The Grinding Injustice of "American Despotism"

according to Newt

Newt Gingrich is writing a multi-part set of articles at The American Spectator on “American Despotism.” You can guess that the despots in question are not you and me. In this weeks exciting episode, about the rise of Nixon and the revolution of The Kids, Newt comment thusly about the aftermath of Nixon’s stunning victory in 1972.

The Left was determined that Nixonism would not dominate and define America’s future.
That set up the first lawyer-news media-engineered coup d’etat in American history.

I have to admit that for most of my adult life I have sorta believed the Narrative. That Nixon was a crook.

But gradually I moved away from the conventional Narrative, especially in the last six years of Trump.

Today I would say that both in the Nixon era and in the Trump era we are talking about a ruling class that is determined not to surrender the reins of power to the commoner middle class, and it is not shy about using every lever of its power to bury Trump as it buried Nixon 50 years ago.

The difference, I suppose, is that 50 years ago it was only 25-30 years since World War II, the most glorious fight against evil the world had ever seen, and our rulers still basked in the glow of victory: hey, they were the good guys. Today, 50 years on from the Nixon era, we have experienced half a century of blunders and incompetence. Maybe they are the bad guys.

And when the President of Harvard is credibly accused of plagiarism, and Ivy League presidents won’t stand against antisemitism, it doesn’t take a genius to see that there is something rotten in the state of Denmark.

Yes, but what rot? What is eating out the heart of America?

I would say that the problem is the faith of our ruling class that every political entity needs a wise and directing hand to prevent chaos and disorder, and that the modern educated class is uniquely qualified to deliver this direction.

I would say that the science proves conclusively that life, the universe, everything is remarkably self organizing, and that there is a gigantic lesson to be learned from that fact. Every order of life, whether animal, vegetable or fungus, is remarkably competent as sustaining itself in the world, interacting with the rest of the world, and in creating a new generation to inherit the Earth. How? Why? What’s it all about? Good question, experts agree.

And I would say that in the social science experiment of the last 200 years it is utterly clear that the top-down direction of human life by an educated or governing elite Does Not Work. And it is clear that, as much as we can’t believe it, the current city-based market world of making and creating and buying and selling is an amazing success.

And I would say that Newt’s gathering storm of American Despotism is a world of deniers, people that can’t believe that the world thrives by leaving people to get on with their lives and work together and reward trust and good will and turn away from lies and ill will. No, it can’t be that the world is better when people are unsupervised. They must be properly directed by a wise and educated elite, or the climate will boil.