Ushering in America's Golden Age
A task more than two decades in the making
When people ask me, and they do all the time, "How do you become successful?" I say, "Love what you're doing." The second thing I tell them is that you can't stop. If there's a wall in front of you, you just have to get through it or over it. Just get to the other side. I see the most successful people love what they do, and they don't stop, I know people who are much smarter than other successful people I know, and they're still total failures. They don't have the drive. That drive comes automatically if you love doing what you're doing.
– Donald J. Trump
The Games Do Count (2004) by Brian Kilmeade
Two decades ago and already famous worldwide, Donald Trump thus revealed his prescription for success. He later employed his own advice to reach the pinnacle of American politics. Twice.
He loves what he is doing—politics, entertainment, and self-promotion—and he hasn’t stopped.
Yet, most people I run across despise Donald Trump. If they didn't before, they have at least since late-2015. Granted, this is part and parcel of living in liberal wastelands and progressive echo-chambers for my entire life.
Once a media darling, Trump drew the ire of cultural liberals and the corporate media by declaring himself a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2015. At first these self-styled elites thought it was a joke, but by the time they realized they had a contender in their midst, they changed tack.
By no means is Trump a perfect man—he's remarkably flawed—but tagging him as "racist" and "evil" once he declared himself a GOP contender has always been more than a bit disingenuous.
What we often see now are one's shortcomings and insecurities often projected on to the persona of Donald J. Trump. Remember, until 2015, The Donald wasn't really much more than an amusement. His 2007 defenestration of Rosie O'Donnell was magnificent and, meanwhile, Americans boosted The Apprentice to the top of the ratings around the same time.
On the other hand, two decades earlier, Trump was the prime catalyst for the destruction of my favorite sports league of all-time, the USFL. (Go Breakers!) He was a true villain to many, namely those who enjoyed pro football in the spring just as well as they did in the fall.
The Defenestration of O'Donnell by The Donald – https://youtube.com/shorts/v0V74b1RSjc
While still not much more than a political or cultural distraction in 2000, Trump made a brief run for the Reform Party nomination. He ran, more or less, as a typical New York liberal, attempting to run to the left of both Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Albert Gore, though with a smattering of populism mixed in. The party founded by H. Ross Perot depended, naturally, on a populist streak in its candidates.
Yet, standing athwart The Donald was Patrick J. Buchanan, the most conservative and most intellectual man in the race. Buchanan was the fellow who eventually earned the Reform Party nod. In previous cycles, Buchanan had run to the right of the elder George Bush in the 1992 GOP primary and nearly grabbed the 1996 GOP nomination that Bob Dole claimed.
A decade and a half after his impish turn in electoral politics, thanks in part to the disastrous Obama Administration that plagued the nation for eight years, Trump pivoted politically. Instead of exploiting his New York liberal bona fides, he turned heel and became a true populist. Like fellow Republican Richard Nixon, though, Trump ran up against a hostile media and an intransigent bureaucracy that—all the sudden—hated him.
Like Nixon, Trump didn't cling to party ideology or depend on the machine of corrupt party elders. Instead, he embraced the hopes and dreams of the common folk.
This was straight out of the Buchanan playbook. Soon, Trump made amends to his former political opponent and started taking the occasional phone call from Buchanan.
In 2017, in a Politico Magazine feature, Buchanan said of his failed runs at the presidency and of Trump's arrival in the White House, "The ideas made it, but I didn't."
Greg Mueller, Buchanan's communications director for his 1992 and 1996 campaign, said, "Pat was the pioneer of the vision that Trump ran on and won on (in 2016)."
After a rough four years of a Biden presidency and another Electoral College victory, Donald J. Trump was once again inaugurated as president at 12:01 pm Eastern time on Monday. His inaugural address was energized and hopeful. After four years of an administration that actively sought to destroy the fabric of American life and tried to sic another eight more on us in the personage of Kamala Harris, another four years of a new-and-improved Trump is a welcome respite.
The once and current president has tasks to accomplish. He has a mission and a to-do list. And the message speaks to more Americans than ever today.
The theme of Trump's speech was action. Are we to believe it? Will he indeed live up to making America great again?
Trump might not be your cup of tea, but consider having a spot today. It is morning once more in America and, as The Donald announced in his Second Inaugural, "The Golden Age of America begins right now."