JUNE 16, 2026

“In the end, legitimacy is not inherited.  It is earned. It does not arise from ancestry, mythology, chronology, or blood.  It arises from competence, justice, liberty, opportunity, and the rule of law.  The question is not who was here first.  The question has always been, and will always be, who governs well.”

–Tyler Durden, Indigenous Nonsense.

A dear reader sent me the most interesting article, from which the above-quote is excerpted. The main premise is that all these Leftist claims of the righteous claims of the so-called “indigenous peoples” is bunk. It deals mainly with the Aztecs and Mayans in Mexico, but touches on other countries in Europe, America, the Middle East, and Africa as well. And it makes its point well. You can rail against colonialism all you want, but do you really believe that the American Indians would have developed a great country such as the United States? Or how about India? If the British had not colonized the subcontinent, those folks would likely still be wandering around in the horrific heat, dressed in loincloths like Ghandi. Britain build both Singapore and Hong Kong into economic powerhouses with freedoms and liberties. Could the Chinese have done that? No. Indeed, look at what has befallen to Hong Kong since the Communists took over. I highly recommend Mr. Durden’s article. It is a short, but quite interesting read. And thank you dear reader, for sharing!

“It is often said that men are ruled by their imaginations; but it would be truer to say they are governed by the weakness of their imaginations.”

–Walter Bagehot.

For so many years, Republicans in Washington, D.C. have made great promises to the American people about what they would do if given power. And yet, they never seem to do those things. Never.

People who claim to be “conservative” are really not. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R. Oh.)? Nope. Representative John Kasich (R. Oh.)? No, no, no. Former Presidential nominee Mitt Romney (R. Ut.) claimed to be a “severe conservative”. Do not make me laugh. Senators Mitch McConnell (R. Ky.), John Thune (R. S.D.), John Cornyn (R. Tx.), and the late John McCain (R. Az.)? Ha, ha, ha, ha! C’mon, man!

One can expect Democrats to attack and undermine President Trump. They do so on a daily basis. But Republicans? Supposedly “conservative” Republicans? Why?

“Will we remain the party of conservative principles or embrace progressivism in the guise of populism?”

–Former Vice-President of the United States Mike Pence (R. In.), writing in The Wall Street Journal, in criticism of President Trump.

Mike Pence is a seemingly good man, faithful to his God, family, and country. He served as a decent Vice-President, after lackluster stints as a U.S. Representative and Indiana Governor. Mr. Pence touts himself as a “conservative”, and ran briefly for President in 2024. But is Mike Pence really “conservative”? Whatever did Mike Pence accomplish while in government? And is Mr. Trump really “progressive”?

Let’s look at some things. Mr. Pence accuses President Trump of being an “isolationist”, and claims that this antithetical to being a solid conservative Republican. But is Mr. Trump an isolationist?

Here is a partial list of things Mr. Trump is working on that help the world, including the United States:

• Working to finish Iran’s 47-year threat to the U.S., Israel, and the world.
• Destroying Iran’s terrorist proxies.
• Completing several peace agreements.
• Helping Nigeria destroy terrorists and protect Christians.
• Giving the people in Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran the opportunity for freedom and prosperity.
• Getting NATO countries to pay up.
• Reducing China’s influence in South America and Africa.
• Taking away China’s ability to control 90% of rare earth minerals.
• Taking away China’s control of both ports of the Panama Canal. 
• Telling Europe to produce more oil and stop relying on Russia.
• Making U.S energy products available throughout the world.
• Working and completing trade deals.
• Destroying Mexican cartels.
• Destroying Venezuelan drug-runners.

President Trump is achieving things that career diplomats and traditional conservatives have failed at or didn’t even attempt; he is by no definition of the word, an isolationist.

And here is an abbreviated list of policies President Trump is working on domestically which most Republicans and/or “traditional conservatives” never tackled:

• Closed the border and is building the wall. Most Republicans just looked the other way as China Joe and his autopen flooded America with illegals.
• Working to hold sanctuary cities and states accountable thus reducing murder and other crimes.
• Trying to follow the law by making sure that illegals are not participating in entitlement programs.
• Trying to get rid of ridiculous birthright citizenship and birth tourism.
• Made the 2017 tax cut permanent and expanded the law to include tax reductions on tips and overtime, along with immediate expensing of factories. Tax revenues continue to rise faster than inflation. (That bill included scholarships for poor children to have school choice.)
• Implemented Trump accounts, which will show the joy of capitalism over government dependence and socialism to poor- and middle-class children.
• Mr. Trump tells the truth that dire climate predictions by green pushers were always a scam. Most traditional conservatives just caved to the left’s agenda (albeit at a slower pace) as Biden and others set out to destroy oil, natural gas, coal production, and the economy. They were too scared of being called climate change deniers.
• Mr. Trump has achieved energy independence and is exporting because of his aggressive energy policies.
• Mr. Trump gave people freedom to buy vehicles they choose instead of the government dictatorially taking away choice.
• Mr. Trump is finally addressing massive fraud throughout the government. Most Republicans allowed the government dependence to grow. Sadly, the leftist media rarely reports all the fraud because they don’t care. They should stop pretending they care about deficits.
• After decades of just throwing money at higher education, the Trump administration is limiting the amount of loans.
• Mr. Trump is requiring mentally and physically able people to work part-time for welfare benefits. 
• Mr. Trump gave people back freedom of choice on health care when he got rid of the individual mandate and eliminated generous subsidies for high income workers that Biden implemented. There is massive fraud in Obamacare which has made large companies extremely rich and harmed the rest of us.
• Cut 300,000 federal workers in 2025. Where have the traditional conservatives been?
• Mr. Trump is trying to pass sensible rules for voting. Anyone with a brain can look at the California primary and see how easy it is to cheat.

