Donald Trump continues to be a portrait of calm, cool, and collectedness in an election season full of insane hysterics.
Through the lawsuits, FBI raids, indictments, investigations, and a near-fatal assassination attempt that but for a few millimeters would have permanently altered the course of American history, the 45th Commander-in-Chief trudges forward like a true statesman, undeterred by the chaos – his eyes laser focused on the prize of victory.
In this regard, Donald Trump has displayed a kind of stoicism, typical in the Founding generation, that never gets overly emotional or histrionic in the face of infinite chaos, so uncommon in our age of paranoia, effeminacy, and conspiracy.
That quality of remaining calm in the face of turbulence has been a critical part of his success in the political realm, being able to withstand titanic oppositional forces that would surely break the will of lesser men.
This life philosophy places Donald Trump in venerable company – from Charles de Gaulle to Winston Churchill to George Washington – he exhibits in his leadership the apex of classical virtue.
Modern virtue derives from virtù, a term with classical import that roughly equates to power or manliness. The virtues of the ancient Greek and Roman world stressed such qualities as morality, righteousness, justice, and courage – as well as a flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances, without ever abandoning one’s core beliefs that were responsible for one’s initial success.
At this juncture, Donald Trump has had the national spotlight on him for nearly ten years – and stands to have it on him for at least another five, assuming all goes well this November.
That longevity in American politics has few if any precedents – the closest, of course, is Franklin Roosevelt, whose twelve-plus year stint in the nation’s highest office, which followed a lengthy career in public service, similarly had a generational impact on American politics that long outlasted him.
FDR’s accomplishment was presaged by another Roosevelt, Theodore, this country’s 26th president, who likewise enjoyed a more than ten-year grip on America’s political consciousness. For that tenacity he was justly rewarded a place on Mount Rushmore, that illustrious monument to America’s four greatest heroes.
It is remarkable to think that a man named Roosevelt occupied the Oval Office for close to half of the first fifty years of the previous century: no small feat. But what Donald Trump has endured over these past ten years rivals what his presidential forbears accomplished a century ago.
And, with another victory this November, followed by another quadrennial term in the presidency, Donald Trump will have eclipsed what both Roosevelts achieved in many ways.
This is partly because ours, unlike theirs, is a country that boasts an electorate with significantly divided attention spans. This is further compounded by our society’s deep-rooted polarization, which stand as challenges that neither Teddy nor Franklin had to deal with at a time when America was far more unified, and the world in many ways much less complicated.
Thus, in being able to steadily navigate America through a political crisis that has really no precedent in modern times, Donald Trump is not only seeking another term as president, but also chartering a path for the success of future leaders.
The nation that he is stewarding has indeed entered unchartered territory; never in American history has the party currently in power weaponized the justice system against their main political opponent and his legions of supporters – yet that is now happening today.
Nor too has a President, seeking the Oval Office for a third time, been forced to endure internal opposition on the scale we are now seeing from the Democratic Party, and their apparatchiks in the media, military-industrial complex, and foreign accomplices. Yet that is happening as well.
Thus, the calamity under which this presidential race is taking place, which nearly cost Donald Trump his life a few short weeks ago, is of an existential, even apocalyptic, character. It takes a man of terrific willpower, one fortified by a strength of conviction and boldness of vision, to challenge head-on the forces that would otherwise level this once great republic asunder.
The critical lesson of Donald Trump’s latest campaign is not so much a particular policy or agenda, but how persistence born out of conviction can be a potent weapon for long-term success amidst an age defined by its ephemeral, fleeting, and transactional ways.
Even though he has gone through the ringer ten times over, Donald Trump today is incredibly every bit the man he was in 2016 – or thirty years before that.
To convey such remarkable stability over so many years, particularly in an arena as hostile as American politics, one needs to be absolutely certain in one’s beliefs.
Certainty of that kind, in turn, only comes from wisdom born of a lifetime of deeds replete with many trials and tribulations along the way, great success counterbalanced by equally great failure.
That wisdom, cultivated by decades of experience, helps forge a path forward despite the tremendous uncertainty of the future. The great leader is elevated by the people, because they recognize his ability to see further into the future than most and lay the groundwork for a successful agenda that will endure long beyond them.
It makes sense that Donald Trump, a self-made billionaire entrepreneur who espouses the virtues of commonsense on the campaign trail, would achieve a lasting stronghold on American politics.
In order to succeed in business, particularly a brick-and-mortar business of the kind that Donald Trump led in his prior life, he must have mastered the art of farsighted thinking – for a business will live and die by its CEO’s capacities to constantly scour new opportunities and ascertain a path forward for future growth.
That same skill set may be transferred into the political realm, where a country’s happiness can only be secured by its leaders’ ability to offset the urge for instant gratification, to achieve prosperity and peace long into the future.
Great men can withstand the temptations of small-minded intrigues, or the forces that would, if indulged without check, bring a society to financial, moral, and cultural ruin. Unfortunately, those types, especially in politics and especially in this age, are few and far between, and less so than ever before.
The Democratic Party is the open enemy of everything that makes virtuous statesmen – and, by extension, great societies, possible. It openly seeks to destroy those, like Donald Trump, who prioritize what people of yesteryear used to call the “common good” over the petty self-interests that animate the overwhelming majority of our present leadership.
The goals and aspirations of our present ruling class rarely, if ever, go anymore beyond the stomach or the libido, precipitating the cultural and political crisis now malignant throughout this once great and mighty country, which has been brought to heel by our adversaries who exploit the internal rot with reckless abandonment.
But make no mistake about it: ours is a self-inflicted wound, the product of the regnant political class, one that could prove mortal if the mentality that drives the Kamala Harris’ and Nancy Pelosi’s of the world has its way, and the worthiest of our leaders, Donald Trump, is sidelined.
Not because of anything he did. But simply because he is the representative of those virtues that are essential to ordered liberty over the long-term, the cornerstone of successful governance, self-assured in its identity, mission, and purpose, one capable of lasting for many generations.
