“We must each face the depths of our own depravity so that when God’s word tells us that Jesus came to rescue people from every trial and entanglement of life and give them His Spirit to change them from inside out, we will reach out for Him with both hands. That’s salvation! That’s transformation!” Truth for Life: 365 Day Devotions by Alastair Begg (2021), page 326, the November 14 reading.
Big Time Change
I read the quotation above first thing this morning at 6:07 AM. Do you ever feel like God’s coincidences are happening at an accelerating pace? It doesn’t last long; maybe days. Kind of like the beginning of Ghostbusters—when you realize via signs that the Key Master, the Gate Keeper, or Gozer the Gozerian are coming, perhaps just around the corner in the library or at the top of your apartment building? Something like that.
With little question, the Election of 2024 was a decisive turning point in American history and possibly the history of the West. It’s not a short-term turn or even a cyclical turn, but a truly major turn that the Venerable Bede, if he was today a Wall Street analyst rather than an early Middle Ages monk, would call a “secular turn.” It’s something that only happens every, say, 30 – 100 years. It’s a turning point that will not allow a turning back. It charts the future.
Sometimes, such sea change happens in a day, like it did last week on November 5, 2024 (Election Day). Sometimes, it happens over a couple of years (the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union, 1989 – 1991). Sometimes, it happens over 5 – 10 years, as in the 1960s, and, sometimes, it happens in a divine instant (the Resurrection).
If you liked the result of the U.S. presidential election, you might be feeling like this and want to celebrate. (A romp worth the entire 2:24.) If you didn’t like the result, then you likely hated it, and you might be feeling like this (that is, if you can muster any humor at all). In the latter category, some are cutting their hair, stopping hetero “encounters,” or, even worse, cutting off family and friends. (The latter video is worth the entire 5:03, suspecting you need longer to recover.)
An American military general once wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in the 1990s that American democracy is always messy. Freedom and order are complementary, but those who lean towards order and “good taste,” like most of the Leftish elites in Europe and America, are often frustrated with the U.S. This recent post talks to Europeans about America and, I think, gets right what makes America different from Europe.
But anyone with her or his eyes open and a knowledge of America and its presidential election history could see this election result coming a mile away. Europe is often a leading indicator, and Europe in the face of border confusion (immigration from the Middle East) and growing Big Brother (the European Union) has been growing more “conservative,” on a basis, for years now. Most important, all of the U.S. polls were indicating that about 3 out of 4 Americans did not think the U.S. is on a good course. We want significant change, and not just a new president.
We wanted change, BIG TIME.
The Metamorphosis of the American “Bourgeoisie”
Unlike when I was a teenager, most Americans today are familiar with It’s a Wonderful Life, one of the top and most beloved movies of all time. I offer the climatic scene at top near the movie’s end where George Bailey has his metamorphosis (for the plot, see here), much like Ebenezer Scrooge when he wakes up on Christmas Day or Dorothy when she wakes up at home. This is what the journey of the last four years for many of the People of the United States has been like. Maybe the journey started with President Obama; I don’t know.
I identify strongly with George and Mary Bailey from the fictional rural town of Bedford Falls because my father was a small town community banking CEO. Our life in Irvington, Virginia (Lancaster County) by the Chesapeake Bay in the 1960s into the 1980s was still very much like life portrayed in the movie. Dad and Mom remind me of George and Mary. We were certainly middle class compared to any “city” standards, and all of my friends and their families were, too (if they weren’t “almost middle” or just getting along).
As Contributor Deirdre McCloskey says in the PC clip, also above, for over 200 years since the early days of the Industrial Revolution, the bourgeoisie or middle class across the West has been vilified by out-of-touch intellectual elites with accelerating intensity. Such pointed animosity and even hatred began perhaps with Rousseau in France, found comprehensive ideological backing in Karl Marx, gained a solid beachhead in America after World War I, then began earning real legitimacy via the Frankfurt School in the 1960s.
Stalin and Mao took pride in mass butchering Russia’s and China’s middle class. They sport-massacred the best people they had.
The Radical Left’s utter disgust for Christian families who formed free political economies entered American culture full force after the Russian Revolution in 1917 through many novels, such as Sinclair Lewis‘ Babbit (1922). It then jumped from print into TV and movies after the McCarthy years and the so-called conformist 1950s (they really weren’t) in productions like The Graduate (1967) and All in the Family (with Archie Bunker, 1971 – 1979). (The irony is that Marx and others were supposedly trying to help middle class capitalists, all the while despising them. Sound familiar?)
