I’m writing this whilst we are in the midst of some of the last death throes of what is left of republican legitimacy in America. Since the November election, and throughout the Christmas season, it became increasingly more obvious, and I do not think that it ever wasn’t, that neither side was ever going to recognize the other as the “rightful” president no matter what happened. Not a good thing if, like myself, you enjoy peace, liberty, order, and tranquility. It was also obvious just how much blatant fraud was happening on the part of the Left. Funny thing how if you remove all integrity, safeguards, and responsibility from an already universal suffrage democracy you end up with situations like this. Who’da thunk it?
Not too long after the election, Trump, at least ostensibly, had his own “crossing the Rubicon” moment on Twitter ( Press F ) where he “hereby claimed” contested states where fraudulent ballots continued to flow in consecutively for Joe Biden. If the January 6th March on the Capitol showed us anything, it was that his most ardent (and sometimes conspiratorial) supporters were the “real Rubicon crossers.” Not in the sense that they really “achieved” anything, but at least in the symbolic spirit of it all. In reality, his most ardent (while well intentioned) supporters were dogs who had finally caught the car they had been chasing, and now that it was there in front of them they did not quite know what to do with it.
In any sense, the idea that many still (justly so, in truth) harbor loyalty to the “rightful” president who had the office stolen from this foretells a type of “schism” where one “pretender” to the presidency will be viewed as the effective office holder and the other as the “shadow” or “real” president. And so I posit, whether Trump is impeached, imprisoned, becomes an exile, or if (hopefully) he is allowed to return to a peaceful quiet life (lol) he will become the de jure president to a significant number of people. And so, notwithstanding talks about secession and state interposition, we have a situation, with the hardcore “stop the steal” MAGA crowd, that is not entirely dissimilar to the Jacobitism of the 17th and 18th centuries. Allow me to elucidate.
Jacobitism refers to the movement that sought to return the rightful Stuart monarch to the throne of Britain after parliament had invited the protestant William of Orange from the Netherlands to replace the Stuart James II during the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Jacobitism, and the supporters of the Stuarts known as “Jacobites,” derives its name from the Latin term for “James” which is “Jacobus.” Ideologically, Jacobites believed that the rightful king had been deposed in favor of Dutch, and eventually Hannoverian, intruders/usurpers. The role of religion and “Divine Right” should not be understated but I will leave those topics to abler pens than mine. For our purposes today, one could think of Jacobitism (in both England and Scotland) in one way as a last gasp of conservative local resistance and autonomy against a centralizing and progressive whiggish center (many Tories were suspected of being Jacobites and more often than not, they were). It should be clear that Jacobitism was not a secession movement. After all, the 1707 Act of Union was brought forth under a Stuart monarch. Rather, it was a movement based in regaining a “right” that had been usurped by Whiggery.
So why is this important to this MAGA story? Well, as Dr. Samuel Johnson, who was arguably Britain’s most famous man of letters, and who was a secret Jacobite himself, once explained: the Hannoverians (George III specifically) were the de facto or, matter of fact, monarchs and the Stuarts (Charles III specifically) were de jure or, of right or by law, monarchs. It is that situation which we are dealing with today. Well, more or less. I’m not going to pretend that this has the same gravitas and I’m aware that this is rather farcical compared to the tragedy of the Jacobites but the situation of a rightful office-holder being squeezed out of power through legalease and fraud is pretty salient. The important similarity is that even though Jacobitism had become a “lost cause” of sorts after 1715, and absolutely hopeless after the Battle of Culloden in April of 1746, it still had secret, ardent, supporters in the British Isles and in the American colonies (before the American colonists decided on republicanism, Bonnie Prince Charlie was invited multiple times to come to America and become a Holy Roman Emperor of sorts over the American colonies due to George III’s “want of inherent right”) (see Desmond Seward’s The King Over the Water ch. 52). In the fallout of the stolen election … er … excuse me I mean the usurpation of the rightful king, toasts were given in secret to “the King over the water” and men met in secret, wearing the blue bonnet and the white cockade, planning for a day that would never come when the Stuarts would finally retake their rightful place on the throne. Not too dissimilar from the Qanon followers and plan trustees, eh?
I mean, is it possible that Trump will ever really give up his claim? I don’t think that is too far out of the question. There is no “going back to normal” for the Trump family anyway. After he is ousted we are likely to see the establishment of various Trump media outlets, and shoot, he may even continue to hold rallies. He already announced, along with his son Don Jr. (the Bonnie Prince???), about his intentions to create a social media platform. Well, that is unless the Democrats actually use their power how people who hold power are supposed to use it and try to prosecute him. They’ve already secured a second impeachment, after all. I am not going to pretend that Trump has looked after the primary bloc of people who supported him in ‘15-’16 (in fact, like many I’d suggest otherwise), but he does look out for himself and he has a hard time hearing the word “no.”
