Author: Fritz Pettyjohn

The 20th Century was totalitarianism, war and consolidation.  The theme of this century will hopefully be liberty, peace and disaggregation, and Brexit is just for openers.  The genie is out of the bottle, and could spread quickly across Europe and around the world.   With the internet, it can happen in the blink of an eye.

The EU is breaking up, but that doesn’t have to mean conflict among the sovereign nations  of Europe, or the world.  Brexit is an opportunity  for Britain to establish closer trade ties with North America and the Commonwealth.  There was talk of Britain joining NAFTA in the 90’s, but the EU prevented it.  There’s no reason in the world why fully free and fair trade can’t take place between North America and Britain, as well as any other country that leaves the EU.   Norway would be the next logical candidate.

Donald Trump is the American version of Brexit, and accounts for his immovable popularity.  His message resonates in the same way the British Leavers did.  Aside from the globalist elites, disaggregation has great populist appeal.  For most Americans, controlling immigration, a nationalist trade policy, and avoidance of foreign entanglements all make perfect sense.

Brexit was an assertion of national sovereignty  by the English people.  They want to write their own laws, and follow their own customs.  In the U.S., the Article V movement is a reassertion of the sovereignty of the States.  They created the federal government, and reserved to themselves, with Article V, the right to assert their authority over it.  The Balanced Budget Amendment is only six states short of the 34 needed to trigger an Amendment Convention to draft the language and submit it for ratification.  Once a successful Amendment Convention is held, the American people will realize they have a tool, in Article V, of bringing the runaway federal government under control.

The Framers would be all in on disaggregation. I think they would be shocked that the States have allowed the federal government to usurp so many of their legitimate functions.  The principal goal of our Constitutional system is to prevent the concentration of power, in any person or institution.  Power is shared, and subject to constraints.  The ultimate constraint is the States’ ability to use Article V.

I’ve always believed the Tea Party’s successes were only possible because of the internet.  It’s a wonderful tool, allowing like minded people to organize against the powers that be.  My hunch is that Brexit was a British Tea Party phenomenon.  All the king’s horses couldn’t stop it, and it could prevail only because the internet gave the Leavers a means of communication and organization.  And, of course, the internet is a world wide phenomenon, allowing the connected parts of the world to quickly react to events no matter where they occur.  Anti-globalism can get global, fast.

You could say that the internet is inherently disaggregationist.  It is the most democratic form of communication in history.  There are thousands of blogs like the Reagan Project, and each one has some kind of readership.   Drudge came close to getting Bill Clinton impeached when it revealed the Lewinsky story.  The Power Line blog took down Dan Rather.  The media may look at themselves as guardians of public virtue.  If they are, the guardians now have guards.

Jeb! Bush was the favorite for the nomination a year ago.  Thanks, in part, to Trump, I don’t think we’ll see any more Bushes for a very long time.  For that, every conservative Republican can give a tip of the hat to the Donald.

The last time there was a real challenge to Republican Globalism was in 1952, by Sen. Robert Taft.  Since Eisenhower every Republican Presidential nominee has been a globalist, including Reagan.  But Reagan was a globalist only in his fight against Communism.  In the post Cold War era, beginning with Bush 1, all Republicans have been international hawks, culminating in Bush 2’s disastrous invasion of Iraq.  In this year’s Republican primaries, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz both offered criticism of globalism, but it was Trump who railed against it, and it won him the nomination.

Globalists will sacrifice the national interest at the altar of free trade.  They want continued high levels of immigration.  And they want the United States involved in NATO and other military alliances.

Trump took on all three legs of the globalist stool, and did it with a sledge hammer.  He was rewarded with votes.  The Republican Presidential primary of 2020 will be won by someone who does the same thing.  Globalism is dead in the Republican Party, and Trump killed it.

With Brexit, anti-globalism is going to spread around the world.  Japan will be a model many countries would like to follow.  Japan’s government serves the interests of the Japanese people, and the Japanese want to stay Japanese.  They may sacrifice economic growth in the process.  But as the Good Book says, the whole world isn’t worth your soul.

On the issues, Trump should win.  But nobody trusts him, and he’s erratic.  And the assault by the media is going to be a wonder to behold.  They’re coming after him with blood running from their mouth.

Maybe you haven’t heard about it, but there was an assassination attempt against Trump in Vegas.  A psychotic British kid tried to take a weapon from a policeman at a Trump rally so he could shoot Trump.  Normally, an attempt on a presumptive nominee’s life would generate some interest in the media.   Not this time.  Nothing to see here, just keep moving.  If someone tried to shoot Clinton we’d never hear the end of the Republican Climate of Hate that arouses the addle brained.  The media, even in this age of the internet, have a hell of a lot of influence, and it will all be used to take Trump down.

