Capt. Seth Keshel
Last week’s narrative portrayed a tale of two Presidents, one legitimate, and the other not, continuing their story into the Industrial Midwest and beyond our borders. Donald Trump visited East Palestine, Ohio, the site of a tragic and destructive train derailment, while Joe Biden showed up in Ukraine to shake the global powder keg and make the case for Western involvement there. Biden’s shun of “flyover” America in favor of a looming foreign quagmire was so glaringly obvious that even left-wing publications highlighted the stupidity of his decision.
The military has a saying that goes, “When in charge, take charge.” Joe Biden is legally in charge, as certified by the U.S. Congress on January 6, 2021, although their certification was one of a fraudulent election. Donald Trump is morally in charge, and he clearly demonstrated that by visiting a county in which he won more than 72% of the vote in 2020, which is not even mission critical for a winning campaign in 2024, at least on face value.
Joe Biden clearly does not feel that he is “in charge” of anything, and it makes sense to me that someone so indebted to foreign powers and under control of special interests would not sense the burden or mandate to exercise any original thought or tap into sincere conviction compelling him to lead. Perhaps he understands what most Americans know and accept as fact about how he came to power in the first place; however, since our country elects the President with the certification of electors in Congress, Biden has an opportunity to lead.
The man is incapable of it. Donald Trump, on the other hand, campaigned as the champion of the “forgotten man and woman,” the ones who have been passed over in favor of global interests that decimate local industry and hand over the future of the working class to foreigners who did not come here legally, all while sending sons and daughters to fight and die in wastelands that have been unconquerable for all of time. Trump’s visit to Ohio was reminiscent of his visit to flooded Louisiana in August 2016, at a time when he needed to be in the Rust Belt, but chose to visit a state he was guaranteed to carry. That is how moral authority is earned.
In The Passion of Command, by Retired Marine Corps Colonel B.P. McCoy, the concepts of legal and moral authority are defined. Legal authority is defined by title or commission, such as President or Captain. That authority grants certain powers, such as the ability to issue orders or punish. In combat, leaders that wield legal authority without moral authority fail, because moral authority is what inspires armies to “storm the gates” and conquer an objective without hesitation. Leaders who exercise moral authority inspire their men and have gained that moral authority by sharing hardships like sleeping outside in the snow with freezing troops, eating field chow instead of specially catered meals, sliding underneath a truck to personally check out maintenance procedures, or going to bat for subordinates who are not properly equipped for mission success.
When I was a kid, ignorant and not yet exposed to the realities of this postmodern world, I would point out America’s imperfections. My dad would say, “it’s the only country you’ve got,” or “no other country wants you.” This is why I continue to believe Donald Trump is the only candidate for 2024, despite constant fretting over various actions, policies, or positions, such as those regarding ballot harvesting, vaccines, or digital trading cards. We are not in a battle to restore a conservative America. We are in a battle to restore control to the people. Constant opposition to Trump isn’t because he is a conservative – it is because he is difficult to predict and impossible to control. If I were wrong on this point, the global order wouldn’t be spending all this time, more than two years after extracting Trump from the White House, trying to prevent his 2024 campaign from launching.
None of the social issues or energy, trade, foreign, or border positions matter if we don’t seize control of our elections. Donald Trump is the only candidate who hasn’t changed course on decrying the 2020 election, and the subsequently crappy 2022 midterms. Elections were clearly winnable through the 2016 elections, even if Trump had to do a flanking maneuver to rip away three states from the vaunted blue wall to win it. Funny memes memorializing Clinton’s defeat are plentiful, with some of the funniest suggesting Team Hillary couldn’t find Wisconsin on a map.
The sentiment in mocking Clinton’s snubbing of Wisconsinites is a stab at her neglect of the “forgotten man and woman,” and her failure to give a damn about the offshoring of our industries and the growing lawlessness in our cities. The “party of the people” has become the party of the “coastal elite,” and in doing so, created opportunities for a modern-day Andrew Jackson to weave his way into what had been exclusive Democrat turf for three decades, and for most of eight decades going back to the New Deal.