The Return of the King?

3,112 words

Aragorn: What do you fear, lady?
Éowyn: To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

The Restoration did not so much restore as replace.
Ronald Carter, The Routledge History of Literature in English

The imminent US Presidential Election feels world-historical. That’s probably been said about every such election in my lifetime, and I was born when Kennedy was still over two years away from Dealey Plaza. But this year’s ballot has an extra edge to it, something almost palpable. America’s problems are building, there is an entropic feel about the so-called proposition nation, one that actually relied on its white people to get where it is rather than any neat phrasing. America is what it is because of pragmatics, not linguistics.

But a perfect storm is approaching. Guillaume Faye wrote of a “convergence of catastrophes” poised to strike down the West, and the potential calamities which are gathering momentum in America show it to be as much an experiment now as it was when de Tocqueville described it as such. But he wrote of an experiment in democracy, and although this may be the same experiment, it has reached the point in the 50s sci-fi movie where the experiment gets out of hand, the scientist loses control, the monster runs amok. America, in short, is about ready to blow.

Mass illegal and undocumented immigration; the hugely over-leveraged US economy; Fentanyl and its 100,000 annual victims; an ongoing Chinese land-grab (with Bill Gates snapping up whatever the ChiComs don’t buy); an increasingly emboldened black criminal fraternity (criminals and gangs comprise the only “community” blacks ever successfully form); Democrat and usually black-run cities descending into zombie movies. Added to all that, the country is under the sway of a Democrat Party intent on bayoneting a wounded nation on a battlefield on which it fought so hard.

Can the supposed leading nation of the supposedly free world be saved? 1861 was another fateful year for America, and the President-elect of the Confederacy was Jefferson Davis. William Yancey, “Fire-eater” Congressman and a defender of slavery from the antebellum South, put his faith in Davis with a memorable image; “The hour and the man have met.”

So, is it a case of “Cometh the hour, cometh the man”? In the UK, the pollsters might be worth a glance, but the bookies always get elections right, and as of October 17, American betting aggregators gave Trump almost a 20% lead. Dust down the throne. But Trump will answer genuine, race-realist, Right-wing needs only so far. Greg Johnson notes the snare lying in wait for a Trump administration that both shies away from reducing the influx and overall population of non-whites, and thereby fails to create an environment in which whites can re-attain replacement birth rate: “From a White Nationalist point of view, the only thing worse than a dysfunctional multicultural dystopia is a functional one.”

Trump and the Republicans, Johnson argues, are committed to just that. But, away from white concerns, Trump shows every sign of heading up at least a conservative administration.

Trump’s decision to place Elon Musk in any future White House cabinet, heading up a department dedicated to cutting government waste, is innovative and brilliant. It is also guaranteed to enrage the Left, who thrive and make money from government waste. If the American public sector is anything like its British counterpart, then it’s reminiscent of the scene in Scorsese’s Casino which takes us into the count room, where we watch cash being skimmed off the house take and stacked in a suitcase bound for the bosses. Government employment is, I suspect, the same dreadful, shameless racket on both sides of the herring pond, and the fact that someone as astute as Musk, who seems to have a fully functioning bullshit detector, is being tasked with trimming governmental fat means someone loses out. It was actually Musk himself who suggested the new role to Trump, indicating that the hopefully once-and-future President is open to suggestion that does not involve financial incentives or insider share information.

Musk is a good litmus of how the Left see business, which is either useful to them personally, or an unregulated outpost of dangerous potential fascism which needs controlling with constrictive DEI initiatives. There is no middle ground. The British government, a calamitous farce which is unravelling by the week, recently held a large symposium to which they invited the world’s richest potential investors. It was intended to drum up investment in the UK (and it will be interesting to note how many CEOs could smell the begging bowl). You would expect Musk to be at the top of the guest list, as the world’s richest and arguably most influential man. The British government didn’t ask him. When pressed on this, a Labour spokesman refused to address the question, let alone answer it truthfully by saying that Musk is not welcome because of his commitment to freedom of speech on X (and subsequent war with the EU), as well as his now being in cahoots with the despised Donald Trump.

Which brings me to another likely effect of a Trump victory, which is the further destabilization of a floundering British government and a long-overdue slap in the face for the EU, whose impertinence grows by the day and up with which, I suspect and hope, Trump will not put. He must get straight back on their case about the pathetic amount the EU pays for the defense of the united Europe they claim exists. The US is picking up the tab for the EU to insult her. I’d also like to see Trump smash the optics at EU summits or, better still, send J. D. Vance. He’s capable and it wouldn’t seem a snub, just efficient use of government resources. Elon Musk will approve and US VPs should do more.

