In a normal world, there would be no MAGA because there would be no need to make America great — “again” or “otherwise” — because, plain and simple, America is manifestly and inherently great. Although I lean more conservative and populist than the RINOs of Bush, McCain, and Romney pedigree, I am not by nature all that “extreme,” though I am by nature intense. I am kind of like a Republican Will Rogers, Jr. — I like all people and always try to see things from their perspective, too. That makes me a better rabbi and made me a better attorney. My only caveat: don’t start up with me.
I love America and, beneath my tough façade, I recognize the need to compromise to get things done. My wife and I compromise and we have a great marriage. In a free and democratic republic, approximately half the people will lean one way, and the other half will lean the other way. That’s OK. That way the boat does not tilt over. Sure, I would prefer that everyone be a conservative populist, a compassionate capitalist, but that imposition of uniformity requires autocracy, dictatorship, and wholesale canceling or imprisoning or killing everyone on the other side.
Not only is that repugnant to my values but, practically speaking, such a paradigm inevitably will cycle around, and they eventually will be imprisoning and killing us wholesale in return.
Personally, I always have felt that Ronald Reagan compromised much too much and actually inadvertently gave birth to much of today’s messes. He granted the mass amnesty to illegal aliens that broke the system. Sent weapons illegally to bad guys in order to free our hostages. Wrongly condemned Israel for blowing up Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor. Appointed Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy to the Supreme Court. Lots of other wrong stuff.
But I was always thrilled to vote for him because, well, he was the best our society possibly could get — my compromise — and I suspect he made many of his mistakes because he believed his compromises were the best he could get. He certainly did pretty well, all in all: resurrected the economy from Carter’s death grip, planted the seeds to tear down that wall, and inspired my college generation. He explained why socialism fails and proved capitalism succeeds. Gave us Antonin Scalia. After Jimmy Carter, he made America great again. That is why he won two terms and remains to this day an icon whom the lying, deceiving, mainstream despicable media still have to speak of with respect. (READ MORE from Dov Fisher: Beyond Comprehension: Harris’s $20 Million Plus, Trump’s Cabinet, Peace of Mind)
I was too young to vote when John F. Kennedy ran for president. Looking back, I wish all Democrats today were as moderate as he. In his time, by the standards of his day, he was left wing. But, looking back, he had a low-inflation strong economy. He was anti-communist. When Khrushchev tested the young liberal with the head of hair that Nikita lacked, Kennedy stared him down. JFK was ready to bring the entire world to nuclear war rather than to back down to the communists. That’s my kind of Democrat. Contrast him from an Obama and Biden who respond to the new era’s greatest world threat by sending billions to Iran. And, frankly, further looking back, I am not sure what Nixon was. He imposed wage and price controls, named horrible judges, was soft on Red China and the Soviets, and less.
America was calmer back then. Sure, the political rhetoric was the same as now: Nixon casting Kennedy as an extreme leftist, Lyndon Johnson advertising that Barry Goldwater was a monster who would bring all the world to nuclear holocaust, beginning with a little girl picking a flower, and such. But compared to now, America was a better society. People could disagree and talk about it or yell about it, but then they all could go to a restaurant to celebrate a birthday or visit for a family-wide Thanksgiving or Christmas or just go to a Mel Brooks movie together and laugh about it afterward.
People did not have to hide their conservative views to get hired as journalists at a newspaper. Or as social-sciences professors at even Ivy League universities. Or as prospective actors or playwrights or screenwriters on Broadway or in Hollywood. The media, academia, and entertainment were like football, baseball, and hockey: If you’re good enough, we want you. If you’re not good enough, go into another field of endeavor. Nothing personal.
That was America before Obama.
Obama poisoned America. I don’t know whether America will ever recover. Even Biden, who ran in 2020 on a promise to lower the temperature and bring us all together ultimately abused his historic opportunity to get us back to an even keel. If Harris had won, the American Journey would have been finished. Obama’s dream of cutting America down to size would have been realized — while North Korea, Red China, Russia, and Iran would be tightening their bonds as four confirmed nuclear powers ready to obliterate the West, amid Europe’s demise continuing as millions of Muslim and Arab immigrants turn one Amsterdam into another.
With academia, grade-school education, Broadway and Hollywood, television and “news” media all dominated overwhelmingly by an intolerant Left, and with the Left’s claws deeply clenched next around the military, Obama’s transformative revolution reached its apex. Conservatives cannot compromise anymore for several reasons:
The problem and challenge is that Obama poisoned American society. He indeed was transformative, and he turned America into what it never was and, so far, really is not. The system has been transformed to a left-extreme we do not recognize. As a reality check:
There is more that Obama drove out of kilter — criteria for citizenship, secure borders, foreign policy, crime and punishment, economic priorities, access to healthcare, and more — but the above three suffice as primary examples of how he poisoned America.
