The notion of a “Mandate of Heaven” stems from the Chinese philosophical principle dating back to the Zhou Dynasty (c. 1046–256 BC). According to this ancient doctrine, Heaven imparts this mandate on a virtuous ruler. Although the understanding related specifically to imperial rule and competing dynasties, it contains within its precepts key components that can be applicable to democratic legitimation fundamentals.
Among the core elements of the Mandate of Heaven is the belief that the leader must secure prosperity, peace, and order. As in democratic rule, the Mandate is not absolute but conditional. If chaos, injustice, or misery arises, the leader should be replaced (the Right of Revolution is derived from here). The notion of the transfer of power is inherent in the Mandate of Heaven. When imagined in a democratic ethos, the moral legitimacy this ancient Chinese tradition clings on to binds popular expectations with results.
Donald J. Trump, the Republican Party, and the MAGA agenda won a historic landslide in the recent 2024 election. The sui generis American model rendered the former president and now, also, president-elect, winner of 312 electoral votes versus the Democratic Party’s contender’s 226. Additionally, and oddly for a Republican, Trump won the popular vote receiving about 75 million ballots in his favor. With this massive victory came hefty coattails for the Republican Party as it gained a comfortable majority in the Senate and is poised to control the House as well.
The importance in understanding the relevancy of the MAGA platform and the ideological realignment that is unfolding in American politics and the electorate realm, is not just what it stands for. MAGA’s “America First” premise is clear: a national economic, social, and migratory prioritization; the primacy of liberty; upholding the rule of law and the Constitution; securing peace; and promoting prosperity. These underlying guiding principles place the Trumpian Republican agenda squarely against domestic cultural socialism, globalism, and elitist tyranny.
Trump and Republicans have received a Mandate of Heaven understood in a 21st century democratic governance context. To deliver the virtuous governance that the American people expect from the 47th president, Trump must boldly complete five fundamental tasks. If he achieves this mission, the American Republic will be saved, Western civilization bolstered, basic liberties rekindled, and the normalcy of values that built the West restored. Here are the things Trump must do.
1 Reverse Cultural Marxism
The cultural hegemony that Neo-Marxists precepts such as Critical Race Theory, Gender Ideology, Critical Queer Theory, and more recently, Critical Post-Colonial Theory have enjoyed since Obama took over the Democratic Party and launched his stealth socialist march through the institutions, must be rolled back comprehensively. The power of the federal government is capable of this task. All government institutions, public lower educational centers entities that receive federal funds including servicing Non-Governmental Organizations must stop proselytizing cultural Marxism and carrying out its policies. The promotion of these subversive liberticidal doctrines must be taxpayer money defunded and prohibited by law. Policies such as men present in women’s sports, bathrooms, and jails, has nothing to do with civil rights and everything to do with Marxist Gender Ideology.
The private sector with the weight of the main corporate funds investors, Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street (among others) has pushed the mentioned modern Marxist dogmas on the workplace. This can and must stop. Private entities cannot discriminate based on a broad range of things such as race, sex, religion, national origin, etc. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), in practice, is all about censoring, inequality, discrimination, and alienating workers. Conditioning access to capital and financing on the implementation of cultural socialist policies must be outlawed. Investors in mutual and equity funds, both individuals and institutional, should not have to be forced to have their money go to political causes. Investing should not be politicized.
2 Dismantle the Deep State
The administrative (deep) state, that conglomerate of unelected officials and bureaucrats that control government agencies and servicing private auxiliaries and exercise enormous power must be lustrated. From the Latin word lustratio, its idea of purifying has been the basis for the de-Nazification in Nazi Germany and the de-Communization policies of some former socialist Eastern European countries of ridding former regime personnel from relevant positions of power. While the American federal system has presented challenges to the authoritarian pursuits by the radical left, key agencies and departments have been compromised.
