In 1853, Paris was far different from what it is today.
While it had the Louvre, Notre Dame, and the Arc de Triomphe, it also had
virtually no sanitation and was congested, rife with disease, and regularly
struck by fires that consumed whole blocks at a time. It was also overcrowded,
with narrow crooked streets that were often little more than bogs of mud and
waste, both human and animal.
Another part of the problem was the revolutionaries.
Since the French Revolution in 1789, Paris has experienced in no fewer than
half a dozen revolutions/uprisings, during which protesters/rebels easily
blocked streets by strategically setting fire to a few barrels and carts. The
then-Emperor, Napoleon III, who had been elected after one such coup in 1848,
understood that to fend off uprisings, troops needed to be able to go wherever
they were needed, via robust roads that could not easily be barricaded.
Thus, in 1853, Napoleon III gave
Georges-Eugène Haussmann carte blanche to remake the city from the existing dysfunctional
chaos. Haussmann would spend the next 17 years doing exactly that, razing over
20,000 buildings and building 30,000 others. Entire neighborhoods were
flattened, and thousands of families had to abandon the city for the suburbs.
Simultaneously, he built the world’s most sophisticated sewer and sanitation
system. The entire city was a giant construction zone for almost 20 years
straight.
Haussmann didn’t actually build any of it. He wasn’t an
architect or an engineer; rather, he studied law and music. But he was the
architect who got it done, despite constant outrage and conflict.
The result of Haussmann’s work was simply extraordinary.
Parks, grand boulevards, state-of-the-art buildings, and a sanitation system
unlike any other. Go there today, and you’ll see signs of his influence on
virtually every street and around every corner. Despite what we see in the
news, the city remains one of the most beautiful in the world.
But here’s the thing: the Paris of 1853 would never have
become the Paris of today had Haussmann not taken a wrecking ball to it.
Well, America in 2026 needs just such a wrecking ball.
Our country is fundamentally broken. There are an
estimated 40 million illegal aliens living among us (if one is honest about the
numbers), with taxpayers forced to finance them. From nullification-minded
juries to woke prosecutors, we are failing innocents. We have out-of-control
government debt, a majority of which is likely fueled by fraud. We have half
the federal judges thinking that they, rather than the President, run the
country.
We have a stultifying level of
government regulation that’s strangling productivity and innovation while, at
the same time, Big Brother harnesses technology to spy on and destroy the few
vestiges of freedom that remain. Even more insidiously, we have schools,
governments, and regulatory organizations actively seeking to destroy the basic
merit system that has historically been the foundation of success in America.
And perhaps most infuriating of all is the fact that our
“democratic” form of government is anything but. The truth is, Democrats have
been stealing elections for decades, with 1960 and 2020 being the two most
obvious examples. What’s worse, a handful of Democrats in RINO clothing—i.e.,
Thune, Collins, Murkowski, et al.—are working with Democrats to allow it to
continue.
Together, these problems spell the end of the United
States. They spell the end of freedom, capitalism, prosperity, and ultimately,
the Republic. The reality is, Congress is a worthless yoke on the necks of the
American body politic. Blue city and state governments across the country are a
cancer within. An activist judiciary undermines the very purpose of an
independent judiciary.
If only we had an Emperor Napoleon III and his architect
Haussmann. Sadly, we don’t. Leftists call Donald Trump a tyrant or a fascist,
but he’s neither. No, Donald Trump doesn’t act like a tyrant, but then he
doesn’t act like a man on a mission either...but he should.
He should take a page from Teddy Roosevelt, circa 1907.
Roosevelt wanted to send the Great White Fleet on a global goodwill and
power-projection tour, but Congress didn’t want to pay for it. Roosevelt sent
it anyway, saying he had the money to send it halfway around the world, and
Congress could leave it there or pay for the return.
The challenges America faces today cannot be solved by
timid governance. They require bold moves. President Trump should act like a
leader and help save the country rather than allowing the judiciary, Congress,
and the bureaucracy to barricade his every move like revolutionaries blocking
the streets of 19th-century Paris.
First, he should send the Vice President to take the
reins as the President of the Senate. Vance should use every tool at his
disposal to eliminate the filibuster and pass the SAVE America Act. The reality
is, when a handful of Senators can stifle the longstanding desires of 85% of
the population on the most important issue in generations, they’re risking
becoming illegitimate…and that’s dangerous.
Next, Trump should ignore federal judges who think they
run the country. Force Congress or the Supreme Court to do their jobs and rein
them in.
He should immediately curtail all federal spending going
to any state or city that acts as a sanctuary for illegal aliens or provides
benefits to such individuals. He should arrest, for treason, any government
official who carries out sanctuary policies and should put deportations on
turbo.
He should sign an executive order nationalizing the
notion of “three strikes, you’re out.” Using the Justice Department’s civil
rights powers, the president should declare that all criminals convicted of
three violent felonies are to be locked up for life.
Finally, Trump should shutter the Education Department.
He doesn’t have to wait for Congress to act. He can simply stop spending a
single dollar on the department. Leftist institutions, particularly schools,
are where most of America’s problems began, and stopping federal involvement is
a first step in fixing that.
American society is splintering between the left
and…well…patriots, and Donald Trump doesn’t have much time to leave his mark on
history. Thus far, he’s talked a good game, but accomplished relatively little
because he’s allowed the entrenched powers to handicap him every step of the
way.
Most Americans recognize that the Democrats are
destroying the country and everything that made it great in the first place.
They’ve literally voted for a man who promised to turn back that tide three
times in a row. But sadly, very little has happened because the legislature,
the judiciary, the bureaucracy, and their media/NGO allies have circled the
wagons to keep an interloper from threatening their grift.
Fixing problems hurts. Haussmann may have been hated in
his time, but Paris and the world are better because he had the stones to do
what needed to be done. Similarly, Donald Trump needs to stop being a wimp and
become the hero who takes a wrecking ball to America’s leftist cancer.
If he truly wants to be the man to Make America Great
Again, he’s going to have to stop allowing those who literally and figuratively
want him dead to twist the rules and run out his clock. He won’t get another
chance. And if he doesn’t succeed, America likely won’t either.
Follow me on X at ImperfectUSA