As for Starmer’s people, they thought the whole being-in-government gig was going to be a cakewalk, but are rapidly finding out that there is something to governing outside aggravated personal aspiration and attendant greed. Politics is statesmanship, not Taylor Swift tickets. And now these avaricious chancers will have to do business with Trump, a relationship I am very much looking forward to. I’ve written before that it would be both very tactically wise and enormously entertaining to see Trump make Nigel Farage Britain’s official man in Washington, and humiliate the oafish diversity-hire who is currently Foreign Secretary. I have written about David Lammy before, and I very much doubt he will survive Keir Starmer’s first Cabinet reshuffle.

A mark of Labour’s genuine inability to grasp the workings of the political apparatus is their sending of 100 staffers to the US to campaign for Kamala Harris. And they would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for that pesky Marjorie Taylor Greene correctly pointing out that this constitutes blatant election interference, and is thus illegal. David Lammy, the British Foreign Secretary, did not know that and must have signed off this jaunt. Incredible. Greene went up immensely in my estimation when she told the British Foreign Office, effectively, to take a walk:

“This is direct election interference by the governing Labour Party […] Foreign nationals are not allowed to be involved in any way in US elections. Please go back to the UK and fix your own mass immigration problems that are ruining your country”.

Kudos to you, madam. And it is indicative of the yearning of the British media for a Harris-Walz administration that, when I looked to source the Greene quote, I saw the UK omission media conspicuous by their absence on this story, and the first two hits were The Times of India, and a better piece at Colorado Politics.

As for mainland Europe, Trump needs to let the EU know who’s boss. Guillaume Faye – for whom America was not Europe’s enemy but “an adversary” – makes an interesting point about the Euro-American relationship:

“Culturally, as well as politically and geopolitically, Americans are strong because we are weak, absent and stiff, and we lack dynamism and will. Let us stop moaning: America is only quite naturally occupying the space we have abandoned.”

Trump needs to show, rather than tell, that America can out-perform Europe. They might actually learn from him, rather than clucking like farmyard geese at his election. Europe and the UK are not bumper-sticker territory but one from the US raises a smile: “Which part of Europe are you from? The part whose ass we saved or the past whose ass we kicked?”

If you wish to inform me about the real American war effort, or how the Jews made it all happen, save your breath for cooling your porridge. There will always be a European resentment (perhaps Nietzschean ressentiment) at America for stepping up at the end of World War 2. The French have a particular dislike of America for that exact reason, having failed to step up itself. The superiority of America to Europe, at least at the present time, needs to be underscored not just by Trump but by the Republican Party.

Personally, I like Trump. He is the perfect President for America. He is vulgar, brash, and arrogant, which matches up with the image of Americans held by many Europeans – and you can whine about that all you like, it’s a fact and I’ve heard it across Europe – and confirmed by the Americans I’ve met here, almost all gormless, loud-mouthed, sets of clattering jawbones, and almost all of whom have been Democrats. Most lack entirely any political faculty whatsoever. Here is a genuine excerpt of a conversation I had with one such a few years ago:

American: Trump’s an asshole!
Me: I see. What are his two worst policies, do you think?
American: There are hundreds!
Me: Then you should be able to think of a couple.
American: He’s racist, he’s sexist…

You know the rest. And this guy was intelligent. Well, in some respects. A chronic alcoholic, when he finally reached a certain advanced shade of yellow, his girlfriend carted him off back to the American heartland and rehab in the desert. But he was not stupid intellectually, it’s just that this odd mental paralysis afflicts some Americans when it comes to Trump.

This is exemplified by Joy Reid, a CNN news anchor who shaves her head like a bull dyke. This is a stupid black woman even by the standards of stupid black women, and she is of the opinion that a defeated Trump would not accept the result, would try to drag the country into civil war (it won’t take much dragging), and will put his critics “in camps”. Holiday camps with no TV, hopefully, so they can take a break from this mutt.

Geopolitically, a second Trump administration may well have eyes on ending the Russian territorial incursion (I’m not calling it a war) into Ukraine. It would be a first jewel in Trump’s crown, and it would be hard for the Left to decry such an achievement. But, of course, there are malevolent actors who have a lot invested in these forever wars, and they will start a war of their own if Trump turns off the money supply.

The narrative will be constructed that any territorial gain by Putin as a result of a Trump-brokered peace deal must be seen as further collusion between him and the Russian capo, plus his new pal Kim Jong Un, who has now put troops on the ground in Ukraine. This is like those Marvel comics where two super-dooper bad guys like Loki and Dr. Doom team up and cause havoc. Trump’s diplomacy would be sorely tested by this double-act, although he has form negotiating with the porky kid running North Korea. At the same time, Trump would have to somehow persuade NATO to stop poking the bear. Putin has said expressly many times that he will not have NATO on his doorstep and, in this age of the Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile, it is not because he doesn’t want Swedes within Howitzer range of his dasha. The value of territory has changed from purely geographical to geopolitical. Putin won’t back down, nor should he, and NATO need to be slapped down. If Trump wins, after nearly having his brains sprayed all over his supporters, after being savaged by the attack dogs of the media, and after a relentless stream of lawfare-based distractions, he may well be in a slapping mood. And then there’s China. If they make their play for Taiwan, as seems inevitable, how will Trump face them down, or will he even try? It depends on what failed him first time around, the quality of his advisers.

