Wednesday 5 November 2024 09:32:40 PM CDT
Greetings. This is my first post and if I can find time I'll do some more. Thanks to my friend - who must remain nameless
so I won't embarrass him - for providing this space.
Today is the day after the presidential election, one that may be the most consequential since 1980. I wasn't around then
but I am something of a history nerd and have some older family and friends who remember it well. They tell me that while
some of the economic statistics were worse then the overall societal situation today is far worse.
I'm also an SF nerd. Not a sci-fi nerd. When the only SF I knew was Star Trek and Star Wars and everyone called it sci-fi
I did too. During my education in the field I learned why it isn't sci-fi and in any case it sounds rather noobish. So I'm
an SF nerd and one of my favorite works is Frank Herbert's Dune books. As many more people have seen the various
cinematic assaults on the work I don't expect non-SF nerds to grok some of my comments.
This blog will probably be a socio-political commentary but being by now somewhat permeated by speculative fiction - mostly
the classics - I will probably make references to SF works. In the case of such works as Dune and Tolkein's Lord of the Rings.
I cannot urge strongly enough reading the works the films are based on, particularly as in recent years the cinematic productions
intentionally corrupt it. And now on to the matter at hand, namely the election which will return Donald Trump to the Oval
Office.
At this point I don't know how many people realize it but Donald Trump may be the single most socio-political force in the two
centuries. Not both centuries may be a bit of a stretch - the twenty-first is an easy call but during the twentieth such people
as the supremely evil trio of Hitler/Stalin/Mao dominated events. Aside from the fact that each of those three was less a force
than a manifestation of a force (each was the confluence of multiple streams of evil) while Donald Trump is more a prophet and a
creator of a force - while he was shaped by six decades of societal (d)evolution before he set out on his journey he has a vision
of how things ought to be and decided to do what he could to make it happen.
I mentioned the Paul Atreides connection to a few friends and they found it incongruous (so do I on the surface) but those familiar with the subject
found my explanation plausible, more so when I explained.
Rather than an evolving theory it came to me suddenly one day as the lawfare campaign was getting underway. Probably Trump's arraignment in
Atlanta immortalized by what is is probably the most famous mugshot in history (or will be) was when it hit me. Now stay with me on this,
as Ross Perot said during his fifteen minutes that went far too long (long enough go sabotage two elections for the Republican candidates [1])
said in those days.
Ready? When it became clear that the Democrat regime was determined to do absolutely anything (as subsequent assassination attempts proved)
to prevent his return to the presidency Donald Trump did not flinch. [2] With the certainty of spending the remainder of his life in prison
if he lost he continued the fight. At the age of 77 - an age at which most people are no longer breathing - he stood defiantly in the
courtroom and bantered with supporters, officials and news media people. He continued this in the face of assassination attempts and on
5 November 2024 was again elected president, so decisively that overturning the result was so far beyond the realm of possibility that the
result was known by the next morning.
The inauguration is still more than two months away and anything can happen but it seems likely that any further attempts whether by
hired assassins (or just crazy Democrats) or political machinations will not prevent it. At that point again-President Trump will be in
a position similar to that of Paul Atreides as he is ordering the defeated emperor brought before him. But when Trump stood in courtrooms
in New York and Georgia and heard verdicts pronounced - verdicts directing him to be stripped of his wealth and sent to prison - he was in
the position in which Paul would shortly find himself as he prepared to dismantle the empire. He finds it necessary to risk his life and
everything he has fought for to legitimize his rule.
With the emperor defeated and his prisoner and the Spacing Guild (arguably the ultimate power) at his mercy Paul faces a different kind
of challenge - the heir to the house of the mortal enemy of the Atreides challenges Paul to a duel to the death - his right as heir to the
Baron Harkonnen. Paul can avoid taking the risk - he can have Feyd-Rautha assassinated or executed, or simply ignore him - without consequence.
His imperfect oracular vision does not tell him whether he will survive - only that death is one of the possibilities. He believes that the
best course is to 'obey the forms' even if he risks death in so doing. And Paul sees something else in the possible futures - in all of them
the jihad went forward whether he lived or died. The Fremen needed only the legend he had already become.
Donald Trump could have retired from politics and lived a comfortable life free of stress. It is unlikely that the regime would have pursued
him further if he agreed to go away and stay out of politics. But he risked everything, including his life, to seek the presidency again. And while he
might well have disposed of some opposition with dirty tricks - he certainly had the money and connections - but played by the rules all the
way. He didn't have to go to Georgia and be arrested by the state, or could have made it extremely difficult for them. He might even have
arranged for one of the prosecutors to have a convenient accident - done properly it could never be proven. Certainly those prosecutors and
judges are among the most vile of human beings and deserve to be done away with but Trump played by their rules. And after being shot - not
just shot at but hit and millimeters from instant and certain death - he continued the fight. [3]
And when it was over Donald Trump was decisively victorious and his enemies were in a state of shock. His force was - against the entire federal
government, almost the entire news and entertainment media, numerous fabulously wealthy individuals and foreign governments - not in a better
position than comparatively small force of low-tech guerillas. He prevailed because enough decent - and frightened and angry - people tipped
the balance.
It may have been the last chance for the survival of the Republic and President Trump must be as ruthless as Paul was in dealing with his
defeated enemies. Obviously he must as before remain within the letter of the law but given the crimes of which they are all guilty he can
punish them and discourage rebellion for a while but that is another discussion. I suspect that this may indeed be the beginning of a Golden
Age, an American Renaissance. When I saw him shot by an assassin and leap to his feet with a fist in the air I suspected that the outcome
was no longer in doubt. I was still on edge until midnight of election day but I couldn't get that image - and the knowledge that Divine
Providence was at work - out of my mind. And now President Trump will preside over the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Republic.
That things like that don't happen by accident [4] reinforces my optimism.
[1] Ross Perot entered the presidential race of 1992 as a Reform Party candidate. After withdrawing ostensibly to avoid preventing
a decisive victory by either of the two major party candidates he reentered and received almost 19% of the vote, guaranteeing a defeat
for George Bush. In 1996 he ran again and only received 8% but it was enough to ensure that the Republican candidate was defeated.
[2] In battle, if you make your opponent flinch, you have already won. ~ Miyamoto Mushashi
[3] Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result. ~ Winston Churchill
[4] Definition of coincidence: You weren't paying attention to the other half of what was going on. ~ Chad C. Mulligan
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