Mike Pence also complains that Mr. Trump isn’t pro-life enough, but the traditional conservatives allowed massive funding of Planned Parenthood, and Mr. Trump pardoned pro-life people who were imprisoned by the politicized China Joe Justice department.

The Mike Pences, John Thunes, Mitch McConnells, and John Cornyns accomplished nothing while in office of any conservative consequence. Neither did Presidents George H.W. Bush nor George W. Bush. All claimed to be “conservative”. But their records belie that claim.

By contrast, I submit that while President Trump is not a “conservative”, he has accomplished more things on the conservative agenda (or attempted to do so) than any other President, or politician, since President Ronald Reagan. He is certainly not a “progressive”. For that, we should be grateful.

Mike Pence is not a deep thinker. And he is not a doer. He is a man that would not row a boat for fear of disrupting a placid lake surface. He prefers the status quo, the false admiration of the mainstream media and his colleagues, than to actually risk anything to accomplish something.

President Trump is not a “conservative”. President Trump is not perfect. And President Trump has a style that rubs the establishment the wrong way. So what? President Trump is accomplishing things that others merely promised. Results matter.

Below I have included a recent article from The American Thinker, which addresses the failure of the spineless members of The Stupid Party, whose timidity put the country in its current position. It dovetails nicely with the above commentary.

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The Calamitous Legacy of the GOP’s Civility Caucus

While the Democrat Party was stealthily being taken over by the American Marxist movement, the Republican Party wing of the Washington Establishment was wallowing in political civility. 

BY:          Steve McCann, The American Thinker (June 2, 2026).

Why does the United States find itself in a political environment wherein the ruthless and fully radicalized Democrat Party was, before Donald Trump’s second term, well on the way to transforming the country into a Marxist “paradise”? It is because until Donald Trump effectively took over the Republican Party in 2024, after soundly defeating the two-party Washington Establishment and the unrelenting and vile machinations they unleashed against him from 2015 to 2024, there has not been a viable, determined, and equally ruthless opposition party.

While the Democrat Party was stealthily being taken over by the American Marxist movement and subsequently employing the tactics used by the Nazi Party during the 1920s and early 30s, the Republican Party wing of the Washington Establishment was wallowing in political civility and its corollary, obsequious compromising, choosing to not only be nonconfrontational but to bend over backwards in order to continuously accommodate the Democrats regardless of the absurdity of their demands.

How did this situation evolve? While it had its beginning during the 1930s, it accelerated dramatically in 1988 with the election of George H.W. Bush. He won, not on his own merits, but almost solely because he was the beneficiary of being the vice-president during the two terms of Ronald Reagan, in many ways the most successful and popular president of the twentieth century, but who also was vilified by the Washington Establishment as being an oblivious racist who was an uncivil, uncouth, and senile warmonger.

On the other hand, the Bush family dynasty exemplified the patrician attitude of holding oneself above the fray and fulfilling their preordained obligation to society while assuming those who may disagree or are political adversaries are equally honorable people. Among the archives at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library are the texts of 27 major speeches he delivered during his presidency referencing the importance of civility in our discourse and politics.

During the 1992 presidential election campaign, George H.W. Bush, in keeping with his penchant for civility, ran a lackluster campaign against Bill Clinton relying on the belief that his litany of compromises with the Democrats would buy their goodwill. The Bush campaign and the Republican National Committee, upon his instructions, never responded to a parade of false accusations and never went for the jugular with Clinton, who was saddled with innumerable scandals.

Clinton, not shackled by the niceties of civility, unabashedly attacked Bush’s character and integrity, accusing him of being an inveterate liar and conman. He falsely implied that Bush, despite not a shred of evidence, was not only complicit, but a major player in the Iran-Contra scandal while vice president.

This charge was seemingly coordinated with Lawrence Walsh, the Special Prosecutor for the Iran-Contra Affair. A mere two weeks before the election, he indicted Caspar Weinberger,  Bush’s Secretary of Defense, for a second time while obliquely mentioning Bush in the footnotes. Four weeks later, a federal district court judge threw out the indictment, but the damage was done and Bill Clinton was president for the next eight years.

