Cold war was a term that took up common usage beginning in 1950s America to describe the ongoing conflict between the U.S and the Soviet Union. While not engaged in direct military action, the two nations were diametrically opposed to each other diplomatically, in proxy wars and in economic matters. An attitude of war toward each other but restrained, in this case by mutual assured destruction if they came to blows.
Now America is in a new Cold War, a Cold Civil War. Two irreconcilable world views are in conflict within our nation. One sees freedom of personal initiative necessary for development of the whole society, and the minimal involvement of a central authority. This view is rooted in the founding of our nation.
Ascendancy of centralized control
The other sees the ascendancy of centralized control as necessary, and is committed to a monolithic set of Leftist beliefs, operating outside of traditional morality and outside of traditional views of our national heritage.
While the conflict has been simmering for decades, it was fanned into flame by one of the most - possibly THE most - divisive presidential election campaign in history, igniting on November 8 after it became clear to everyone that Donald J. Trump was indeed the winner.
We are seeing things such as long-time Congressman John Lewis calling Trump’s election “illegitimate,” Democrats plotting for Trump’s impeachment, even though he hasn’t even become President yet, and protest groups organizing and beginning to arrive in Washington, D.C., some of whom are hoping, in vain, to create enough chaos and disorder as to stop the Inaugural Ceremony.
Lewis, by calling the election illegitimate, is in effect saying he believes that those who voted for Trump are illegitimate voters, the Constitutional process by which he was elected is illegitimate, and, consequently, the Constitution is illegitimate.
The actions of the Democratic Party, with the help of the totally compliant liberal and leftists media, led their supporters into a blind acceptance of a false perspective of events going on nationally and globally.
Fully indoctrinated in Leftist propaganda, the rest of America was no longer buying it
Their lockstep approach (as if a Central Committee is deciding the Party line and all their adherents accept it totally and without question or doubt), once they had complete control of their faithful followers, was to demonize Donald Trump and then treat the caricature of Trump, created through the politics of personal destruction, as if it were the actual man.
This was not just standard politics at work, where candidates said exaggerated things about each other then afterwards treated each other as the actual person they were.
No, this was an attempt to demonize the man so that he would be so feared that the vast majority of people wouldn't consider voting for him - no matter how bad or weak his opponent was.
While that worked like never before with those fully indoctrinated in Leftist propaganda, the rest of America was no longer buying it.
The problem the Left had was that only some of the national media was propagandizing the demonization of candidate Donald Trump. One television network, Fox, was presenting Trump in a good light and, unlike the Leftists' propaganda outlets, was reporting on all the failings of the Clinton campaign. And numerous online and print media were also being read by the non-indoctrinated.
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The failure of the Left to indoctrinate the vast majority of Americans
The failure of the Left to indoctrinate the vast majority of Americans was also due to the fact that ever popular social media was not under their absolute sway.
As it turned out, in the last five to ten years, not only the young adults, but middle aged to older adults became participants in social media. People in their thirties, all the way to people in their eighties and beyond, were now searching out the internet and sharing news of their own choosing with each other.
While young people, from grade school to college, were still captive throughout the day to their largely Leftist-leaning educators, a growing number of post-school adults had begun learning about the world around them, and keeping up with current events, through their own efforts.
News was no longer being obtained by everyone through a Left-indoctrinated media. And over the last several years, outlets for opinions to be articulated and read grew daily on social media - from the comment section of news stories to Facebook to Twitter to Snapchat and so on.
A silent revolution by the Left, a Cold Revolution, if you will, had been taking place for the last several decades. But it required the removal of the Republican Party as a legitimate countervailing force to the Democrats and the Left. A third consecutive term of a Democrat with a radical Left ideology was a key step in sealing the Republicans’ fate and insuring the Left’s consolidation of power. But that was not to be. And the Cold Revolution morphed into what has now become a Cold Civil War.
The seeds of the ultimate failure of the Cold Revolution were planted with the beginning of the Tea Party movement in 2009. This movement represented the awakening of a non-partisan sleeping giant. The elements of a successful Leftist revolution began to crumble as the sleeping giant, now awake, began more and more freeing itself from the shackles of Leftist indoctrination.
But with the Tea Party movement becoming identified with Republican conservatism, it began to lose its non-partisan nature. While I believe Congress should operate according to conservative principles, the growing number of conservatives in Congress, due to the Tea Party movement, were unable to remove the Republican Establishment from their dominance in the House and Senate.
A movement bigger than one of conservative Tea Party members would be required to stop a third consecutive Democrat presidency. It took one Donald J. Trump to latch onto the broader movement of opponents of the Leftist Cold Revolution and he began to lead a movement of people that no longer accepted the status quo of politicians and the media.
To those in this nation who are programmed to follow a narrative rather than look for the truth and build opinions on facts, Donald Trump is a totally confusing leader.
And since those still following the narrative see anyone outside that narrative as the enemy, we're seeing a sharp division between a diminishing number of those who can't let the Obama narrative go and the rest of us.
In her interview with Oprah that was broadcast Monday, January 9, Michelle Obama said, "We feel the difference now. Now we're feeling what no hope is like.”
What is this? If hope only existed when Barack Obama began campaigning for President in 2007 and ended when Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2016 presidential election, then that is evidence it was only a false hope - a narrative, if you will.
America is not a nation whose hope was founded on a Great Leader bringing us into the Promised Land. Our nation was founded by people determined to live free from a centralized authority located far from our homes.
Our nation was founded by people determined to set up a government that would be described by President Lincoln in his 1863 Gettysburg Address as "of the people, by the people and for the people.”
That is, has been, and will be our nation's hope regardless of who is President.
People who support Leftist Democrats are acting like Donald Trump somehow has the power to destroy everything they believe in the minute he becomes President.
But any candidate's campaign promise is not some dictatorial mandate. We all have a responsibility to make America what we want America to be regardless of whether our candidate got elected or not.
Too many people have gotten to think that electing the right President will automatically make everything right. But it's the participation (or not) of the citizenry between the election campaigns that ultimately determines the direction our nation will go.
Participatory government wasn't abolished the minute Donald Trump got elected, so I encourage everyone to continue to be involved in the political process.
A lot of the problem with government is that we've just left it up to the people we elect to take care of things for us once they're elected.
But we all have a responsibility to make them stick to their promises and do the right thing to make it a government that is for us the people, and not there just to fatten a bunch of lifetime politicians' bank accounts.
If we're going to make Congress and all of America great again, we need to continue working to drain that swamp of entrenched politicians.
Rolf Yungclas is a recently retired newspaper editor from southwest Kansas who has been speaking out on the issues of the day in newspapers and online for over 15 years