If he does lose it won’t be on the issues.  The American people are sick of being taken advantage of by the coastal global elites in this country.  Trump loses because of who he is, and how he handles himself, not because of what he stands for.  He’s turned himself into a proxy for Brexit, and that’s more popular here than it is in England.  Scott McConnell, in the American Conservative, has an article on all this called, “Why Trump Wins”, and it’s worth reading.

The first political event I attended in over fifteen years was the December, 2013 ALEC meeting, where Mike Pence was a speaker.  He was a potential Presidential candidate back then, and he was talking to a room full of state legislators from all over the country.  He devoted the first third of his speech to Article V and the BBA.  I’m sure he feels just as strongly about it today.  He’s meeting with Trump tomorrow, presumably being vetted for VP.  Maybe he ought to educate the Donald on Article V while he’s there.

I still don’t understand why none of the Republican candidates talk about Article V.  It’s a great issue, and really not that hard to understand.  When regular people are told about it, most of them think it’s a great idea.  It’s an easy sell.

It’s how you actually do make America great again.

Now that I’m finally wrapping my head around the possibility of a Trump win, I assume the worst.  To believe in this man is to make an act of faith that I consider foolish, and I won’t do it.  If the Constitution, and liberty, are your core principles, you have no basis for hoping for a champion in Donald Trump.  The Presidency is not for egomaniacs and charlatans.  He believes, apparently, that he can make America great again.  He can do no such thing.  The American people made this country great, and will do so again if the government allows them.  The return of American greatness will require a massive rollback of the federal government, and there’s no reason to think he would do any such thing.  Cruz would have tried, and that’s why he should have won, but he didn’t.

Goldwater would have done it as well, and the Gipper tried.  But his first priority was winning the Cold War, and he couldn’t do both at the same time.  When Gingrich came to power in ’94 I had high hopes for a devolution of power, but it never happened with Clinton in the White House.  Bush 2 was a big business Republican, and big business really doesn’t mind big government.  For the most part, they get along just fine.  So I’ve been involved in politics for 52 years, and I’m still waiting for an attack on the Center to succeed.  I’ve decided it’s not going to happen, no matter who we elect.  If Cruz had won he would have had 30 strong allies in the 245 member Republican House Majority.  That’s not enough to hold a counter revolution, which is what is needed.

Congress is the enemy, regardless of Party.  The Democrats are mainly national socialists, and the Republicans are, by and large, place holders and whores.  Congress has all the power it needs.  A Congress with balls would impeach half the Supreme Court for violating their oath to protect and defend the Constitution.  None of them has the guts even to introduce the Articles of Impeachment.

I’m having a hard time maintaining interest in this election.  I can’t stand Clinton or Trump, and Johnson’s nowhere to be seen.  His silence is deafening.  Do something, man.

When I got back into politics in 2013 I had no particular interest in who won the Presidency in 2016, and after a bout of involvement, I’m back to where I started.  My main interest in 2016, all along, has been in the elections to State Legislatures, and here there’s some good news.  Our best chance of a pickup is Kentucky, where if we flip two House seats we’ll have majorities in both chambers.  We’re ready to go with our sponsors, and Kentucky would be easy pickings in 2017 for the Article V BBA.   And I think we win those House seats, even with Trump at the top of the ticket.  538.com gives Kentucky to Trump by eleven points, and I don’t generally argue with those guys.  The thing is, Clinton is hated in Kentucky, so we’re in good shape there.

Elsewhere, we’ve got problems.  The other states we’d hoped to flip were Maine, Minnesota and Washington, where 538.com has Clinton up by 10, 10, and 14.  The worst case scenario is the Democrats flipping a State back, like New Mexico.  New Mexico is one of our 28 states, but we got it a very long time ago.  The State Senate is already Democrat, and if the D’s take the House, they could rescind us.  I have other states on my worry list as well, but there’s nothing to do but sit back and watch this whole sorry spectacle.  Nothing good will come of it, and all we can hope is that out of the wreckage we have renewed interest in Article V, which is, and has been, the only solution to our problems all along.

Most everyone agrees that this is the craziest year in politics they’ve ever seen.  For Article V, that’s a good thing.  It’s the Last Resort, the Constitution’s emergency brake, and it’s never been used for a reason.  Up til now, there was always hope it wouldn’t be needed.  But those days are gone.  This year the Constitution’s only champion is a quixotic Libertarian.

Constitutional conservatives may not have a candidate, but they have a cause  —  Article V.  It’s time to pull the cord.

 

 

What’s in it for me?

This is what will decide this election.  Voters decide based on self interest.  Even though they don’t like a candidate, they’ll vote for them if they believe they will benefit somehow.  That’s why Trump, in spite of his manifest disqualification for office, has a 20-25% chance of winning (according to Nate the Great).   And, for some reason, a lot of voters think a Clinton win would be good for them, personally, so they’ll vote for her in spite of their dislike of her.

