Trump's America Demands A Stoic Mindset

Otherwise, Good Luck

The Stoics teach us that we can’t control events but that we can control how we react to events. If there was ever a time to employ this deeply wise adage it is now.

Turns out there was no Epstein list, and he absolutely, totally, we are sure, killed himself.

OK. Sigh.

Look, we’ll give Trump a lot of credit because he deserves it. It is our opinion that the Kamala and team, because as we all know it wouldn’t have been just Kamala, or even primarily Kamala running things, would have been a catastrophe. We are still of the opinion that we dodged a massive bullet when Trump defeated Hillary, and also that we dodged a much bigger one when he beat Kamala. It was a huge win for the country and for many people around the globe.

While beating Kamala soundly and roundly, Trump also exposed Biden’s state and the total abject dishonesty of the Biden White House. We are very lucky that something truly terrible, on a global scale, didn’t happen while Biden wandered aimlessly through the West Wing. Ukraine was and is bad, but things could have been much worse.

That Trump and Musk (who we consider a champion of The Enlightenment and of free speech) teamed up to defeat the powers of “woke” (it must remain defeated and be defeated even more still, it should be given no life, no chance to reroot) was one of the most important political battles of my lifetime. It can’t be overstated how important it was, and every thinking person on the planet, every person who believes in free speech and abhors totalitarianism should be thankful.

We are thankful, and we look forward to more wins. But as is always the case the battlefield changes with time. New challenges emerge.

Trump has failed many times in our eyes over the past few months, but we expected this. The old adage “every politician will let you down” holds true with Trump. But we knew it would, so when Trump spends too much or makes what we consider a political misstep it doesn’t shock us or disappoint us. We don’t feel let down. Saying that, the fat within the Big Beautiful Bill is very disappointing. But we sensed that when Trump got behind Speaker Johnson months ago that this sort of bill was likely to become law.

Trump is no small government conservative (do such things, and did they ever, really exist?) and he has the ability to sidestep political dogma when it suits him. This works with many everyday Americans. We think his tack and his tick this term is generally resonating, and winning. The non-wonks of the world seem to get him. To a large degree he seems to get them.

I used to watch The Apprentice all the time with my wife and one of the things that struck me was that when Trump fired someone from the show, his reasons, at least as far as I could see and editors can do a lot in the studio, always seemed sound. Most of the time he didn’t fire people with malice, but when he did it was usually because the person deserved it. When Trump explained how this team or the other team failed or succeeded his reasoning was almost always good. Sure, the show had all the Trump silliness, the gold trim, etc., but beyond this there is a reason why the show succeeded. He was more than a good showman, he made interesting, and usually (yes we understand that it is a TV show of little to no consequence) good decisions. It was fun to watch.

Going after Congressman Massie and calling Massie, who we regard as the single best member of The House Of Representatives and the worthy heir to The Ron Paul Chair of Fiscal Sanity was in our opinion not a good decision however. It took many people, people with small government inclinations aback.