The Impotence of the Right
Two case studies of political power were on display Monday: a Left hellbent on persecuting its political enemies, and a Right more interested in political theatre than retributive politics.
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On Monday, two distinct models of political power were on display. In New York, a radical left-wing judge called Arthur Engoron summoned the 45th President to trial, flashing a ghoulish grin for the cameras, ebullient over his fifteen minutes of fame that for a snapshot in time raised him from the trenches of oblivion to a national hero for the enemies of the republic. Engoron was a judicial appointee of disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo, who in office lorded over New York State with the panache of a tinpot despot. Engoron, following his Governor’s dictatorial lead, similarly pledged to be judge, jury, and executioner. His court would transform into a political gulag, and he would play the leading role – targeting his sights on Donald Trump, who in this macabre dramatization became the sacrificial lamb for Washington’s ruling class, which to this day remains hellbent on quashing him and the movement for which he stands once and for all.
Engoron’s performance was, among other things, an essay in political power – and particularly, unchecked political power that might at best occasionally be responded to with milquetoast yapping by the pretend opposition, which never does anything to meaningfully undo the aggressive and unprecedented measures taken by the Left – against our rights, due process of law, the Constitution – in recent years. The fact alone that a President of the United States (who currently leads his opponents by fifty-point margins in the presidential primary) is currently facing trial on four independent investigations for alleged crimes he committed both before and during office, should be enough to sound the alarm bells for every American who still cherishes the idea of freedom.
Once you scratch below the surface, the facts get even worse; a judge believes he can circumvent the rule of law (and the laws of supply and demand in the process), by arbitrarily ascribing a scandalously low valuation to Mar-a-Lago for no reason other than to humiliate Trump. This trial, to the extent it can even be called that, will if successful be the death knell for justice in America – a system so blinded by pathological hatred and hubris that it can no longer fairly apply very basic questions of law and fact. Even in the most likely scenario where President Trump prevails: the fact that it has gotten this far in the first place, that President Trump has had to suffer the indignity of being flown into New York City to stand trial against a vindictive Attorney General in Letitia James, someone who in a normal society should never be anywhere close to the levers of American jurisprudence, being wholly incapable of meeting the duties that her solemn oath requires, will render irreversible damage upon the judicial system.
But the institutional harm is worth it for James, et al. – who may never fully grasp the consequences of their bald-faced power grabs, but who do know how to operate by a primitive type of justice befitting the most barbaric societies: that which pits friends against enemies. Donald Trump, who has crusaded against Washington’s Uniparty, is the enemy par excellence in the eyes of the deep state. This is why they will stop at nothing, throwing history and legal precedent out in the process, to bring him to heel, even shamelessly indifferent to being seen as fools by the rest of the world. What they do understand, however, is how to effectively wield political power: once they obtain power, they use it to further expand their influence by punishing any and every political enemy along the way – and by any means necessary, making up rules on the fly and forcing their opponent’s hand to submissively abide by the new laws, to damning implications.
As all this was playing out, some three hundred miles south another kind of political drama was unfolding, only this one, unlike Engoron’s example, was an essay in incompetence, charade, and weakness. Matt Gaetz, who has repeatedly pledged over months now to hold House Speaker Kevin McCarthy accountable if he failed to adhere to the January compromise that only narrowly garnered him enough votes for the Speakership, has been teasing all week long that he would finally go nuclear and oust McCarthy from office. The problem however is that Gaetz likely overplayed his hand: all the grandstanding, rather than being a great display of strength, looks feckless and unserious to McCarthy, who has more than enough votes to retain his position, even likely some from the Democrats if need be. There have been several times over the past ten months in which McCarthy expressly reneged on his January promise by continuing the spending resolutions, rather than breaking them down by line item as Gaetz requested, without the threat of a motion to vacate. Gaetz may now be serious about his motion to vacate, which he exercised Monday evening. But it is likely too little too late: as it stands, the omnibus spending bill which avoids a shutdown by continuing to fill the coffers of lawmakers and finance disastrous overseas wars, already garnered enough votes to pass in the House and is now being reviewed on the Senate floor, where it will have a much easier time passing. McCarthy has cemented his dominance relative to Gaetz, who is grasping at straws now to use any leverage that might come from the former revoking his January promise based on the numerous times he did so already without the motion being exercised.
The motion to vacate was a once-in-a-generation kind of political weapon. If strategically adopted, it could have turned the most humble congressman into a force to be reckoned with. In theory, it allowed any disgruntled member of Congress to completely reset the table on the House Speakership. And while McCarthy’s support may appear formidable, anyone who has spent any time in Washington knows full well that political loyalty is a most fickle commodity. Whenever given a clean slate, a ninety percent share of support can be swept away instantly, reshuffling the deck chairs, and allowing previously unseen possibilities to emerge to the surface.
Alas, the Gaetz gambit likely failed where Engoron succeeded: a postmortem assessment of these two juxtaposing case studies would reveal one party that shrinks at the mere thought of using political power, not knowing what to do in the rare situation it should find itself with an opportunity to use it. And another party that has an insatiable appetite for power, resorting to any means necessary – rule changes, unprecedented legal tactics, even prosecuting a political opponent, and perhaps more – to keep and augment that power.
These clashing visions speak to the ultimate reason why the Right is largely impotent in comparison to the Left. Gaetz’ failure to deploy a once-in-a-generation political weapon effectively and strategically is an indictment of not just his capabilities as a politician or leader, but also demonstrates why nobody else has been able to dethrone President Trump, despite all the all-out attack by the deep state against him, in the Republican Party. He is the only person on the Right who has thus far managed to play the Left’s own game and wield power confidently and effectively once given it. That is why history will remember him as this generation’s most powerful political phenomenon – probably the only politician from this most degraded era that history will remember at all – and is the reason why he will be back in the Oval Office come January 2025.
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A slightly modified version of this piece was originally published in America First News, and can be found here.
Paul Ingrassia is a Law Clerk at The McBride Law Firm, PLLC. He graduated from Cornell Law School in 2022 and is on the Board of Advisors of the New York Young Republican Club. He is also a two-time Claremont Fellow. Follow him on Twitter @PaulIngrassia, Substack, Truth Social, and Rumble.
I will take whatever I can get to show the corrupt Uniparty to all Americans. At least Gaetz is breaking the fake conservativism and constitutionalism of Fox News, News Max and cowardly Republican hosts. I agree that Gaetz and company should have held out in January when they had the most leverage. They played it wrong because they are not ruthless like angry Democrats, whose sole existence is amassing political power and punishing their political enemies. I trust God will save this Republic because if America falls, the world falls.
Oh, and all of a sudden it's time to throw Matt Gaetz under the bus, because he is waging a nearly impossible fight to win against the corrupt Uniparty establishment.
That's about the same level of intellectual and moral rigor as Rob DeSnakis insisting publicly "oh, but why then has Trump not demolished the deep state in his first term?" …
Matt Gaetz may not be a Saint and maybe his tactics have been less than perfect, but who am I to judge. And I'll prefer him over some Massie type every day, and twice on Sunday.