In stark contrast to Marxists and similar ideologues, Deirdre McCloskey is a classic liberal and one of the most caring defenders of the middle class on the planet. Her ground-breaking writing on the importance of “bourgeois” Christian ethics in transforming the West since the 1600s is special. No doubt, Deirdre is horrified by Donald Trump’s dark side (and she favored open borders in 2018), but I would bet she understands completely what happened on November 5.
(If you want another opinion similar to mine from someone else who doesn’t like Mr. Trump’s public persona much of the time, see Peggy Noonan here. If you want a sober assessment of the 2024 Election with some tips about moving ahead from a PC board member, see Frank Hill here. If you want another sober assessment of the 2024 election with an opinion documented by recent books essentially agreeing with the theme of this post, see Jim Bacon here. Worldviews and The People’s allegiance to them, the times they are a-changin’. The last link is Bob Dylan live in England in 1965 in black and white. A classic. Worth the 3:28.)
In many ways Donald Trump to his opponents is the epitomization of all that’s bad, greedy, and depraved in America. “Aristocratic” old school wealthy consider him nouveau riche or tacky, and learned intellectuals consider him base, crass; a stupid, blunt instrument. He is disliked for his directness, name calling, tendency to exaggerate or, as they say, lie, and his apparent narcissism. (I don’t know him personally so I don’t know. But those I do who have spent time with him like him and say he is a great listener.) No doubt, Mr. Trump has certainly turned his name into one of the world’s most powerful brand names—literally!
The reality is the Former- and President-Elect was an upper class (but no silver spoon) kid from Queens who made it big at a surprisingly young age on Fifth Avenue as one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs. Memorably, first in national public view, he produced a beautiful pink tower on Fifth Avenue next to Central Park with his name on it, Trump Tower. He started in the business he knew and had been trained in, construction and real estate development, and then took his talents and team from there into many other related and unrelated businesses. During the heady “junk bond” days of the 1980’s, Mr. Trump became heavily associated with high finance on Wall Street, just as I was entering the investment banking business, reading the business press everyday.
(“Junk bonds” became high yield and mezzanine bonds, a formerly missing and now extremely sophisticated, vital, and deep sector of the world’s capital markets, bridging and supporting the even more sophisticated and vital equity and debt markets. All of this finance capability is good for all Americans, the world, and the middle class, and Donald Trump was a major player constantly in the business news.)
Mr. Trump had many business successes and many failures (well more than a majority of business ventures fail), but kept moving in hotels and related recreational property like golf courses (what he knows) and now has an empire there. And more relevant to the public eye, he eventually moved directly into the media business with the popular TV show, The Apprentice (2004 – 2017).
In sum, as a billionaire entrepreneur, DJT is the perfect foil for overreaching government as a launching pad and control center for worldwide Communism or other forms of tyranny.
Mr. Trump knows he owes his life’s and family’s success to the American Dream and the freedom that all immigrants seek. Though you might not like each and every Trump family member’s persona, Mr. Trump has an amazing family. It means everything to him. Archie Bunker, the Donald is not, though he understands and relates to Archie extremely well.
Let’s face it, the 2024 Election presented American voters with a binary, easy choice (for most) between two almost opposite candidates, neither of whom many voters would have picked themselves to run, with radically different political platforms and experiences (though Ms. Harris ran to the middle toward Mr. Trump during the campaign). I gave up expecting another President Eisenhower as president when Bill Clinton was elected.
What’s different about Donald Trump is that the average voter knew he loves traditional America and is dedicated to improving it with all the energy he has—which is considerable, even for a young man—in a way they agree with. No one doubts he is talented and works with excellent people and will do his very best for America. He certainly calls his opponents names, but he loves the American middle class, primarily those with income of more than $30,000 and less than $100,000. He would never think of calling those below his income level (which is nearly everyone) names like “deplorables.” Unlike his opponents, who say the phrase “MAGA Republicans” (now at least 75 million in number) with contempt, he avoided demonizing most of his opponents’ supporters (except those on the Far Left, who are few in number). Duh: Politicians should not demonize voters they need to win over.
What happened in the Election last week (as happened in Europe in the 1800s, 1900s, and 2000s numerous times) was this: America’s middle class decisively rejected Marxism in its most recent forms: neo-marxism, postmodernism, and identitarianism (the latter two being arguably Marxist off-shoots). The United States declared independence in 1776 to rid itself of monarchic, autocratic, and tyrannical rule and to outlaw inherited social status (aristocracy via blood, rather than merit).
