A Portly Politico Update; Site Re-Launch (Coming Soon)

Hi there, Portly Fans.

Since last summer, I've only made one post--my 2016 election guide--and I have definitely missed out on some major events.  I'd originally planned to write about the presidential election and its aftermath, covering the ups and downs of the process.  Unfortunately, teaching obligations--and, I'll admit, the unusually heated rhetoric of the campaign trail--kept me quiet during a very loud election.

I hate to confess it, but this election was the first time I didn't relish debating my progressive friends and colleagues.  The gulf in worldviews, as well as the overall rancor toward then-candidate Trump, dampened my enthusiasm for dialogue, debate, and discussion (that didn't stop me from wearing a bright red "TRUMP" hat to school the morning after the election, but that's a story for another time).  That might make me weak, but I opted to work quietly rather than talk to an ideological brick wall.  Apparently, millions of Americans did the same, and made their voices heard at the ballot box.

Regardless, here's a recap of (most) everything that's occurred since last summer:

- Donald J. Trump won a convincing Electoral College victory, proving once again the wisdom of that institution.  Hallelujah!

(I don't know which is better--Trump winning, or Secretary Clinton losing--but I'm thrilled either way.)

- Donald J. Trump was inaugurated President of the United States.  I still feel like I'm living in a dream.

- Republicans maintained control of Congress (not that it's done much good, but we got Neil Gorsuch).

- Speaking of, President Trump--mmmm, it's soooo good to type that--nominated Neil Gorsuch, a constitutional originalist, to the Supreme Court.

- Insufferable Social Justice Warriors (SJWs) have lost a LOT of ground culturally, and globalist elites are gnashing their teeth.  I don't want to relish in Schadenfreude--and, honestly, the day-after-the-election reactions were so ridiculous, they took the fun out of good-natured ribbing--but it's refreshing to win one, especially when it seemed so unlikely.

(On the note of the culture wars, many more Americans--as well as some of the youngest Americans--are red-pilling; don't pop the bubbly yet, but radical feminism and post-modernism are taking a beating.  Here's a bit of my favorite kind of evidence--anecdotal:  while I witness some gender-bending, I overhear some conversations among students that lean heavily toward a traditional worldview.  Girls want to be treated like ladies and to be feminine; boys want to be men... in general.  One of my former students transformed from a Sandersnista into a Trumpster in less than a year; that's how rapidly the battle lines are shifting.)

- National conservatism took some lumps, however, in France (and, most recently, in Britain with Prime Minister Teresa May's humiliating showing in the special election), but Brexit rolls on (woo-hoo!).

While history happened, I ate burgers in Hawaiian t-shirts.  Even this picture isn't new--but it is ALL-AMERICAN.  Make Lunch Great Again!

- SC Governor Nikki Haley became the United Nations Ambassador, putting Trump supporter Henry McMaster into the Governor's Mansion.

- The Left has continued to persecute the Trump Administration, but he keeps winning (maybe not legislatively, but he slayed incompetent FBI Director James Comey, and he's all but beaten the increasingly desperate claims that he colluded with the Russians).  It feels like we're living through the Nixon era again (but that's not a bad thing--it's Pat Buchanan's America, baby).

- Our constitutional system faces a major threat from the "deep state"--the "swamp" of Trump's campaign rhetoric, coupled with the powerful intelligence agencies that influence (control?) the government outside of constitutional and democratic accountability.  That's a terrifying topic for a future post.

- The future of conservatism is up in the air, but it is probably due for an update.  We've ignored the working class for too long.  Nixon won a landslide in 1972 reaching out to the Silent Majority.  Trump played the exact same playbook and had a 1968 outcome.  If he can weather the Left's storm--and if they continue to radicalize leftward--2020 might be a repeat of 1972 (except that the country is far more divided in its worldview now).  2016 demonstrated that Americans were fed up with eight years of a progressive administration that kept spiking the football after every political and cultural victory.

