You Are the Establishment Now, Act Like It

Perpetual Political Insurgency Syndrome Is Counterproductive

Donald Trump has become the establishment, but the Right still thinks of itself as an outsider.

Trump’s decisive victory in the 2024 election confirmed that he is the center of gravity not only in the Republican Party but in American politics more generally. But as we enter the latter half of 2026, the Right still struggles to adjust its rhetoric and framing to our new political reality. This is clear in the current debate over Flock cameras, where a 2008-era libertarian rhetoric à la the Ron Paul Revolution seems to be dominating the Right.

This tendency is understandable. Anti-Flockers remember how government bureaucrats weaponized COVID and are wary of surveillance methods that could be commandeered for sinister ends. They are concerned that state and local governments are using the cameras for more parochial purposes, allowing them to levy fines for the slightest infractions or hound politically disfavored families or groups. Though Flock cameras have already helped solve cold cases and seem to have police backing more generally, the speed at which they’ve been installed in localities across the nation is startling to many. And then there are the constitutional questions arising under the Fourth Amendment.

We surely need to be jealous guardians of our remaining liberties, now more than ever. There’s also an argument to be made that much major crime persists because laws against protected classes are not enforced, though most Flock camera supporters understand that the cameras are not a solution to that larger issue.

But much of the current framing of anti-Flock arguments doesn’t seem to match our political moment. Breathless commentary suggesting that installing more Flock cameras will complete a nationwide panopticon doesn’t quite jibe with an era in which the Right is more politically dominant than it has been since Calvin Coolidge’s presidency.

Solar-powered surveillance camera on a street pole

Presenting ourselves as being at the mercy of an out-of-control political establishment—one that’s perhaps only weeks away from ushering in tyranny, collapse, and devastation—recalls too much the politics of an earlier era where the Right effectively held little political power. This is a defensive position, harking back to the days when the Republican Party functioned as the Washington Generals of American politics.

This rhetorical posture is a holdover from the pre-Trump era. It made sense for Michael Anton to call the 2016 election the “Flight 93 Election” (the 10th anniversary of that august essay is on September 5). At that time, Republicans hadn’t won the presidency since 2004, which was also the last time they won the popular vote. The court-class, status-quo Republicans had presided over the managed decline of the country, wasting trillions in the Middle East and being resigned to cultural irrelevance at home, where the Republican brand had been reduced to little more than a target for Green Day’s bestselling album, American Idiot.

The GOP didn’t have any answers to the most pressing political questions of the day. It could offer only more of the same suite of policies that propped up globalism—more immigration, more wars, more free trade rhetoric. Aside from a lone third-party candidate who could never win a presidential election, there was no national voice speaking for those who wanted secure borders and mass deportations, reindustrialization, and a more restrained foreign policy.

One more round of tax cuts was always the answer to every domestic political problem. And the uniparty placed what it mistakenly called “civility,” “dignity,” and “honor” over the good of future generations, leaving future generations not the blessings of liberty but a rotting foundation beyond repair.

It’s no surprise that increasing numbers of those on the Right—and increasing numbers of Americans overall—saw this as essentially raising the white flag of surrender to the Left.

And then came Trump, riding down the escalator and breaking the hold of the dead political consensus that had reconciled us to failure and discouragement.

While his first term was rocky—he was an insurgent learning on the job and the Deep State often got the better of him—his re-election and second term so far offer much stronger evidence that the Trump era marks a fundamental shift in American politics.

This should signal to the Right that it’s time to get out of its historic defensive crouch. There is good reason why the president is stridently supporting data centers, for example. Trump is convinced not only that they are here to stay but that they offer the nation much good, from strengthening national security to developing cutting-edge technologies that can markedly improve our lives. A populist revolt against data centers writ large is doomed to failure and helps fuel the rise of what some have labeled our “DSA libertarian” moment.

Opposing Flock cameras nationwide is yet another rearguard action that likely won’t have any lasting political benefits. After all, police departments, neighborhoods, and communities began buying them in 2019. Flock Safety, the company behind the cameras, was founded in 2017 by three Georgia Tech alumni. It reports that about 120,000 of its cameras are currently being used by approximately 7,000 police departments and more than 3,000 neighborhoods, totaling around 12,000 customers. A defensive push to oppose them on principle is likely too little, too late.

All of this should prompt the Right to focus instead on how extensively the cameras should be used, how long records should be retained in a central system, and who has access to them. The Right should not devote precious resources to disorganized, haphazard efforts to ban the cameras altogether, especially when the online Right is divided over the question.

Our political rhetoric must adapt to the changing political environment while maintaining the high ground. Strategies from 2022 no longer apply, and rhetoric that implies we have already lost will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Talk of the United States cracking up, an impending civil war, or other visions of doom is out of step at a time when the Right has finally achieved a series of decisive victories. The Right cannot waste this moment.