By Steve Bonta
https://thenewamerican.com/print/its-time-to-press-our-advantage/
The Great Election of 2024 is in the history books and, after a heroic campaign supported by billionaire entrepreneurs and grassroots activists alike, Donald Trump and his MAGA movement have completed the greatest political comeback in American history. Having endured years of persecution and leftist media-fueled obloquy, Trump and a GOP majority in both houses of Congress are poised to end the lawfare, the censorship, the out-of-control spending, and, in general, the tyrannical overreach of Big Government and its Deep State boosters. The good guys have finally won, and the rest of us, having discharged our civic duty at the polls, can go back to our barbecues, our sports events, and our gaming. Right?
Well, not quite.
Although there is ample ground for optimism, it is already becoming clear that the next administration will be divergent from constitutional and Americanist standards on a number of counts. It is already apparent, for example, that, far from ending unconstitutional Cabinet posts and agencies, Trump intends to MAGA-fy many of them, appointing allies and even sycophants to purge objectionable woke elements while keeping the illegitimate bodies themselves intact.
This is manifestly true of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for example. Trump has already named former New York Congressman Lee Zeldin as EPA chief, noting in a statement to the press that “[Zeldin] will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet. He will set new standards on environmental review and maintenance.” Zeldin will not, be it noted, seek to wind down the EPA. His Trump-era mandate is to improve its performance. It’s pretty clear that Trump has no problem with an unconstitutional federal agency imposing environmental regulations on the private sector from sea to shining sea; it merely needs to be more efficient and more aligned with MAGA priorities.
Then there’s Kristi Noem, South Dakota’s MAGA warrior-woman, who will replace the feculent Alejandro Mayorkas as head of DHS. Time was when rational minds wanted the Orwellian Department of Homeland Security terminated before it could morph into the dystopian apparatus of surveillance and oppression it has predictably become. But Noem’s mandate, far from closing down the Bush-era bureaucratic panopticon, will be to re-focus its dark energy on border security — leaving in place the oppressive homeland security machinery for future American presidents to abuse.
The novel and oxymoronically named Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to be headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, is a fitting if unintended metaphor for Trump’s prioritizing of performance over legitimacy. What is sorely needed is not more efficient, cost-effective Big Government, but strict conformity to constitutional limits on government size and power.
Of course, there are grounds for believing that the upcoming second Trump administration will be less captive to the liberal globalist Establishment than any other in living memory. Noteworthy among top Cabinet picks and other key positions so far has been the comparative absence of Deep State-vetted and approved candidates pulled from the ranks of the Council on Foreign Relations and other establishmentarian talent pools. Particularly upsetting to official Washington and its media echo chambers was the unexpected choice of Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense, a key position long held captive by the Deep State. Another somewhat encouraging choice is former Texas Congressman John Ratcliffe as CIA head. Ratcliffe’s voting record is less than exemplary, but, as with Hegseth, he appears to lack the usual Establishment credentials reserved for nominees to this post.
This is not to say that the Deep State will not find ways to exert control over the MAGA agenda. But Trump does appear to have learned from his first go-round in the Swamp.
Our task at The John Birch Society and The New American remains unchanged: holding our elected leaders to the timeless standard of the Constitution, and exposing and opposing the machinations of the radical Left and Deep State insiders.
The enemies of freedom never falter in their designs, and neither should we grow complacent. The time has come to press our advantage.