***

Naturally, I've got a lot of catching up to do.  Here's my vision for the future of The Portly Politico:

- A new platform.  I've enjoyed using Blogger, but I've hit a wall with the features I'd like to implement.  In the near future, I'll be moving to a new website, and will maintain this page as an archive for older essays.

- Short posts.  In the meantime, I'll be making short posts to the existing Blogger site.  These posts won't be as long as my output from Summer 2016, but they'll offer quick commentary on current events.

- eBooks.  I'm working on an eBook about the importance of social and cultural conservatism.  I'm also planning a series of books on great historic leaders, drawing lessons from their lives that are applicable to morality, ethics, and politics today.

- Podcast.  I'll be introducing a weekly, 20-or-30-minute podcast.  More details to come.  Maybe Audible will become a sponsor?

- Public speaking.  Especially after the eBook launches, I hope to book talks with local groups.  I've already worked up two good talks, one a reassessment of Samuel Huntington's "A Clash of Civilizations?," the other a general overview of contract theory.  Exciting stuff.

- American Patriot Radio (www.patriotic-radio.com).  I've been associated with the good folks at APR for a few years now.  I'm also a guest contributor, and I've linked to some of my pieces there throughout this post.  My hope is that I'll contribute a few shorter pieces there a few times a week, and I'll provide links from my new site when it launches.  In the meantime, you can check out submissions from various writers here.

***

That's just a sampling of what's to come.  What would you like to see from the TPP?  What's your take on the past seven months?  How's Trump doing?  Leave an angry comment below and let me know!

Music is for Everyone

On the opening night of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump made the grandest entrance in American political history (as far as I know):

Pageantry.

(Video Source:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/18/the-biggest-winner-of-mondays-gop-convention-was-donald-trumps-amazing-entrance/)

Whether or not you love The Donald, hate his guts, or would rather watch reruns of The Celebrity Apprentice, surely we can all unite in acknowledging that his entrance was freaking amazing.  Heck, even The Washington Post thought it was cool.  I was watching alone in my not-so-portly bungalow and began hooping and hollering like a silver-backed gorilla.

Substantive?  No.  Reason to vote Trump-Pence this November?  Hardly.  An awesome display of pageantry?  Heck, yes.

 

 The Mustache of a Champion.

(Image Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Mercury#/media/File:Queen_1984_0009.jpg; Attribution:  Thomas Steffan)

The showman in me--I am, after all, an over-the-top indie musician with delusions of grandeur--had to share my elation with the world.  No thought can be left unsaid these days, so I took to Facebook.

Here's my Facebook post, and the exchange that is the subject of this piece:

A bitter progressive rains on a parade before taxing and placing racial quotas on it.

Here's a transcript:

TPP:  Whether you love or hate Donald Trump, his entrance at the Republican National Convention just now was EXACTLY how I would have done it--striding in to the strains of a Queen song as a podium rises from the floor. Holy crap...

Bitter Progressive:  Trump opens a party convention that features a platform heavily biased against marriage equality and gay rights by strolling on stage to a song written and performed by a gay man who died of AIDS.

I'm not sure which is stronger, the 2016 GOP's innate knack for unintentional self-parody ("The national seal should include an AR-15!") or its total obliviousness to the concept of irony.

TPP:  Maybe a good song is just a good song.

BP:  The cool thing about music is that there's ALWAYS something deeper.

TPP:  Listen to my EP and you'll learn otherwise. :D

(Note how I cleverly defuse the bitterness with self-deprecating humor that also doubles as shameless promotion for my debut solo EP, Contest Winner EP, available now on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, and elsewhere.)

For a post about a major political party's convention and controversial nominee, it was probably the least possible political statement I could make... except that, in our present age, everything is politicized.

"Tolerance isn't enough; bitter progressives demand total acceptance, even celebration, of whatever happens to be their cause-of-the-moment."

