Viva The Bigly Revolution! Moving at warp speed

By Roger L Simon

Things are moving so fast it’s hard to keep up.  Who just got nominated for what?…  No kidding?

That’s the story of our lives these days.  And it’s a good.  Actually fantastic.  It’s one breath of fresh air after the next.

So, in the spirit, I have a  recommendation for Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy for their new “Department of Government Efficiency”.

Shut down the Senate!

Okay, maybe that’s a little much but something has to be done, changes have to be made to that hoary institution (homonym intended).

What has been called the “World’s Greatest Deliberative Body” is in reality the “World’s Most Self-Interested Body”. (It does have serious competition from the UN General Assembly.)

When legislation finally passes through Congress, it is such a jumble of earmarks and payoffs, you wonder if any of it was worth it in the first place.  It almost always isn’t. But it always costs taxpayers a fortune.

That’s just one of many reason voters were asking for a change… bigly.

We are indeed, in the midst of The Bigly Revolution. Donald Trump’s Bigly Revolution.

Not everyone, even on the right, is willing to admit it, however. Or even face it.

You would think that after his having beaten almost all prognostications and won the 2024 presidential election in a landslide, winning the popular vote and the electoral college easily, pulling the Senate and the House along with him, that Senate Republicans would be eager to put his man in place as Majority Leader.

But no.  They elected South Dakota’s John Thune, a Never Trumper from way back who in 2015 urged Trump to abandon his candidacy. Thune is the type who could very well seek to retard or ignore the many needed changes for which the GOP rank-and-file voted nearly unanimously, along with many independents and some Democrats,  across our land. (NB: Trump won South Dakota with just shy of two-thirds of the vote.)

In effect, the Senate, not surprisingly via secret ballot, was spitting in the face of its voters.  You might even say it was worse, something that rhymes with spitting.

Florida’s Rick Scott, the man Trump World, including the aforementioned Messrs. Musk and Ramaswamy, had favored came in an ignominious third to another RINO, Texas’ s John Cornyn.

The list on X, if accurate and it’s probably close, of those who did NOT vote for Scott is worth remembering.  There are surprising names, and some not so surprising, in this Hall of Hypocrisy.

Trump himself stayed out of it and later called Thune to congratulate him, illustrating the soon-to -be president’s growing Washington savvy, not to mention what we all know from The Godfather. Keep your friends close and your enemies, etc.

Let us hope that call was fruitful, and that Thune and his cronies have learned their lesson, because speed is of the essence in the approval of Trump’s agenda as are his nominations that were long delayed in his first presidency.

They have only an assured two years to accomplish the legislation as mid-terms always loom.  It’s not difficult to be optimistic in current circumstances but it’s always prudent to be prepared.  It’s unlikely Democrats will be so stupid as to rely on noxious Hollywood celebrities for their campaigns a second time, as well as have candidates who have dificulty speaking coherent English (though we can hope). They may even abandon some of their more repugnant social programs like trans men in women’s sports and sexual reassignment surgery for children too young to drive.

As for the nominations, Trump has done a stellar and astonishingly rapid job.  It has been reported he and his team have been preparing for some time and it shows. And he always has “recess appointments” the Senators have pledged to honor.

Thus far, the biggest leftwing objections have been raised to Fox host Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary, one of 47’s best selections. The naysayers include one Whoopi Goldberg who has morphed into America’s harridan-in-chief since I worked with her briefly in the eighties. The underlying explanation is they fear Princeton/Harvard graduate multiple author with two bronze stars and movie star looks Hegseth might actually reform our increasingly incompetent military filled with woke ideologs and Pentagon careerists whispering to China.  People might start signing up again,. Good for the USA and good for the world.

Now Trump has nominated Matt Gaetz for attorney general.  All I can say is—watch out below!… Well, to be honest, I at first thought this was a bridge too far.  But minutes later I realized, no, it was the absolutely right pick and agreed with former DOJ official Jeff Clark that it was “amazing.”  If not now when, as Hillel said.  Gaetz will take no prisoners in righting our justice system… except those who deserve to be taken. And there may be a lot of those.

Not faintly surprisingly, those old Senate warhorses, female division, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins, have already signaled in knee-jerk manner their disapproval of Gaetz before any kind of testimony or cross-examination. Were they trying to give an illustration of why I made the suggestion above to shut the Senate? Collins confirms just about any snake on the opposite side. She did so for Merrick Garland who has turned the justice system upside down.

With the certain to be coming paleo-resistance to the Floridian’s nomination, the nearly simultaneous nomination of Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence  will now fly under the wire, yet it could easily be as meaningful in the long term, if not more so. The feeling that we were all being spied on by our own government has not exactly been a happy experience.

We will be watching Thune and his ilk to see how well they perform under fire.  If they do not, we can assume they will be primaried. They should know by now that we in the new media will lead the charge. It won’t be a difficult one.  We just demand responsiveness to the voters who put them there and paid their salaries, not such a big ask..

Of note, Elon Musk has already pledged to keep his PAC open in potential support of any primary needs.

Speaking of which, Musk posted the following on X Nov 12 about the coming Department of Government Efficiency known with Venetian overtones as DOGE.

“Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know!”

In other words, he and Vivek are promising to be transparent and work with you and me to reform our bloated government.  There’s going to be a place for us to post our requests and comments, pro and con. My guess is they’re going to be deluged.  But I also guess they’re going to have a barrel of fun with the most revolutionary concept to appear in American politics in years. It would be the biggest reform ever, possibly saving us from the national debt while draining the swamp..

So in their honor …

Just don’t buy it, Elon.  Like the stars, the Doge Palace belongs to everyone (or maybe the Venice municipality). Buy CNN or MSNBC instead. And, yes, I made the. Trump t-shirt illo for this piece on your Grok AI. The shirt came up blue automatically and at first I thought to change it to red. But then I decided it was time to be ecumenical, do my bit to bring the country together.

Viva the Bigly Revolution!

First published in American Refugees