Trump’s Endorsement by Kennedy and Gabbard Signals a Reform Revolution That Upends the Old Conservative-Liberal Divide

We haven’t seen anything like it since President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected in 1932.

AP/Carolyn Kaster
President Trump, left, looks on as Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard speaks on August 26, 2024, at Detroit. AP/Carolyn Kaster

American politics is undergoing a profound change in its core pattern. We haven’t seen anything like it since President Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1932.

For nearly a century, politics has been defined as a choice between liberals, usually Democrats, and conservatives, usually Republicans.

Now, the key dividing line is changing dramatically in politics and government. An increasingly corrupt, incompetent, and dishonest government system is failing to deliver on its promised achievements — and then lying about its failure. The American people are increasingly alienated from their government.

At America’s New Majority Project, our polling shows roughly 70 percent of Americans believe our country is on the wrong track. We are also learning that Americans want real changes that don’t fit the traditional liberal-conservative dialogue.

Given the opportunity to pick the top three changes for our government that are most important for getting America back on track, Americans chose less corruption (45 percent), more accountability (38 percent), and less dishonesty (29 percent).

These are not left-right issues. These are questions of fundamental dysfunction and reform which cut across normal politics. These ideas also profoundly threaten lobbyists, government contractors, entrenched bureaucrats, and the Congress.

Last week’s endorsement of President Trump by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a former Democratic congresswoman, Tulsi Gabbard, capture the remarkable change that is underway.

For decades Americans have increasingly rejected the left’s model of government controlling our lives. Americans have grown skeptical of, and hostile to, the alliance of big government, big corporations, big media, and big labor.

Today, we have large union dominated schools where students fail to meet proficiency standards. Ballooning federal debt jeopardizes our economy, security, and future. Lobbyists and special interest groups permeate our federal agencies. Some of our biggest government contractors are paid billions to repeatedly underperform and underdeliver. Further, our military is embroiled in constant, aimless wars.

The steady failure of the current system and growing corruption have left people frustrated and disaffected. Popular anger has been intensified by the current system’s steady drift toward social and societal values which most Americans don’t share.

Building on the Ronald Reagan Revolution, the Contract with America, and the Tea Party, Trump won the GOP nomination in 2016 against 16 other candidates because he developed the Make America Great Again movement. He communicated a decisive split with the old order.

The old order understood that Trump’s emergence meant a fight for its survival. It reacted with a savage willingness to break the law, corrupt the bureaucracies, destroy the credibility of the press, and use every weapon available to destroy the threat to its existence.

Due to Trump’s resilience, courage, and commitment to saving America — and the intensity of support from virtually half of the American people — after all these attacks he is stronger than ever.

Mr. Kennedy entered the 2024 contest for the presidency as an idealist who thought everyone would play fair. He rapidly discovered that the Democratic Party, the key mechanism of the old order, would use every tool to crush reformers. 

As just one example, the Biden-Harris administration callously refused Secret Service protection to Mr. Kennedy. Keep in mind, his father and uncle had been assassinated as political candidates. This was one of the cruelest and most despicable acts of government in my lifetime.

The Trump-Kennedy alliance is a visible example of the emerging new reform movement. Ms. Gabbard is another example of someone who has experienced the ruthlessness of the old order. 

She and her husband were bureaucratically designated as terror threats for stepping out of the establishment line. They were reportedly harassed with detailed inspections at airports and shadowed by government agents. She is now a decisive spokeswoman for Trump and reform.

This is a historic moment.

The old divide of liberalism vs conservatism is rapidly being replaced by a new divide that has vastly different, deeper requirements for change than the ideological fights of the last two generations.

Despite Ms. Harris’s campaign talk of change and progress, she’s been vice president for more than 1,300 days. The Democratic National Convention made clear: She’s in lock step with the Democratic Party establishment.

So, the question for 2024 is simple. Which side are you on — reform or the old order?


The New York Sun

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