A quick aside:  I'm going to ignore the "unintentional self-parody" and the GOP's "total obliviousness to the concept of irony," except to ask the following:  how exactly is a political party supposed to acknowledge irony?  Do kill-joy progressives want Donald Trump to say, "Okay, okay, that was awesome, and I'm up here to introduce my wife, but first let me acknowledge that 'We Are the Champions' was written by a gay man, so let's take a moment to check our privilege and reconsider our platform's plank on same-sex marriage"?  I suspect that, even if he did, there'd be a slew of "too little, too late" articles on HuffPo the next day.

(And let me quickly take a moment to acknowledge the irony of writing a post lamenting excessive politicization on a blog that basically has "politics" in the name.)

***

So, let's unpack the first paragraph of Bitter Progressive's first post.  He complains that Trump entered to a Queen song, because the Republican Party platform supports traditional marriage, and Freddie Mercury was gay.  While BP intends this statement to be a slam at the GOP--and as a way of virtue-signalling his own support for gay rights--he essentially reduces a talented musician to one dimension, one personal trait.

I wish homosexual Americans all the best, but I, too, question the wisdom of same-sex marriage.  Does this mean I can't listen to and appreciate Queen, simply because Freddie Mercury happened to be gay?  By this logic, I shouldn't associate with gay people at all, nor should the roughly half of Americans who vote Republican.

Aren't we supposed to reach out to people--regardless of their sexual orientation--and treat them with respect, even if we disagree?  How does demanding an effective ban on music by gay artists for half the population help bridge that gap (and what are Log Cabin Republicans to do)?  How does it increase understanding and tolerance?

"None of [Freddie Mercury's] other qualities matter... until and unless they can be used as a convenient bludgeon to force conformity to the unforeseen priorities of a future age."

It doesn't, and that's not the point.  Tolerance isn't enough; bitter progressives demand total acceptance, even celebration, of whatever happens to be their cause-of-the-moment.

The logic of BP's post also dehumanizes Freddie Mercury (and, by extension, all gay men).  No more is he a phenomenal, groundbreaking singer and songwriter.  Instead, he's defined almost entirely based on who he likes to sleep with, and in turn, our anachronistic opinions about whether or not Mercury can formalize that sexual relationship in a legal forum is supposed to dictate whether or not we are allowed to enjoy his music.  None of his other qualities matter--being a man, having an awesome mustache, possessing an amazing voice--until and unless they can be used as a convenient bludgeon to force conformity to the unforeseen priorities of a future age.

Another pop culture example:  I disagree vehemently with pretty much everything Lady Gaga has ever said or done.  Her live concerts are like modern-day Dianic rituals to some pagan fertility goddess.  She prioritizes sexual libertinism over all else.  But, damn if I don't like "Bad Romance"--and even "Born This Way," an (inaccurate) anthem for the gay rights movement.  Should I not listen to her music because I disagree with her political and social views (there are other, better, aesthetic reasons to do so)?  If BP had his way, I suppose not.

A more useful, valid critique of Trump's epic entrance would point out the danger to a free republic of falling for grand pageantry... as a substitute for responsible self-government.

A more useful, valid critique of Trump's epic entrance would point out the danger to a free republic of falling for grand pageantry--"bread and circuses," as one of my colleagues put it--as a substitute for responsible self-government.  I'll admit that I loved every second of Trump's approach, but I'm not making an important voting decision based on a fifteen second stroll.  However, some people will love it too much, and make a decision based solely on pageantry.

That's a legitimate concern.  Freddie Mercury's sex life forty years ago--which magically makes "We Are the Champions," an incredibly politics-neutral song off-limits--isn't.

***

Music should be for everyone to enjoy (songwriters should, of course, retain the rights to their works, but that's not the issue here).  If we want to build a productive civil society--one with disagreements, but common respect--we shouldn't criticize one group for enjoying a song because of an incidental personal characteristic of the songwriter.  Some of my best fans are liberals and progressives.  Should I be offended that they listen to "Hipster Girl Next Door" even if it describes their lifestyle-liberalism to a tee (surely some of them fail to recognize the irony)?  Should they shun me from their slam poetry readings and drum circles because I don't think the government should pay for urine-soaked "art"?

Of course not.  Let's grow up and just let a good song be a good song.  Maybe we'll learn something while singing together.