The Result: The People rule in America and its Americans in the middle of the bell curve who do the ruling. They are normal; they are the Middle Class. Every statistical class or category filled with nature (and especially with human beings) has a bell curve. That’s just applied mathematics.
Why did the Middle Class vote this way? Because Americans remain Christian or at the very least Judeo-Christian in a cultural sense. Their heritage, traditions, culture, and institutions produce a politics still directly and strongly connected to the nation’s founding. Political parties that serve up followers of Marx and their Radical Left platforms are not compatible with American culture and the Constitution, which is based on Classical Judeo-Christian (CJC) morality and governance. On November 5, the American people across the U.S., including every “swing state,” sent the message loud and clear: We have had enough.
The Map
Screenshot of 2024 Election Results
You have probably seen various versions of this map showing voting by party at the local level, rather than the state level. The point is obvious: Except in large cities and a very few heritage Left areas, America wants good and limited government. Today, one cannot say that those in the red areas are uneducated or unenlightened. Large government political following only thrives where voters are close to the institutions of radical ideology (urban areas) or are dependent to some significant extent on the largess or money of the gargantuan American “welfare state” (mostly in our cities and on the coasts). Americans in the red territory surrounding these “elite” or run-down urban areas are tired of the “intellectuals” trying to tell them what to do. In essence, many of these elite Americans do not know serious family or payroll responsibilities.
For decades now, information, knowledge, and education are extensively available to everyone, everywhere at the touch of the Search button. PhDs and corporate giants commonly live and work much of the time from their rural homes. In addition, Americans have migrated from North to South and more recently from the West Coast. Lastly, surprisingly “conservative” immigrants have entered the U.S. from Central and South America. People always moderate each other the more they mix. As a result, over the last ten to fifteen years, culture has moved across America from the left in cities to the center-middle in rural areas (while the Democrat Party has moved hard Left).
In fact, I wish I could find true so-called “rednecks” (you know, those who “cling to guns or religion” with “antipathy to people who aren’t like them”) in the rural area in Virginia where I grew up (with such a line in my family going back to the British Isles before William the Conqueror and to present day Germany before that), but they just aren’t as plentiful (or red) as they used to be. Indeed, in hindsight, that was passing quickly in the 1950s (and not always for the better).
The normal average person and family was and is quite smart and quite capable and wants to earn status in American society based on their own character, merit, and hard work, thank you very much. They smell a swindling rat a mile away. They want normal, not weird. These “red area people” love America and want to keep it “this” way. They worked hard to get here, and they want newcomers to be just as dedicated to preserving what makes America an outstanding country and to doing their part. While they are quite charitable when appropriate or necessary, they really dislike freeloaders.
The Middle Class on Election Day was voting against a host of micro political issues: failure to enforce extremely important laws like border laws, cheating at the polls, excessive power wielding by mostly public government- or education-sector bureaus and unions (federal and state swamps), the idea that January 6 was some kind of radical coup against the Constitution (versus the true law and order chaos across America during the Summer of 2020), the unbelievable extent of lawfare or weaponization of law employed today at every level of society to support political parties and agendas, the extreme level of rights litigation under federal law encouraged by the feds, and Government’s truly Orwellian treatment of the People during the China Virus Crisis.
And let’s not forget the #1 micro issue, economics: inflation, energy, jobs, and opportunity. The economic part of the American Dream. Who you going to vote for there?
(And this short economic list doesn’t include the gargantuan macro economic issues like a wealth tax, an unrealized capital gains tax, and the imposition of crippling estate/death taxes. These issues were not front-and-center in the Election debate. They lurked in the background. However, they are the issues today that define the difference between Communism in form with government control of everyone against the limited government established in the Founding and the Constitution. Where true class struggle rages today. America first. Harris was clearly a Marxist wolf dressed up in sheep’s clothing. The Far Left elements of the DP hoped the Middle Class wouldn’t notice. DJT’s use of tariffs merely enforces fairness in trade and anti-dumping and is used as a negotiating tactic. In my opinion, it’s doubtful that the Era of Trump economic policy will result in the New Mercantilism or worldwide Depression.)
But, in fact, again, in my opinion, America voted on the basis of its worldview against a whole host of big, macro ideologies (as the Middle Class in Europe and America has done since at least 1848). Here’s a list of some of these large and small worldviews voted against in the 2024 Election, repeating a few: marxism, neo-marxism, fascism (a Leftward ideology), socialism, communism, postmodernism, identitariansim, wokeism, transhumanism, scientism, and presentism. Americans like “capitalism,” but even today, most do not think of it in ideological terms.
The Middle Class loves America, its story, and its heritage with all its warts. They are done apologizing. It is time to move on.
