Fearless Donald Trump: Today’s Thomas Paine

If you remember your history, you might recall the pamphlet “Common Sense,” authored by Thomas Paine in 1776, which advocated (in fiery language) for independence from Great Britain. In Bill Bryson’s excellent book “Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States,” he references Paine’s bestselling pamphlet and the effect it had on colonial America.

“To say that it was a sensation merely hints at its impact,” wrote Bryson. “It was a breathtakingly pugnacious tract. Writers did not normally refer to the king [George III] as ‘a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man’ and ‘the royal brute of England’ or accuse him of sleeping with ‘blood upon his soul.'” Bryson goes on to explain Paine’s vision and the persuasive arguments he used to push for an independent nation.

Keep this passage in mind for a moment.

Along with millions of other Americans, I watched the Trump inauguration on Monday. Many political luminaries were in attendance, of course, and the Capitol Rotunda was packed. While the excuse to move the swearing-in ceremony to the Rotunda was justifiably made due to the bitter-cold weather, I found myself relieved that it also made the job of security personnel easier than if the ceremony had been held in a huge outdoor venue.

During his inaugural speech, Trump made the focus for his upcoming administration clear. “The Golden Age of America begins right now,” he said. “From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. During every single day of the Trump administration, I will, very simply, put America first.”

Nice and patriotic words, right? But then Trump got into the nitty-gritty … and it was breathtaking. He touched on the “radical and corrupt establishment” that destroyed or transferred America’s wealth; the inability of government to respond to “even a simple crisis at home,” much less abroad; the open borders that has allowed crime, cartels and deadly drugs to flood the nation; the political persecution, the weaponization of federal bureaucracies, the stifling of free speech and much else.

In fact, Trump went on and on, outlining the disastrous policies of the past four years and his plans to repair the nation from the effects of those policies. Periodically, the room would erupt with applause or a standing ovation.

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And the best part? Biden and Harris were sitting right behind the podium during this speech. Needless to say, they never clapped, but instead sat in stony silence, looking impossibly defeated.

“Trump is effectively ripping Biden and Harris a new one, and they just have to sit there and take it,” I messaged a colleague, who responded, “Delicious!”

In short, Trump’s address was – to paraphrase Bryson – a breathtakingly pugnacious speech. Trump may as well have been calling Biden, as a representative of the federal government, “a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man” who sleeps with “blood upon his soul.”

With the swearing-in ceremony over, Trump then repaired to the Capital One Arena where he proceeded to sign a flurry of executive orders. Later he entered the White House and signed yet more executive orders (while simultaneously taking questions from the press). Within a few hours, Trump reversed four years of spectacularly bad policy and set the nation on a revised constitutionally based course.

“I’m revoking nearly 80 destructive radical executive actions of the previous administration,” Trump said. “They’ll all be null and void within about five minutes.”

And Biden had to watch his “accomplishments” and his legacy as president disappear into thin air – poof! No wonder he and Harris looked defeated during the inaugural speech.

Of all the disastrous policies Biden implement during his presidency, I question how many he was even aware of, much less personally responsible for. His mental decline was evident (and hidden) from the start, and it was – in my opinion – little short of elder abuse to prop him up on the world stage and pretend he could do the job. Indeed, he may have been “elected” for that very reason: That he was an easily controlled puppet who would dance on the strings of unknown and unseen handlers whose goal was to advance a globalist régime and the Deep State at the personal and national cost of American citizens.

One thing is certain: Biden’s very mental vagueness allowed the Deep State and the wokesters free reign to implement every extremist policy their little hearts desired. Senior administration DEI picks made America an international laughingstock (Pete Buttigieg, Rachel Levine and Sam Brinton immediately come to mind). Schools – always leftist – lurched so far into insanity that they were resorting to having the FBI arrest concerned parents as “domestic terrorists.” Blue cities made crime legal, and then (insert shocked Pikachu face) expressed surprise when crime skyrocketed. Not that it made any difference; leftist criminal justice prosecutors and judges refused to prosecute even the most heinous crimes anyway, while persecuting heroes like NYC’s Daniel Penny. No wonder Trump won in a landslide. With friends like Biden, who needs enemies?

Social critic James Howard Kunstler put criticism of the former administration in more memorably modern parlance: “So, adios, Joe Biden, you miserable, treasonous bastard. History will record you as the one president so far who was consciously a villain outright, in true self-knowledge of his own wickedness. You left your country a wreck in every dimension: in national security, national bankruptcy, national pride, and national confidence. Go back to Delaware and sit in the dim light of your room with the curtains drawn so you won’t have to hear about the gruesome discoveries to come of what you left behind.” More pugnacious words, no?

Trump can be described as many things, but “weak” is not one of them. He is a powerful presence on both the domestic and international stage, and global leaders are taking notice. Indeed, Trump’s success is even encouraging citizens in other nations to follow suit in their own elections (see here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here, just for starters).

And now the left is eating crow, big time. No wonder people are calling this “morning in America” and a “golden age.” It’s almost as if – hear me out – Trump is imparting “Common Sense” into the nation. He is a loud, brash, coarse, confident, breathtakingly pugnacious man. Frankly, that’s what our nation needs at the moment to countermand four years of weak, wishy-washy policies that make us vulnerable to so many enemies, both foreign and domestic.

Sit back, buckle up and hang on. America is in for a yuuuuge ride.