Vice versa, say in another timeline the legal battle ended up deciding in favor of a Trumpist victory. There is no doubt the Biden half would have claimed “voter suppression” until the proverbial cows came home. They still don’t really recognize the results of the 2016 election or even the Electoral College (blessed be its name) for that matter. The fact of the matter is, sadly, there is no going back to normalcy even if this situation were to get straightened out and solved. This crisis of legitimacy reveals something that we have known all along: this country is too big and too diverse to be ruled under a single umbrella and bound together by a government of bayonets. As Jefferson Davis foretold, “Truth crushed to the earth is truth still and like a seed will rise again.” And really, each side just hates the other too much.
In any event, the prospect of a shadow MAGA president may be increasingly likely and it is quite possible that the “stop the steal” movement and Qanon followers will have their very own Bonnie Prince Charlie and their very own blue bonnets and white cockades in the form of red MAGA hats and Q symbolism. Although kinda cool if this was a Sir Walter Scott novel, I’m not particularly thrilled about the prospect of having to live through such a thing.
The Jacobite Skye Boat Song which longs for the return of the rightful king:
Good comparison to our present situation! We should look at Dixie as a kingdom and pray for a new and aristocratic leadership. A class of leaders that are stewards of our land and people, not pure capitalist and usurpers.
No thanks. I have never, not once, ever been impressed with a single man who would even consider themselves to be aristocrats. They are in fact garbage that no man would ever respect because men don’t respect men that think they are due respect, just because of who their daddy is or some other nonsense.
If you want to lick boots of men who consider themselves your better, then grab your compass and point it North, thats the land of bootlickers.
Good men will select other good men and drag them kicking and screaming down to the State house to SERVE, as in a servant, not an aristocracy, a menial servant class barely worth noticing, for a very limited time, before they get to go back and do a real job. I say drag them there because no good man would want any part of it, you would basically have to compell an actual man to go.
We treat them as servants, as low level functionaries, nothing else. If they don’t like it or start to have delusions of grandeur, such as being an aristocracy, we hang them.
I don’t want to live in some gay ass Yankee version of the South where like them you can’t function without some clowns who have some delusion of being “royal”, what a joke 😂
Are you sure your a Southerner? I guess its more obvious why we aren’t Catholics either, all of that bowing and kneeling to other men must have a deep effect on ones manhood.
We don’t have time for this nonsense. We should be focusing on helping with organizing and education, if you breathe one word of kneeling to some pompous clowns, then it will fail, as it should.
I swear I learn more history here than my entire sentence in the Yankee brainwashing camps, thanks y’all.
One thing that was omitted though was the fact that Trump was never actually President. Our actual President goes by the name of (((Kushner))) a fact that all of the non-mentally challenged or outright gullible are well aware of.
Trump was king in name only. The Lord of the Rings provides a useful analogy and character reference in Grimer Wormtounge. A character whose poisoning of the Kings ear in order to murder the nation for a far away power by opening the borders for a race of savage beasts while keeping the Kingdom’s protectors far away from the king and scattered in distant lands. Did I mention he lusted for the King’s daughter?
I could go on, in fact there was a running series of memes, which are our last bastion of culture not controlled by (((them))) that exactly parallels the narrative of our country to LOTR, especially during the times of open borders. Future historians take note, it was very eerily accurate, very funny and a small piece of actual American culture, which is exceedingly rare.
Only in our actual timeline the riders of Roahn never came back from their exile by Grimer Wormtounge because, well frankly, I ain’t dying for no yankee, Bannon.. errr I mean Gandalf never burst into the throne room and broke the spell on the King, he never dragged Grimer into the light and exposed him and the Kings daughter is now wearing a little round hat and her last name is Wormtounge.
I for one will not be toasting Trump even though I was one of the relatively small number of people that used a form of dark arts known as “meme magic” to make him our newest Yankee King in name only. We only did it to buy time to awaken the normies, who instead have spent their time waiting on the FBI to make the next Q drop, when they were not busy being griffted by the RINOs that is. I guess the hobbits are a stubborn breed, full on creatures of habit. Now here we are.
As for as social media, which the orcs do not yet control and which Wormtounge has already forbade the puppet king from joining, you can find me and at least one other author here on GAB, @TheRougarou. Lately I have been spam reposting the history of the Wormtounge tribe to wake up all of the Qtards that have retreated there from Gondor after Amazon cut off their supply trains. I guess I am a creature if habit as well, there is a feeling that if I could just penetrate their little Hobbit brains with enough based memes all would be well.
GAB is the last bastion. Maybe we can all meet up at the gates of Mordor for our last stand against the yankees and their orcish hordes, to fight once more for the Shinning City on the Hill and the White Tower errr… I mean, for Dixie!