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Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.
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Recently, the #Resistance has become incensed over Administration officials using Trump-branded hotels and resorts for both private gatherings and official travel, at home and abroad. To those perpetually-enraged self-identified #resisters, I say, “You won.” I mean it. They won. They succeeded. This is what success looks like. Why are these #Resisters enraged? Perhaps it’s because they’re driven by emotion, and have completely abandoned reason, or any firm understanding of how consequences work.

Shortly after the election, the #resist movement decided to freeze out, threaten, intimidate, and deplatform anyone who was perceived to cooperate with 45’s Administration. And eventually their target list expanded to include anybody who doesn’t clearly LOATHE & #RESIST the Administration. Remember the business advisory panels that were going to help kickstart economic growth? They were disbanded because #Resist boycotted the companies of any executives who participated. Quiet workarounds had to be crafted.

Remember when Sarah Sanders was hounded out of a Virginia restaurant? And then the restaurant owner followed her entire family to the next restaurant to heckle them? What about the heckler who labeled Jewish advisor Stephen Miller a “fascist” over his frijoles? How about when an angry mob pushed Kirstjen Nielsen out of a Mexican restaurant? You don’t even have to be part of the Administration; it’s enough to make common cause on an issue. Remember when protesters chased Ted Cruz *AND HIS WIFE* from a restaurant during the Kavanaugh confirmation circus? At one point, some nutcase read grievances off her phone in the oh-so-heartfelt ambush tirade where she demanded EPA Director Scott Pruitt resign. It looks like the poor guy didn’t even get to finish his tacos first.

Simply bearing the Trump name ensures that dining is a warzone. Remember when Eric Trump was spit on by an employee in Chicago’s upscale bar The Aviary? Perhaps Eric should be grateful; the server could have taken Boston Globe writer Luke O’Neil’s earlier suggestion and doctored his food instead.

That ’60s rallying cry, “The Personal is Political” has become an exhortation to terrorize Tucker Carlson’s wife while home alone, or beat gay Asian journalist Andy Ngo into a brain injury. If you’d like to donate to “Justice for Andy Ngo,” here’s the link. I wonder if Maxine Waters’ infamous exhortation to “surround them” and “push back” and “let them know they’re not welcome,” was in the mind of any of these perpetrators during some of these incidents–or others. Right now, it’s about 1858 in United States politics, and once again the Democratic Party is obsessed with taking the fruits of others’ labors, and violently suppressing anybody who stands for liberty, autonomy & self-ownership. We have an economy that’s bifurcating into two tracks–one that caters to these SJW/NPC mobs, and a smaller but growing track that’s still safe for sane people. The sane people aren’t driving the division; we’re just finding safe pockets as we’re driven from the crazy ones.

Trump-branded properties are garlic to these SJW vampires. It’s like a Trump superpower. As a general rule, #Resisters go out of their way to avoid all things Trump. In an iconic post from the early days of his doomed Presidential run, Eric “Nuke ’em” Swalwell virtue signaled to the #Resistance by claiming he passed Manhattan’s Trump Tower in the cold and snow to get a coffee elsewhere. In boycotting these places, the #Resisters have rebranded Trump properties as the only truly reliable sanctuaries for anybody to the right of Mao; the last bastions, where anybody not suffering full-blown Stage 6 (h/t Dan Bongino) Trump Derangement Syndrome is assured not to be accosted by somebody who is. Because, much as vampires are *ahem* uncomfortable in a real church, the TDS NPCs are just as uncomfortable in a Trump Hotel. Or Tower. Or Resort. Or Golf Course. Or coffe shop. Or suit. Come to think of it, perhaps I’ll buy a Trump necktie on ebay, just in case I’m ever accosted by one of these mobs. These are strange days; you never know how literal the analogy will translate. It couldn’t hurt, at least.

Is it any wonder that conservative, liberty-minded, or otherwise Constitutionalist groups feel more comfortable congregating in buildings that modern slavers–err, socialists–revile, in the way a vampire recoils at a cross? (Man, this vampire analogy is getting scary-accurate.) If you’re a #resistance chef, are you going to go to work at a Trump kitchen every day? No, you’ll proudly boycott even the act of applying, and instead march over to the Ritz-Carlton, or the Four Seasons, Loews, Hyatt, or Marriott. You’ll even signal your virtue with a social media post chronicling the sacrifice. What about a customer? Would somebody in one of those offensive (but not for the reason you’d think) pink hats ever spend their or their employer’s money at a Trump property? Can you imagine a ThinkProgress (R.I.P.) editor approving an expense report for Trump Grill?

Is it any wonder VP Pence recently stayed at a Trump resort on his official trip to Ireland? Luxury hotels are a little out of my price range at this stage of life. The security detail at hotels in my budget usually consists of wedging a chair against the knob of a door that opens onto a poorly-lit parking lot, and a placing a handgun on the nightstand before closing my eyes. (“Don’t worry about that sound in the distance; I’m sure it’s just fireworks.”) But these days I’d rather be me, choking down stale powdered donuts and gasoline–they always swear it’s actually coffee–at the establishment’s anemic caricature of a continental breakfast, than be Mike Pence (or his family) and ordering a meal at any hotel that doesn’t have “TRUMP” on the building. When Bill Barr budgeted $30,000 of his own money on a Christmas party for his staff, OF COURSE he chose a Trump property! () Where else can he be assured that other guests and staffers aren’t #Resist NPCs who will seize any opportunity to spoil the event?

#Resist has given Constitutionalists their own safe space. To repeat, it’s 1858 again in America. It’s some version of 1858 America in much of the world, really. Those who believe they’re entitled to the fruits of their neighbor’s labor have successfully “frozen, personalized, and polarized” anything named “Trump.” And anybody who believes we’re entitled to our own labor, but must trade for the fruits of our neighbors’ labor, is polarized right along with the Trump name. We’re safer at Trump-branded properties. We can be more relaxed at Trump-branded properties. We can wear red hats without facing psychotic assault at Trump-branded properties. We can say things like, “I respectfully disagree,” and know we’re in the company of people who won’t ostracize or attack us for this grave offense.

In short, #Resist has succeeded. They sought to make the Trump brand toxic to all the batguano crazy NPCs, and that mission has been a roaring success. When you’re climbing that ladder of success, though, make sure it’s against the proper wall. #Resist missed a step on that point. Because the other consequence of their success is that they’ve elevated the “TRUMP” brand. Before, the Trump name was a Reality TV star who never met a lime light or brass finish he didn’t love. Now, the Trump name is a beacon of calm in the storm of a global mass hysteria. It’s a symbol of hope to those who thought the darkness of collectivism was sweeping inexorably across the globe. If you believe in liberty, you can safely relax and recharge in a “TRUMP” property.