Those poisonings have shifted the “middle” so far to the left that he left half the country — those in the center and right — with the conundrum that we cannot compromise if we start from a place that is extreme left. Let’s illustrate by assigning arbitrary numbers. Imagine the farthest Left is “0” and the farthest Right is “100.” That makes the center “50.” Imagine John Kennedy moved the country leftward to 43, Bill Clinton to 40, Nixon and the Bushes to 53, Ford to 56, and Reagan to 58. From all those starting points, a cyclical change in the White House and Congress could allow some change and compromise/transition to the other side of 50.
But Obama shifted the scale from 54 or so over to 20, even 15. Transgender this. Billions to Iran that. Spread the wealth to Joe the Plumber, who did not ask for it. Lose your doctor, and lose your health plan. Criticize police and border control professionals. Transform America.
Obama tilted the scale so severely that a moderate McCain or Romney option has to be off the table. Reasonable conservatives willing to compromise face the unfortunate reality that the only way to get back to 50 is by discarding a “compromise mindset” and sliding to the other extreme. It is in that context that President Trump’s more outlier proposed cabinet nominations can be understood.
Some are simple to embrace: Rubio at State, Bergum at Interior, Stefanik at the U.N., Huckabee to Israel, and most of the others. But the ones that raise eyebrows can best be understood in the context of what Obama ruined, just as a deathly ill person may be prescribed severely strong medicines that can be quite perilous if not monitored carefully. It is what it is. The country is on life support. Tylenol and Advil won’t save the border. (READ MORE: $1 Billion Raised, $20 Million in Debt, $1 Million for Oprah’s Endorsement)
Obama and Biden perpetrated grave damage to America’s military and national security, focusing more on DEI and critical race theory than on building a muscular military. It may well be that the “safe” option of a politic long-time multi-starred general, who rose through the ranks partly because he or she knew how to “play the game,” is not right at this time for Secretary of Defense. Utter shake-up is required. I have just read Pete Hegseth’s new book, The War on Warriors. I get why he was named.
I am not comfortable with the Tulsi Gabbard nomination. For space reasons, I will leave it at that.
As for Attorney-General, these also are not reasonable times. Obama politicized the Department of Justice. Eric Holder? He not only plays dirty but comfortably advocates “kicking” his opponents. Kick them? Or Loretta Lynch? Amid the Hillary Clinton email investigation, Lynch met privately with the target’s husband, Bill, to strategize and coordinate on that infamous Arizona tarmac. So much corruption.
And then four years of Merrick Garland. Agents planted in Catholic houses of worship? All the dubious lawfare aimed at Trump while Trump associates were targeted for shame, humiliation, persecution, and prosecution? The way they had CNN on the scene with bulbs flashing and cameras rolling in the middle of the night as they “perp walked” Roger Stone and then later locked up Peter Navarro?
Who is even capable of cleaning that muck? Trump first tried Jeff Sessions, a brilliant state attorney-general who completely backed the MAGA agenda and was the first U.S. Senator to endorse Trump. And Sessions got swallowed up. Then Trump proceeded to an all-pro right-wing, even more brilliant and life-tested and Washington-experienced guy, Bill Barr. Barr actually was pretty good — for normal times — but not suited for a role amid the era of Obama toxicity and Pelosi conspiracy. May Pam Bondi be strong enough for what needs to be done.
And as for RFK, Jr. — it’s so off the wall that it never would fly in any other plane of consciousness. But as long as Trump’s people keep an eye on him, who is to know? Was Kathleen Sebelius such a wonder? She couldn’t even get the website running without crashing. At least, between RFK, Jr. and Elon Musk, someone there will be able to get the HHS website going.
A society on the brink of sepsis demands strong medication that poses its own toxicity. There is no alternative.
Subscribe to Rav Fischer’s YouTube channel here at bit.ly/3REFTbk and follow him on X (Twitter) at @DovFischerRabbi to find his latest classes, interviews, speeches, and observations.
Watch Rav Fischer’s latest 10-minute messages: (i) “There is No Palestine” (here); and (ii) 6 Divine Miracles by Which Trump Defeated Harris (here).
The post Why Trump Needed to Name Some Outliers to His Team appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.
