Something almost as unusual as peace in the Middle East happened this week: President Donald Trump achieved nearly universal commendation from his enemies. Even his toughest critics lined up to commend him on a peace deal that undoubtedly many believed could not be done.
“I commend the enormous advocacy of the tireless hostage families, President Trump, his administration and all who helped make this moment happen,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
Former President Bill Clinton also offered commendations, saying, “President Trump and his administration, Qatar and other regional actors deserve great credit for keeping everyone engaged until the agreement was reached.”
Even former Vice President Kamala Harris was forced to admit that what is happening in the region was not possible without her erstwhile enemy. “I commend the leaders and partners whose efforts made this agreement possible, including the President and his team,” Harris said.
Finally, former President Joe Biden also gave credit to the current administration. “I commend President Trump and his team for their work to get a renewed ceasefire deal over the finish line,” he posted on X.
I’ll sidestep unpacking the troubling items in these statements in order to get to my main point, but let me simply say that dictators and fascists of the sort decried by the president’s opponents don’t work tirelessly to save the lives of Jews. Therefore, let it be known that what is transpiring is only the most recent event that gives the lie to the Democratic and big media claim about who Trump is, and who we are as conservatives.
Yet this is not the most fundamental lesson to be learned from this week’s news. For that, I want to talk about something even more essential to the cause of modern-day conservatives: our masculinity.
That’s right, the peace deal in the Middle East, so comprehensive in scope, so inclusive regarding its participants, could not have been secured without an alpha male at the helm of the ship.
Why?
For one thing, because the last two beta males – Obama and Biden – simply couldn’t get it done.
That’s right. Obama’s liberal tendency for nuance and sidestepping – his repugnance for the Judeo-Christian ethic, particularly as exemplified by Benjamin Netanyahu – drove him toward Iran for his deal-making, which was his first mistake. His second was sugar rather than salt – another beta downfall, for sugar rots and distends, while salt preserves. In sum, by trying to buy off Iran’s thugs while acquiescing to its desire for nuclear capacity, he revealed himself a fool to the more measured leaders of the region.
Nor did trans-revolutionary Biden fare better. For the previous administration’s policy in that region can best be described in a phrase by theologian Francis Schaeffer: it had its feet “firmly planted in midair.” In short, the Biden team was so divided between the antisemitic faction of its party, as well as the former president’s own stated claim of being a Zionist, that in the end, it was rendered ineffectual where decisive action is concerned.
The common thread running through all of this is betaism, and my argument is this: In addition to all the tactical missteps above, there was ultimately no way that Obama – accused of being a closet homosexual during the 2007-2008 campaign season, as well as revealed by a biographer only a couple years ago to have fantasized about affairs with men – was going to make it in that monotheistic, hyper-masculine region, whose tactics and philosophies at times still hearken back to the medieval era. Nor was Biden, for the similar and obvious reasons mentioned above.
In the end, Trump’s primary advantages in what happened this week in the Middle East were masculine. For it was masculine to use, not carrots and sticks, but bombs when dealing with Iran; and it was masculine not only to stand with Netanyahu but to also stand against him at times, when such a contrarian stance was necessary; finally, it was masculine to come down squarely on Israel’s side, showing a resoluteness that the beta men mentioned above, with all their academic theorizing and intellectual so-forths and what-have-yous, were simply unable to achieve.
Academia, from which betaism springs in all its tepid, circumspect anti-glory, produced Obama and Biden, and ultimately, this kind of wisdom was not the type needed regarding the problems of the Middle East. Rather, it was the dog-eat-dog world of real estate and casino gambling – with its attendant mafioso and cut-throat processes – that created Trump, a factor that proved determinate in that male-dominated, power-oriented region. This phenomenon provided a win, not only for the nations of the region, but also for the West.
And make no mistake about it, it was a definite win – perhaps an even greater one – for masculinity.
Along with his father, Allen Keller runs a lumber business in Stevenson, Alabama. He has a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Florida State University and an MBA from University of Virginia. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].
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