The twelve years of globalist, Fabian stewardship of power in American politics has taken a toll on civil liberties, the rule of law, and the competitive free enterprise system. Obama’s eight years and Biden four (really Obama’s third term) served to inundate key institutions with like-minded woke ideologues and practitioners. The evils and lawlessness of the Obamian deep state is well documented. Falsifying documents for purposes of domestic espionage, flagrant censorship, election interference, and the utilization of the judicial system to persecute and prosecute the opposition, have become staples of political activity by the combined Obama-Biden regimes.
Trump must dislodge the leadership of the FBI, CIA, DHS, IRS, State Department, DOJ, EPA, DOD, and all their supportive intelligence and quasi-intelligence apparatus. This shadow unelected government will continue to conspire to overthrow Trump’s legitimate presidency. This must be carried out from day one. Acts where the law was broken, and civil rights impacted, should be meticulously investigated and justice rendered. The shameful incarceration of the January 6 (J6) Capitol Building breachers, where communist-style long-term sentences were unjustly handed down, should be amnestied. If applicable, the J6 defendants should be indemnified, just like many of the Black Live Matters and Antifa 2020 rioters were.
3 Permanently Secure Free Speech
The censorship carried out by the Obama-Biden regimes have reached unimaginable levels, by American standards. This practice is consistent with Neo-Marxist praxis drawing from the texts of Antonio Gramsci, the Frankfurt School’s Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Erich Fromm, and, specially, Herbert Marcuse. A host of newer generation Marxists have carried out the delusional legacy of these cultural communists. Labels of “hate speech,” “disinformation,” “misinformation,” and “safe spaces,” have been employed to deprive Americans of their constitutional right to speak freely. Any European or other Western country that adapts this Fabian globalist censorship scheme should lose U.S. funding and other economic derivatives. If our values are not shared, they should not access U.S. dollars.
Section 230 must be completely reformulated. Social media and Big Tech emporiums cannot be protected from lawsuits. They editorialize and practice political advocacy. A solution is the common carrier principle. Here, strict neutrality is required, and opinion is not punished. The notion that non-vulgar speech and ideas can “offend” someone enough to use state power to censor is Orwellian.
4 Confront Enemies of Freedom
Trump must exercise Ronald Reagan’s policy of rolling back non-democratic regimes. China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and communist Cuba lead the list of hostile dictatorships which pose a national security threat to the U.S. Drug trafficking, for example, may use the Mexican cartels as mailmen, but this could not happen without the roles that China, Cuba, and the island’s proxies in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Mexico, play.
The American government has many tools that it can employ. Thinking outside the box and a firm commitment to produce regime change or debilitation with enemy governments must be a cornerstone of Trump’s foreign policy objectives. Another prominent U.S. president, Theodore Roosevelt, noted the importance of “speaking softly but carrying a big stick.” The new occupant of the White House would be well advised to follow this course.
5 Fortify the Political Realignment
Trump and the Republicans won big with the help of Democrats that were fed up with left-wing lunacy. This was reflected by those that voted, as well as those who chose not to vote. A traditional Democratic voter who did cast a ballot for Kamala, really voted tacitly for Trump. Once there were “Reagan Democrats.” Now there are Trump Democrats. This must be taken advantage of.
American share a love of freedom, country, opportunity, equality under the law, family, the free enterprise system, and God. There should be no doubt that divine intervention was a big part of the historic 2024 election. Perhaps the horrible four years of the Biden-Obama regime was the recipe needed to grant those defending Western civilization and values a mandate. It certainly seems that way. Trump, censored, betrayed, persecuted, and shot at, is also a different man. This time, the man will have the tools and experience needed for the massive job ahead. One thing is for sure. Trump is praying to God, and the Lord has been listening.
© The CubanAmerican Voice. All rights reserved.
🖋️Author Julio M. Shiling
Julio M. Shiling is a political scientist, writer, columnist, lecturer, media commentator, and director of Patria de Martí and The CubanAmerican Voice. He holds a master’s degree in Political Science from Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, Florida. He is a member of The American Political Science Association, The PEN Club (Cuban Writers in Exile Chapter) and the Academy of Cuban History in Exile.
Follow Julio on:
📚Published books 📺In the media 👨🏫 Conferences and Symposiums 🎙️Podcast The Shiling Summary