When those people grew up and became the establishment — holding senior posts in law, government, universities, media, nonprofits and boardrooms — they became the kind of ambivalent souls who are unwilling to take their own side in a fight. They refuse to accept the fact that every society has a leadership class and that if you find yourself in it, your primary job is to defend its institutions, like the Constitution, objective journalism and scientific research centers, when the big bad wolf comes to blow it all down. During this crisis, the “deep state” has been really disappointing. Where are all those Machiavellian “House of Cards” machinations that I was expecting?
When a revolutionary vanguard upends an establishment, the establishment rarely recovers. When the revolutionaries take a hammer to the ruling institutions, they often crumble like a plaster shell. Relatively few people were willing to fight for the czar once Lenin came to town. When Trump took on the Republican establishment in 2016, it turned out there was nobody home.
So I have three big questions. First, can the people who lead and defend America’s institutions work up élan vital? Can they summon the morale to fight back against the Trumpian onslaught? Second, do they have as much clarity of purpose as the Trump people possess? Third, do they have a strategy?
My answer to these questions is that progress is being made.
On morale: Trump’s behavior has aroused great moral indignation. It has aroused in people’s hearts a sense that something sacred is being trampled here — democracy, rule of law, intellectual freedom, compassion, pluralism and global exchange. These things are worth fighting for.
On clarity of purpose: Trump’s opponents have still not produced the kind of one-sentence mission statement that he produces — that the elites have betrayed us, so we must destroy them. But I think more people are realizing that we are the beneficiaries of a precious inheritance. Our ancestors bequeathed to us a judicial system, great universities, compassionate aid organizations, great companies and scientific genius. My mission statement would be: America is great, and we will fight for what has made America great.
