Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in America, and I typically write a retrospective post this day as a way to give myself a day off from blogging as well as work. However, today is even more important, as it is Inauguration Day.
I cannot help but note—with a great deal of mildly vindictive relish—that the Inauguration of GEOTUS Donaldus Magnus falls upon a holiday that, let’s be honest, has become something of a high holy day of identity politics and progressive radicalism. MLK was a courageous man—the sordid details of his tawdry personal life notwithstanding—and a martyr to the cause of racial justice, but the idea that he was the “aw, shucks” racial harmonialist that is often depicted is a fairly outdated idea. King was moving towards more progressive, overtly racialist politics as the civil rights movement moved from its early, legitimate gains to become a grift for race hustlers; King was trying to stay relevant in an era when black nationalism and political violence were en vogue, and his brand of nonviolent resistance was losing its appeal.
But King and Trump are not so different in one important way: both suffered real oppression—politically and physically—to achieve goals that fundamentally shifted American history.
King was fighting against an entrenched system of segregation that was, frankly, already living on borrowed time. That said, a dying system will fight with all its might, just as a sick animal will lash out unpredictably, especially when cornered. Trump, similarly, faces a sclerotic system that is well past its prime, but which has fought him tooth and nail.
What is rather remarkable in both cases is that, once real resistance to the system was applied, the respective systems collapsed relatively quickly. Look at how the tech bros suddenly became friendly puppy dogs following the assassination attempt on Trump. Once it became clear that the king would not be beheaded, they quickly rolled onto their backs, presented their soft bellies, and curled up to Trump like a golden retriever.
Even the usual outcries from the Left and mainstream media have been muted. There is a general sense that we are entering a new era, and all the hysteria of the past nine years is exhausted.
As a rare treat to my non-paying readers, I’m going to share with you the entire text of Saturday’s post as it appears on my SubscribeStar page, “A New Hope is Dawning.” It is a bit of a contrived comparison between Trump and the original Star Wars trilogy, and I often loathe ham-fisted comparisons between popular film franchises and contemporary politics (and as much as I love Star Wars, the moralizing of the original trilogy is rather fascile), but I think the post captures something of the triumphs, tragedies, and comebacks of the Trumpian Age.
With that, here is 18 January 2025’s “A New Hope Dawning”:
The Portly Politico 