The Deep State has rarely been so completely aligned against a single individual as it has been against Donald Trump.
Clearly, the establishment is pulling out all the stops to ensure the real-estate mogul and reality TV celebrity-turned controversial politician never makes it back to the White House. On every front the Left controls, they are weaponizing the levers of governmental power to destroy Trump’s life.
First, it was the indictment related to alleged “hush money” payments. Now it’s an indictment concerning Trump’s handling of classified documents. And the American people can expect that more are yet to come, given the Deep State’s unprecedented animosity against the 45th president.
Will they succeed in burying Trump as a candidate and as a person? It remains to be seen — but one thing is for certain: Trump cannot afford to give up now. In fact, now more than ever, he has the imperative to persevere in the race — both for himself and for the nation. For if Democrats succeed in using the legal power of the state to strong-arm a political rival into submission, they will not only ruin Trump as an individual (he may spend his last days on earth in a prison cell), but burn to the ground what little is left of this Republic’s legitimacy.
But there is another important lesson in all this: When one is confronted by a monumental choice between doing the right thing but earning condemnation in the process, and appeasing the antagonistic crowd, one must always take the route of greater resistance — even if the other side makes you think the world will end if you do.
Or, to use the popular Julius Caesar metaphor, one must always cross the Rubicon.
Caesar had a clear order from the Senate not to march into Rome with his legion. Doing so put him at risk of imprisonment and death. But he famously said “the die is cast” and took his luck, crossing the Rubicon and igniting a civil war.
Trump has faced several moments that parallel Caesar’s during his time in politics. But the biggest one, the one that really elicited the “crossing the Rubicon” rhetoric from the Right, was in the aftermath of the 2020 election, when many Americans felt there was overwhelming evidence of voter fraud. Many called on Trump to use the executive powers of his office to have the fraud exposed and the perpetrators brought to justice so that the integrity of America’s elections could be restored.
Perhaps Trump weighed his options and believed he didn’t have enough support within the federal government and in the states to launch such action without the Deep State forcibly removing him from office.
While we can’t know if there would have been validity to such a belief, we can at least legitimately surmise from experience that Trump would have had a relatively good shot, as commander in chief, of getting things done even in issuing such controversial orders.
For experience has shown us now that, for good or bad (often for bad), in today’s political landscape, whoever holds executive power calls the shots. Congress virtually holds no practical power anymore, unfortunately. Whoever controls the executive branch wields the real power. If Trump had acted in 2020, Congress could not have done anything more than kick and scream, while the courts likewise would have had no enforcement power.
Such an action would have, of course, precipitated something of a national crisis. It would likely have led to states choosing sides, with some accepting Trump as the legitimate president and others siding with Biden. There might have been a national fissure and a “two presidents and two capitals” situation, similar to the Catholic Church’s Great Schism (1378 to 1417), during which there was one pope in Rome and another in Avignon, both claiming to be the true pope.
Would such a situation have been messy? Without a doubt. But, despite the strife, it might have been the first real opportunity the nation would have had in a long time to truly mount an offensive against the Establishment and purge the federal government of the Deep State by starting anew with a federal government made up of constitutional, America First patriots.
Trump, however, avoided all this. Again, maybe he didn’t believe he had the political support necessary to pull it off. Or maybe he didn’t personally want to go through the turmoil, or sincerely believed that he could fix things later on from within the system with another run at the presidency.
If the latter two were Trump’s motivations, then he was mistaken. While he was in office, Trump had the power and the resources to go after the Deep State. Now, he is an ordinary citizen completely at the mercy of a malicious government. There is little he can do now to protect himself, or the American people, beyond placing his trust in God and hoping that the courts vindicate him.
That is the lesson patriots should draw if ever faced with a dilemma. Always cross the Rubicon. If you don’t act decisively when you have the chance, you may never get it again — for your enemies, upon seeing you vulnerable, will do all they can to ensure you never get that chance again. And you will come to regret having let the opportunity slip out of your hands.
