Anyone who hasn't been at the bottom of the Mariana Trench or in a capsule orbiting the Crab Nebula for the last 50 years or so knows that the United States is experiencing some, shall we say, interesting times. In just the last few years, we've seen an unprecedented presidential victory by a populist billionaire businessman, then seen him unseated by the oldest man to ever sit in the Oval Office, a creature of the entrenched political machine, corrupt and, we are seeing now, throughout his presidency was arguably non compos mentis. And now, in the last few months, we saw one of the most remarkable political resuscitations in the history of the republic when that populist billionaire, after everything the establishment could throw at him, after two assassination attempts, became only the second president to win two non-consecutive terms.
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, in a recent column in the Spectator, makes a case that we are in the second American Revolution. He makes some interesting points. But I think he misses a few things, too.
First, Mr. Roberts rightly points out that the left is not shying away from violence, not only in rhetoric but in acts.
On Inauguration Day a man in Oregon threw Molotov cocktails at a Tesla and threatened the driver with a gun. Later that month, a woman in Colorado repeatedly went to a Tesla car lot to spray paint “Nazi” on the dealership’s sign. This, it turns out, was only the beginning. Since then, the American car business has been under attack across the country, as more cars get set alight.
Meanwhile a crazed Massachusetts man came to Washington with Molotov cocktails, knives and the intent to burn down the Heritage Foundation and kill Pete Hegseth, Speaker Mike Johnson and Scott Bessent.
In February, Democrat elected representatives joined in and began pushing crazy rhetoric of their own. Representative Kweisi Mfume – whose birth name is Frizzell Gerard Tate – proposed a “street fight” to push back against Elon Musk. Ilhan Omar escalated even further, arguing that Musk’s efforts “might actually see somebody get killed.” And to make the second American Revolution analogy concrete, Representative LaMonica McIver came right out and said, “We are at war!”
We may well be at war, but while we may very well compare today's left to the government of King George, this second revolution, should it come to actual fighting, won't resemble the original revolution. Any prolonged conflict of this sort will be more like the 1968-1998 "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, with random violence, political extremism, and guerilla actions, not a stand-up, set-piece, traditional war. And, like the Troubles, it may last for years, even decades. These kinds of conflicts often end not because one side seized victory but because both became too exhausted and disheartened to continue. If that were to happen to the United States, then the states would almost certainly be united no longer - and there's the end.
Mr. Roberts continues:
King George III and the British parliament unjustly taxed the colonists to pay for their incompetent management of a global empire. And if Donald Trump’s dismantling of USAID has proven anything, it is that our rulers have been unjustly taxing us to pay for their own incompetent management of a global empire.
The Second American Revolution pits this insulated elite class of managers and bureaucrats against an increasingly broad swath of the American people, whom they do not know, can make no credible claim to represent and have utterly failed. The diverse coalition that elected President Trump this November proves as much. One in four black men under 50 voted for Trump. Roughly 45 percent of Latinos voted for Trump. Voters without a college degree supported President Trump by 13 points.
But, unlike the first American revolution, the class of managers and bureaucrats are largely invisible, anonymous, and unknown. The colonial political system of 1776 was much smaller, and the operatives were known to their fellows; communities were much smaller, and even cities like Boston had more in common with small- to mid-size towns of today than of our massive cities or our gargantuan labyrinth of a federal colossus. It's a much bigger task now to uproot these managers and bureaucrats. It's not that we can't do it, but we should harbor no illusions that this may be done quickly or easily.
Granted, we are taking steps to return to some semblance of sanity in government:
The good news is that we are well on our way. Right now, President Trump’s executive orders and decisive actions are systematically dismantling the deep state’s hard power. On his first day in office, he terminated all remote work arrangements for federal employees. Then, he introduced an unprecedented, deferred resignation program which convinced more than 75,000 unelected bureaucrats to resign their posts. And last month he signed a new executive order requiring all federal agencies to fire at least four people for every one person they hire. Meanwhile, the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DoGE) incredible work has undermined the regime’s soft power by exposing its waste and corruption unlike ever before.
Here's the problem: It is the nature of government to grow ever bigger, ever more intrusive, and ever more jealous of its own interests. 'Twas ever thus, from the Roman Republic to our republic. And the forces of that growth are still, by and large, embedded in our federal government, as well as many state and local governments.
Make no mistake, these have only been the opening skirmishes in what will be a long fight. Though President Trump’s has already delivered a major blow, the deep state remains powerful. Slowly but surely, it is forming its counteroffensive. Corrupt federal judges are blocking the President’s executive orders. Colleges and universities are disguising their DEI programs to prevent losing federal funding. Countless bureaucrats are laying low in federal agencies, waiting for the opportunity to upend the people’s agenda. Even as fewer and fewer people are tuning in, the mainstream media is still doing everything it can to disparage Trump.
There's the nub of the issue. It has taken two centuries for the federal government to get to this point. Is there any one person who truly understands the depth and scope to which the army of the unelected is entrenched in Washington? The federal colossus has grown like kudzu, spreading through the roots, branching out, strangling off competing plants, and taking over entire ecosystems. Like kudzu, these entrenched interests will not be uprooted easily, and even when we think we have the job done, there may well be remaining roots and runners that will spring suddenly to life and resume the plague.
It may well take not only legislative action but constitutional action to keep the bureaucratic kudzu within bounds.
See Also: Violence, Arson, Vandalism, Hate: Where Is the Left Going With All This?
The Left Is Calling for Violence. What's Happening Now? What Happens Next? Where Will It End?
Every story has an ending. The American republic will not last forever; no nation, no people do. But we're still America, and I think we have some fight left in us, but that doesn't mean we should discount the task before us. Nations rarely return to a former state of glory; Athens did not, Rome did not, and Britain will not. If America does, it will be after decades, maybe a century of effort.
Kevin Roberts concludes his excellent piece:
Despite the left’s fearmongering, none of this requires violence. But it does require us to remember the promise of Patrick Henry that “millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.”
Here, he makes an excellent point; after all, it takes both sides in any conflict to keep the peace, but only one to start a fight. Right now, the left seems determined to be the one to start the fight; we on the right must be prepared to finish it.
