be sufficient to create a giant budget surplus.  That surplus will be sufficient to eliminate the national debt in less than a generation and with it will go most of the problems America faces today. 

There’s of course much more, but if he does half the things on this list Trump will easily have earned himself a place on Mt. Rushmore.