Trump and the MAGA movement's Relationship with the Constitution
An audio version of this article is here:
Are you a ‘The American election is just a distraction and voting for Trump is just propping-up the system’ kind of individual - or - are you a ‘the victory of Donald Trump is the most important event of my life’ type person?
I’m hoping you’re probably somewhere in the middle, because, clearly the reality is not defined well by either of those expressions!
Trump is clearly a statist; he believes in the state, the passing of legislation, the current voting system, taxation etc. But, the right side of politics fairs better with those collectivist ideals: it likes them less; and for that reason, the election of Donald J Trump is a positive when it comes to holding back the tide of the full onslaught of out-of-control globalist policies to which the green light would have no doubt been shown if the other side had won this election.
The mild right of centre on the political spectrum - and Trump’s ‘flavour’ of politics, it seems, does appear to have a naturally more comfortable position with individualist ideas and is a somewhat more cosy bedfellow with constitutional principles. To reiterate, that would be less in taxation, a smaller state, less red tape and boundaries to trade, a greater focus on domestic issues and less desire to fight foreign wars. That adds up to a more constitutional set of ideals - a bit.
But let’s not let our enthusiasm run away here as many do. Many in the MAGA movement (and I have spent a little time visiting that world in the past) have a tendency to drop into the ‘Trump is my saviour’ syndrome - along with the military and the hidden white-hats/Q etc. It is true that whilst watching that information landscape closely a few years ago, there were many eye-opening revelations and hints that interesting things were unfolding behind the scenes. It was nothing like solid evidence as such, but there were patterns of events that seemed to hint at emerging truths. The deliberate setting-up of what might be long-term, cascading, complex and sophisticated entrapment plans etc. Some of this was quite eyebrow-raising and I wrote about some of this at the time. Events like Benghazi, or the Hunter Biden laptop business, or the spying on the Trump campaign in 2016 with an FBI informant etc.
Despite all of this, rather than the whole waiting for white-hat saviours to dive in and ‘make it all good’ it becomes evident through deep research, that a course correction in one’s society can only come from one thing: by addressing the psyche, the beliefs, the ideologies, the principles and world-views of people across society. Because people’s micro-actions and decisions in the aggregate is the product of their thoughts, and because their thoughts largely come from the sub-conscious inability to address uncomfortable truths, this causes self-destructive patterns and, ultimately, the emplacement of lies and corruption. In fact, the greater contribution to these dynamics comes from decisions not to address things or ignore the elephant in the room; things about which we would prefer to remain silent. That is the dynamic at play. It’s ultimately a manifestation of conditions across society that result most often from the decisions of all of us in ways we don’t even notice or understand.
This is as it should be. The saviour issue is a huge problem, because that allows for people at large within society to adopt a lack of responsibility and not to step up and become strong and self-governing. It allows for people to step into a slave-like acceptance that ‘we can’t do anything to improve our situation without Trump and his white hats’. That’s a fundamentally conflicting impulse with the way the Universe requires us to be.
Humans are tasked with the challenge of becoming self-governing. A self-mastery, even; which requires us to embody the ultimate responsibility. That means adopting healthy boundaries, a skepticism of putting your life into the hands of other saviours and exhibiting a calm, solid self-management. As individuals, we need to strive to become someone who can be trusted by others because we do not lie to ourselves, but instead exhibit authenticity and internal honesty. That is what changes the conditions in society fastest and most completely.
MAGA Doesn’t Understand the Constitution
There is a paradox in America in the people’s understanding of their Constitution. Broadly I could say two things about this:
- The people of America appear to hold their Constitution highly and their knowledge of it seems to sit much more uppermost in their minds than the people of the UK and their constitution. Americans know that their constitution is significant and important to their nation’s Rule of Law and Justice whist the British generally do not.
- The people of America seem to have an understanding of the notion of ‘Jury Nullification’ - the right of the jury to pass a not-guilty verdict even if that is in opposition to the legislation that brought the defendant into court
But, here’s the important point. Rarely do Americans place the second thing (above) at the heart of the first thing. To be clearer, they don’t appear to understand that Jury Independence (the general right of the jury to judge independently of the government’s legislation), is the central pillar of their Constitution. In other words, aside from all the other lovely things they like to site about their constitution, they never appear to place the concept of the people (through the jury) being the final arbiter of law at the very centre of their Constitution. This would be a total revelation to many Americans!
This is a good book all about it by Clay Conrad, an American Author:
UK Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jury-Nullification-Evolution-Clay-Conrad/dp/1939709008
That notion of the people self-governing through their supremacy over their government in all matters of Justice is not understood in that context. Come on Americans, you have something so valuable just hiding slightly out of view. You don’t seem to realise that your Constitution is hundreds of times more powerful and valuable than you already think it is because you haven’t put these two things together. And your opportunity to do that is much greater than us British over here. Why? Because over in Britain, the following is going on:
- Some people don’t even think we have a Constitution
- Some people think we have a Constitution but have no idea what it says or what form it is in - and think it is ‘unwritten’
- Most people have never heard of the concept of Jury Independence, Annulment by Jury or Nullification
- Many cases are not even coming before a Jury
Although I have some concerns over the over-prescriptive nature of the American Constitution (and so did Lysander Spooner by the way), it does nevertheless contain this Common Law mechanism at its heart. The denial of Trial by Jury was mentioned as one of the most important grievances in the Declaration text against King George III:
“For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury”
So what is the MAGA/Trump movement doing? If people really cared about Individual Rights, Equity, small government (or even no government which is what would result under Common Law), the supremacy of the people over its own administration, liberty etc., then wouldn’t they talk about this? Well they never have, which has, for a long time, caused me to have serious suspicions.
I remember contacting Dave of the X22 Report (https://x22report.com). Admittedly, this was quite a while ago now - probably about four years ago, in fact. And therefore, to be fair, I don’t know for certain whether he has, or has not now adopted these concepts into his narrative. And I should concede, of course, that he is largely reporting and reacting to events rather than injecting profound and hidden constitutional ideas into the narrative. But, you would think that someone so wrapped-up in the success of the MAGA movement might raise these important issues especially when I contacted him twice, writing quite succinctly but also clearly on how this concept works and asking why this gem of people power is not being discussed! Needless to say, I had no response following either attempt at contact.
So, Trump-lovers, inject this concept into the American political right. Let’s see if they’re for real. A political movement that is honest and wants to return to a genuine Constitutional Rule of Law and defeat the ‘Deep State’, would, surely, wish to expose, dust-off, and fire-up the most hidden but powerful Constitutional concept in their armoury. Let’s see MAGA people do this. I’m watching closely.
WJK - 8/11/2024
PS. If I am wrong on this, and that this concept of Jury Independence/Nullification has, in fact, been addressed by the MAGA movement and I’ve just not spotted it, then please do let me know. I’d be delighted to be wrong on this.