For the trumpet shall sound… and we shall be changed.
The inauguration of Donald Trump heralds a new age for conservatism, and if he succeeds it will have global consequences.
In his first hours as President, he has issued executive orders that implement the promises he made during his campaign. This ability to deliver is crucial.
In recent years, even decades, there has been a feeling that how people vote does not matter. In the UK, it is the blob that is in charge. In the USA, the deep state. Officials and formal bureaucracies that have been around forever, and have seemed impervious to democratic accountability, rule the roost.
In the US, the separation of powers is designed to create gridlock and to prevent one arm of government achieving ascendancy over another. For a number of years the people have wanted change and have been challenging the consensus, but the status quo continued. The green agenda was worthy, political correctness or the ‘woke’ approach was simply good manners, and all cultures were equal.
Trump is determined to change this, as his inauguration speech made clear.
The new President's first principle is that America is a great country. The second is that his job is to lead for his voters, not for the global elite or for foreign nations. This is not necessarily isolationism but it is a strongly felt patriotism, and obviously has policy consequences. In a cost-of-living crisis, cheap energy is much more desirable than environmental worthiness. Trump wants the US to make full use of its fossil fuel resources and this will make the efforts of the rest of the world insignificant.
America will have cheaper energy so only the gullible Europeans will now fuss about emissions. ‘Drill baby drill’ will keep the cost of a gallon of petrol in the US low, and Europe may be left behind.
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