Trump and his people ought to look at cultural commentators and bring them in, build a brains trust. Victor Davis Hanson, Thomas Sowell, hell, even Joe Rogan if he really wanted to rattle the Left’s cage; Trump has strong resources and should use them. This may persuade reasonably politically literate voters who couldn’t bring themselves to vote Trump because of stifling peer pressure that a government should be packed with talent and vision, not placemen and women looking to sharpen up their share portfolios.

And Trump also has to slay the woke dragon. This crap is way beyond a joke in the UK now, and I doubt Trump will suffer it gladly in the US. Trump famously wishes to make America great again, but first he must also make it sane again.

I never bought into that “America is crazy” riff that peaked in Europe when Reagan was in office. I wasn’t politically engaged then, and I could watch the attitude towards Reagan objectively. There was a near-psychotic reaction to the Gipper in the UK at that time, a precursor to the derangement we see now over Trump’s mere existence. But I don’t think America is psychotic, it’s more that America is a psychosis. We in the West have a tendency to think of the Arabs of the Middle East as the Crazy Larries of the world (my mother thinks it’s all that sun), but I don’t see Arabic countries with porous borders, I don’t see Muslims teaching that the Koran is all lies and Arabic history is something to be ashamed of, and I don’t see black gangs looting candy stores in Saudi Arabia, unless I missed that YouTube video.

As this rumble approaches, and looked at from a particular angle, American politics is a huge psychodrama played out by very intelligent yet psychologically dysfunctional people. We don’t need to worry overmuch about AI taking over, the rise of the robots, or a future of Terminator wars. We need to worry that the artificially intelligent are already in charge, skin-jobs who need taking out by blade-runners we don’t have, replicants we have no Voight-Kampff test to uncover.

I am not going to predict the result of the November 5th moment of truth. It would be like picking the winner of the 3.30 at Wincanton racecourse knowing that there was dirty work afoot in the stables, what used to be called among the racing fraternity the “nobbling” of horses. The Dems will fight an unbelievably dirty fight. Gavin Newsom just signed Senate Bill 1174, making it illegal to ask someone for voter ID in California. If you don’t get what that means for democracy, you shouldn’t be allowed to use scissors.

The US and the UK chose significant days in one another’s calendars to hold their general elections this year, the British going to the polls on American Independence Day, the upcoming American ballot falling on November 5. This is Guy Fawkes Night in the UK, celebrating Guido Fawkes’ failed attempt to blow up Parliament V for Vendetta-style. If Trump wins I imagine there will be serious civil disorder. Whether that becomes civil war or not depends, as does so much, on definition. There is an argument that the Second American Civil War has already begun, another that the inevitable advance towards internal conflict is a re-staging of the ante-bellum years of the 1850s, when everyone knew civil war was inevitable. A change is indeed gonna come. But will it be Trump who brings it?

The fist-pump and bellow of Fight! Fight! as Trump’s bungling security detail tried to lever him off the floor in Butler (and made the Keystone Cops look like Navy Seals) was an iconic moment that is already up there with the flag at Iwo Jima and Jack Ruby letting Lee Harvey Oswald have it. But the tactical, semiotic master-stroke was Trump putting up the same chart that saved his life at Butler at a post-shooting rally and picking up where he left off. “As I was saying…” quothe The Donald. Hollywood script-writers would kill for that kind of scene in a movie. But then, most Hollywood script-writers would kill Trump.

I sincerely hope Hollywood becomes a busted flush after a Trump victory. It would be one in the eye for Hymie and his associates, who need a couple of swift metaphorical blows to the sternum to let them know that the balance of power is changing (although I am aware of Trump’s Jewish interests), and it would stem the flow of cultural effluent emanating from woke studios. That’s the reason I only watch European cinema these days. I’m done with Hollywood. It peaked already, it’s like the Stones after It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll (50 years old last week). Something just died.

In the end, America does what it is matchless in doing, which is to turn politics into spectacle. It doesn’t matter whether you think that healthy or unhealthy, it’s happening and it is not going to stop, so you may as well watch it with your opera glasses firmly on your nose. Spectacle laid over harsh reality is the American way, a country as it is that could sugar the bitterest pill. If Americans could go back to Imperial Rome and take control, like engineer hank Morgan in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, the amphitheater would still feature the severed limbs and entrails soaking into the sand between the dead lions, but there would be cheerleaders with hot bodies, pom-poms and a college song, holding up letters spelling out Ave Caesar! Americans, whether the world likes it or not, does politics right. But can the king really return?

It is an outcome devoutly to be wished that Donald J. Trump become US President number 47, because the alternative seems to be that America dies. And Trump seems to die hard. Can America follow his lead?