Several friends on the independent Right have been sending me notes stating their frustration with the Trump administration for playing them for fools. These fellow-members of the independent Right (yes, I’ll admit to my own leanings) complain that after all their efforts in campaigning for the president, he’s turning into a tool of the moderates and neocons. I for one am less critical of Trump, because although I wrote and donated on his behalf, I never thought his election would change much in our society or politics. Nor do I believe that if the improbable happened and Marine Le Pen became president of the French Fifth Republic, she would be able to act effectively against the French deep state (which is proportionately more massive than ours), the rabidly adverse media, and the rest of an entrenched cultural Left.
There is no magic bullet by which decades and even generations of leftist penetration of political and cultural institutions can be reversed in one presidential race. Contrary to a recent hysterical column by the perpetually foaming Ralph Peters, France is not in imminent danger of being turned over to a raging anti-Semite and Holocaust-denier. Not only does Marine in no way answer to that description, even if she defeated Peters’ hero, Emanuel Macron, who represents the multicultural Left and globalist interests, Marine would have to battle the same media hostility that confronts Trump. Unless fundamental institutions can be changed, winning the presidential sweepstakes here or in France will not lead to profound alterations in the political climate.
In the case of Trump, however, there is another reason that I’ve been skeptical about his capacity to change things in a way that would please his present critics on the independent Right. Please note that I’m not speaking of those Never-Trump journalists who still abound in the “conservative movement.” These people, particularly the ones who shilled for such implausible figures of the Right as W, Mitt, and John McCain, are getting away with stunning hypocrisy. The less said about them, the less elevated my blood pressure is likely to become. No, I’m referring to those on the Right who break ranks by criticizing a liberal internationalist foreign policy. I also mean those on the Right who believe that political reconstruction should begin at home and should not be a key element in the way we deal with sovereign foreign powers, unless we’re actually threatened by them. Unlike Bill Kristol, this Right views the deep state as a menace to our freedoms. And its devotees have had enough of “multiculturalism” in all its varied forms and would like the government to stop promoting its crusade against communities and individuals who are charged with “discrimination.”