Kamala Harris’ rejection also involves many of America’s vaunted and prestigious institutions: the mainstream media, the highest rated universities, most of the public educational sector existing without competition, mainline churches, much of the medical sector, and woke corporate America (generally the largest corporations, not the mid-sized to small businesses forming the core of our economy). Those large institutions are all failing the nation to some significant degree due to dishonesty, self-dealing, and flakey ideology.
American must protect Americans, and that means rethinking our strategic cultural, social, political, and economic direction and energy.
“Progressivism” is Dead
What I would call the still innocent American traditionalism of the 1970s (post 1960s crazy) has reasserted itself in faith, family, freedom, and flag, in that order. The idea that the Far Left, as embraced so senselessly by the Democratic Party, has some kind of monopoly on “progress” is completely bogus. That idea is dead because it’s proven itself to be largely false over the last 60 years. Class party-loyalties are flipping, and the DP appears leaderless on a comparative basis.
In fact, many of the tenets that “conservatives” have followed since soon after 0 A.D. have, as said before, unlocked the power of the ages. This is not debatable. No one has a monopoly on justice or time (other than God in the minds of theists). Today, America accepts a much larger federal state than existed in the late 1800s, but it also knows that the Welfare State is failing us now, terribly. It must be reformed.
We are materially better off but growing spiritually and literally bankrupt. We Boomers are leaving our grandchildren with a hell of a mess unless America can change course, protect America jobs, skills, and culture, strengthen our military, and balance the budget. Today, this is broadly recognized across the country.
President Trump has created a new, greatly diversified coalition across “identities.” We see this in the November 5 voting trends. Mr. Trump improved across the board in almost every voter category measured.
Americans have rejected the excesses, only possible in a decadent society, that are killing male/female relations, the family, CJC morality, and freedom. America is experiencing an Awakening, and it is growing more Christian, not less. (Like the pre-election polls, the statistics on this saying religion is declining are often biased and lack perspective. I believe they are wrong.) Evangelicals and Catholics swarmed to the GOP on November 5.
We do not have the terminology to express a full rejection of atheistic marxist worldview and its off-shoots, but it will develop. We can start by getting rid of the word bourgeoisie; human beings always follow their thinking with better language.
If you are asking, “What is wrong with Christian nationalism?”, you are not focusing on the most serious issues and are asking the wrong question. If you are throwing up your hands at America being so divided it will never have solidarity again, you are wrong.
Sure, it will get very ugly, very quickly as we stumble onward. America is messy. It is already happening. The GOP could overstep, and it will make mistakes. The Left will reassert itself in a different and more appealing form. It usually does. Politics reverses itself. This too shall pass. There is a time and place for everything under the sun.
But there is no moral and pragmatic turning around now from what we’ve learned in the social changes and experiments of the last 60 years, particularly those ideologically- and technologically-driven during the last ten.
Joy in Our Inspired System and Character
We will respect the Constitution, listen, debate, and compromise. It is critical for everyone, especially the victors on November 5, to be humble and respectful going forward in all they do. Clearly, America is much bigger than November 5 and Donald Trump. Of course, I do not know the President-Elect’s true character, but I hope he knows in his heart he’s only a servant of the People. If that is true, it could explain why he and his eventual team just might succeed in some measurable and lasting way. Our future depends on it.
While DJT regained the White House on November 5 and will set our course for four more years, the Era of Trump also assumed a foreseeable end on November 5 because he can’t run again. Indeed, within both the GOP and DP, the self-examination, jockeying, repositioning, and planning for 2028 has already begun. Hard to believe, but it’s true. Those who were so frustrated in both parties with the two leading presidential candidates should find solace here. A younger generation of politicians have already begun taking over. This is inspiring and hopeful.
In sum, while the names, situations, political issues, and times will quickly change, the lessons learned from November 5 will not. 2024’s Election will set America’s course for up to decades.
The U.S. is a good country with a proud history; it is indispensable to the world. Like George Bailey, we depend on God, chance, our friends, and our own abilities to make America better. The subtitle “Revenge of the Bourgeoisie or It’s a Wonderful Life?” might have worked for this post, but let’s stay positive this time as Americans for as long as we can.
Enjoy the corny, yet beautiful scene between George and Mary below, then let’s get to work making America an even better country. Well, also, back to Alastair Begg and my daily lesson at top.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? The Election of 2024 offers a cautionary, yet exciting tale for Republicans and Democrats alike. With practical optimism we can all aspire to the words in this spiritual: Oh Happy Days.