Trump is an economic nationalist, and this is proving to be one of his strengths.  After WW II the United States subordinated its economic nationalism in order to win the Cold War.  Our trade policies were strategic, and were somewhat divorced from our own self interest.  It made sense at the time, but needs a total do over, by real free traders who will be unabashedly promoting American economic self interest.

I think those are the facts, and Trump is exploiting them ruthlessly.  If this is what the election is about, he wins.  There are a whole hell of a lot of people who are pissed off about the loss of work to overseas.  Their anger may be misplaced, and in some cases they’re Luddites, but there are a whole lot of them.

I’ve been operating under the assumption that once Trump has been completely exposed as the liar and fraud that he is, that he’ll sink in the polls.  Now I’m not so sure.  Maybe people are so completely and totally pissed off that they don’t care.  Gov. “Fast Eddie” Edwards of Louisiana used to sat that the only way he could lose an election would be to get caught in a room with a live boy or a dead woman.  Maybe Trump is like old Fast Eddie was, bullet proof.

A few weeks after I got to Europe in the fall of 1967 I smuggled a Mercedes from Munich to Tehran.  I was working for a gang of Iranians.  I’ll never forget coming across the Turkish border from Bulgaria.  Bulgaria was dirt poor, but it was European, part of the West.  Turkey had an entirely different feel.  It was an alien culture to the only one I knew.  Everything seemed different.  I took a bus back to Istanbul from Tehran, and got to make a lot of stops in little towns in rural Turkey.  On one sunny day I took off my shirt to soak in some sun.  Man, did that get some ugly stares.

I hitchhiked from Istanbul down to Greece.  Back to the West.  It was a great relief.  What I learned in my little trip is that Islam and the West are night and day.  I think it all comes down to women.  We treat women as equals, they treat them like chattel.  That affects everything, and is why they’ll never successfully modernize.

My policy to the Muslim world is benign neglect, interrupted by occasional police actions.

. . . to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

For Englishmen, money isn’t everything.  Brexit’s the proof.  For a majority of the English, at least, part of their soul is their national identity.  It’s the same, to a greater or lesser degree, in every country that deserves the name.  I’m a husband, a father, and a Christian American, in that order.  I share my human identity with about seven billion other people, so my loyalty to humanity is attenuated.  I’ve got one wife, three children, and one country, and those bonds are strong.

The title of Tom Wolfe’s most recent novel, Back to Blood,  was prophetic.  I think we’re going toward smaller and tighter communities.  It’s just a fact of life  —  people are more comfortable around people they have things in common with.  Article V is part of this movement, as it attempts to take power from the Center and distribute it among the 50 States.

NATO is walking dead, the UN is a joke, and the EU is on its way to the junk pile.  And the 21st century is only getting started.  Wouldn’t it be nice if it was a century of devolution?

Babbie and I spent the weekend in Seattle, visiting in laws to be.  Traffic on Sunday was hell because of their Gay Pride Parade, which is a very big deal, with thousands of  spectators along dozens of blocks.  Seattle is becoming more and more like San Francisco.  This is what the people of Seattle want, and it’s their choice.  I live in a part of the Far West called Gold Country, and we don’t want to be like San Francisco.  Far from it.  Our choice should be respected  by all those yuppies in Seattle.  But they want my money and my guns, for openers, so they are my political enemies.

Lew and son Kirk Uhler and Loren Enns are teaming up for an August road trip through Wyoming, Montana and Idaho to try to drum up money and support for the Article V BBA.  Lew is hoping to get Foster Friess to have a function in Jackson, and Greg Casey is setting something up in Idaho.  I’ll see if I can get something doing in Bozeman.  Lew is now 85, I believe, and is rededicating himself to the cause that he’s been leading for 35 years.  There’s just no quit in him.

By a happy coincidence, Babbie and I will be in Bozeman so that she can assist our daughter-in-law to be in preparing for the Labor Day wedding.  Our visit coincides perfectly with Lew’s plans, so I’ll get a chance to introduce him to my family.

Istanbul demonstrates the necessity of an American led police action in the Middle East to wipe out ISIS.  A while back some retired general said the 82nd Airborne could get it done in 72 hours, but that would require a President with balls.  In WW II the 82nd had a deserved reputation as a unit that played by its own rules, no holds barred.  You’d have to let these guys loose if you want it done quickly, and Obama would never do that.   So we’ll do nothing, and from now until the election we’ll probably have several more Istanbuls.  It’s almost as though the Lord is looking out for Donald Trump.  No, that’s blasphemous.  Things just keep breaking his way.

The Benghazi Report reveals Barack the Bloodless.  He’s in the situation room, and he knows what’s happening.  He gives some orders and walks away from it.  The next day he didn’t have time for his Daily Intelligence Briefing.  He really didn’t care that much about it.  He had a fundraiser to go to, a campaign to run.

A man ambivalent, at best, about the country he leads.