While George H.W. Bush opened the door to political civility as being applicable to Republicans only, his son George W. Bush cemented that premise as being the foundational underpinning of Republicans not only running for president but Congress as well.

In his Inaugural Address in 2001, George W. Bush stated the following as he committed himself to adhering to the ideal of political civility:

Civility is not a tactic or a sentiment. It is the determined choice of trust over cynicism, of community over chaos.

These are fine and noble sentiments if both political parties endeavor to follow them, but not if one party is hellbent on overturning the foundational tenets of the country by any means possible.

During his eight years in office, Bush was incessantly and falsely accused by the Democrats and their allies in the media of being the worst human being on earth as he was a genocidal warmonger, one of the most racist presidents in history, a prevaricator, as well as a misogynist. Therefore, he was someone who should be assassinated for the benefit of mankind.

But in keeping with his dedication to civility and reverence for the office, Bush, following in his father’s footsteps, consistently compromised with the Democrats while refusing to respond or allow his subordinates to defend him in public against any of these vile charges, thus by default cementing the caricature of a malevolent buffoon in the public psyche. By the end of his presidency, Bush’s approval rating of 22% was the lowest ever recorded.

Not having learned their lesson from the George Bush experience — that the Democrats and their allies in the media would never again campaign on issues but instead focus on personal destruction and incivility — the Republican Establishment in 2008 orchestrated the nomination of the next man in line and a member of the Civility Caucus, John McCain, who ran his campaign as the model of civility and decorum against the neo-Marxist Barack Obama. Predictably, the opposition went scorched earth.

During the campaign and using the playbook established to tear down George W. Bush, John McCain, an American military hero, was smeared as warmonger, an unapologetic racist, of having an affair with a lobbyist, of being a phony POW in Vietnam, and too old and scared by his POW experience to be president.  

Like Bush, McCain refused to aggressively fight back and take the offensive. Unsurprisingly, he was soundly defeated by Barack Obama, thus opening the door for the American Marxist movement to fully take over the Democrat Party. Further, during his presidency, Obama unabashedly exploited the political civility and compromise mindset of the cowering Civility Caucus in Congress, who were further intimidated by Obama’s unabashed exploitation of his skin color.

The Tea Party Movement of 2010 was a direct response not only to the efforts of Obama and his henchmen to transform America culturally and economically, but more importantly, it was a gut reaction to the Republican Party Establishment and its presidential candidates, as well as the vast majority of Congressional candidates continuously surrendering while waving the white flag of civility and accommodation. Particularly as the Democrats were free to wage scorched-earth campaigns without compunction, consequence, or pushback, knowing that if the Republicans won, their dedication to compromise would allow them to still achieve their objectives.

The Republican Party Establishment not only chose to ignore this grassroots movement that was the primary catalyst in the 2010 mid-term election of an historic 63 new Republican seats in the House, but mocked and belittled the Tea Party while remaining mired in their civility and compromise mindset.

In 2012, the Establishment stage-managed the nomination of Mitt Romney, another member of the Civility Caucus. As he had no skeletons in his closet, they assumed he could avoid or weather the character assassination tactics of the media and the Democrats.

As expected, Romney chose to utilize the same bland and civil campaign tactics of his predecessors instead of exploiting Obama’s character flaws, radicalism, and the underlying factors in his historic defeat in the 2010 midterms (causing Obama to openly admit that he suffered a “shellacking” in the election).

However, it took little time for the left-wing forces arrayed against Romney to fire their volleys. A new and previously off-limits accusation was hurled as the Democrat machine compared Romney and the Republican Party to Nazis. Romney was also portrayed as a right-wing extremist, a congenital liar, a warmonger, and a corporate elitist whose only interest was protecting the wealthy. Further, he was a sexist bordering on being a misogynist. And he, of course, was a racist as were all Republicans.  

By the end of the campaign, Romney, like both Bushes and John McCain before him, was portrayed as being among the most reprehensible men on earth and the Republican Party as the personification of evil.

Yet these gentlemen and the party establishment never responded and accepted these caricatures with civility and grace. Meanwhile, the congressional members of Civility Caucus continued to unabashedly promote compromise while the country inexorably fell into the hands of the neo-Marxists and radicals in the Democrat Party.

Rank and file Republicans and conservatives instinctively knew that 2016 was a watershed election. The future of the nation as founded was hanging by a thread. When Donald Trump declared his intention to run for president, he immediately vaulted to the top of the Republican field because he made it clear he would not follow in the footsteps of the recent spineless nominees by not only confronting the Democrats but, more importantly, purging the Republican Party of its nation-destroying “civility caucus.”

Overshadowing Donald Trump’s historic second-term accomplishments in international affairs and the restoration of the American culture and economy will be the potentially dramatic transformation of the Republican Party into a formidable and determined opposition focused on defeating the American Marxist movement while permanently disbanding the “civility caucus” that aided and abetted the evolution of the Democrat Party into being America’s most dangerous adversary.

GFK