Are We Watching a ‘Common-Sense Revolution’ or Just Pure Chaos? – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

Forty-five days. That’s how long President Donald Trump has been in office for his second term, but you can be forgiven if Joe Biden’s presidency feels like a distant memory and the last month and a half seems like a whirlwind that shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. Revolutions usually feel like a whirlwind to the people who live through them.

Blood isn’t flowing in the streets, so you might think that “revolution” is a bit of an overstatement. Donald Trump thinks otherwise. He paused in the midst of touting his long list of victories on Tuesday during his address to a joint session of Congress to remark on the “common-sense revolution that is now — because of us — sweeping the entire world.” (READ MORE: DOGE Confirms That Social Security Is a Fine Mess.)

We can debate whether Trump’s administration caused a “common-sense revolution” or whether it was the result of one, but it’s almost impossible to debate that something approximating that is currently taking place.

As Trump and his administration like to remind us, Americans were sick of DEI, of watching boys beat their daughters in volleyball, track, and basketball, and of government bureaucracy that crawls when it serves its people but races to mount rainbow flags in foreign countries. They didn’t like the fact that gangs of illegal immigrants had taken over apartment complexes in Colorado or that some teachers in federally funded elementary schools were reading porn to their kids in the classroom. So, they elected the guy who said he would do something to change all that.

If Tuesday’s speech made anything clear, it is that we’re now in the midst of the revolution we asked for. Yes, Trump explicitly said that, but even if he hadn’t, his summary of everything he’s signed in the last 45 days should be reason enough to come to that conclusion. If that list is anything to go by, the U.S. federal government and this country’s relationship with the rest of the world will look totally different once everything is implemented and settled — even if Trump ceased signing executive orders beginning tomorrow (something that’s highly unlikely). To be blunt, the whole process has felt a bit like chaos. (READ: Grappling With DOGE: Why Cutting Waste and Fixing Entitlements Are Both Essential)

So when a lawsuit filed by several states against Elon Musk and the president describes DOGE as a “designated agent of chaos,” and liberal foreign ministers complain, “there is too much unpredictability and chaos coming out of the White House right now,” you can kind of see where they are coming from. Things do feel unsettled.

That is to be expected. Revolutions exist on the edge of chaos and reform, and they’re a bit finicky. Sometimes, they give us brand-new countries; other times, they rip entire continents to shreds (looking at you, France); and every once in a while, they manage to make an old country new. The key to making sure they don’t spiral off into destructive change for the sake of change is orientation.

There are, from a historical perspective, two primary ways you can orient a revolution. Either you can aim to create something entirely new (something the Left has been trying for a long while), or you can look back at principles that were abandoned at some point in the past and reapply them to the near future. The former is proactive and usually destructive, while the latter is reactive and frequently ends up being constructive.

What we’re trying to achieve is the latter, and calling it a “common-sense revolution” is a good way to frame its orientation. Appealing to common sense implies that we’re appealing to (and hoping to reestablish) a world order based on truths we didn’t question until about five minutes ago — things like men are men and shouldn’t be playing in women’s sports. (READ MORE: English Is Now the Official Language of the USA. Should We Care?)

If we can stick to those principles and use them to guide us through these chaotic days, maybe we can make our old liberal order into a new common-sense order.