Does anybody remember Richard Nixon’s “Silent Majority” from more than half a century ago? What was it? Did it ever really exist? If so, whatever happened to The Silent Majority?
William S. Bishop, a retired attorney born and raised in Flint but now living in Idaho (and sometimes Florida), says it still exists. By the way, the name Bishop should be familiar to Michiganders — the well-known Bishop International Airport was named after his great-grandfather, Arthur Giles Bishop, who in 1928 donated 220 acres of farmland to create the aviation mecca on the southwest corner of Flint. Bishop was a banker and sat on the board of General Motors. Here’s how his great-grandson, “Bill” Bishop, looks at things today, and it’s unlikely A.G. Bishop would feel much differently:
“You don’t hear much about us (The Silent Majority) anymore. But we’re still here, our voices unheard by the media which has sadly abandoned journalism in favor of editorializing and even campaigning. Very few of us inhabit the far right or left, yet media assumes we all do. The outcome of the November election taught them nothing, so they soldier on with their one-sided editorials. They simply don’t get that we are Americans, angry as well as fearful for this country we love. We ache for a media that has no axe to grind and which simply reports the news, not just how they see it.
“The following are just a few items we voted FOR in November: We voted for capitalism, not socialism. We voted for success and for those who achieve it. We voted for paying our “fair share” of taxes but also think 10% paying 90% of all taxes is fair. We voted for our children getting the education they deserve. We voted for the return of education in our universities, not indoctrination. We voted for our government keeping us safe. Concerning foreign policy, we voted for walking softly while carrying a very big stick. We voted pro-choice even though we are too old to be affected by it. We would also like to see one year of compulsory military training or Peace Corps commitment before the age of 21 for everyone in America. And yes, we voted for the return of normalcy even though we know it will be a noisy and disruptive journey.
“We emphatically voted AGAINST “woke” and DEI and in favor of fundamental fairness. We voted loud and clear against illegal immigration. We voted against men parading as women in sports and hanging out in their locker rooms. We voted against unions in government for the obvious reason that there is no one representing us, the taxpayer. We voted against 36 trillion dollars in debt with no plan to stop or even slow the spending. And we voted loud and clear to repudiate the radical far left policies recently adopted by the once proud Democratic Party.
“And yes, we are more than curious as to why 50% of the members of Congress are millionaires while only 1% of us can say the same. We thought these people went to Washington to serve us, not just themselves. Whatever happened to “by the people and for the people?”
“We still can’t figure out why both parties provided us with such unfit candidates last November. We want quality people we can trust and who can provide us with Churchillian leadership during such a troubling time in our nation’s history. Both the media and the far left need to do some serious soul searching regarding their sound spanking by a man so universally reviled, so painfully immature, and who is a constant embarrassment and even danger to us all.
“Last November, it was us, the ever-present silent majority who went to the polls and decided that a deeply entrenched and rapidly metastasizing administrative state is far more dangerous than a crazy man and his Tesla buddy, both held in check not only by our Constitution but by a conservative Supreme Court dedicated to upholding the rule of law.
“Note to media and the radical left. Your horse lost. Get over it. The silent majority has spoken.
“Agents of change seldom wear halos….”
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While there is some or much truth in what Bishop says, it is the view of a traditional conservative Republican who still loathes the New Deal and underestimates the danger of Trump and overestimates the checks on him. Calling Biden-Harris far left is ridiculous,
“Calling Biden-Harris far left is ridiculous,”
What exactly would be far left, in your opinion?
Lessonberry is far left. Lessonberry is exactly the kind of “journalist” that is creating massive distrust in this nation towards the media.
I think your comment is as correct as your spelling of my name. I was close to Governor Milliken, a Republican, if you weren’t aware, and became a friend of George Romney. Of course, to today’s Republican Party, they would be denounced, because they had class and were not full of hate,
Not the usual deliberate misspelling of your last name.
Biden-Harris saw its primary constituency as the LGBT and immigrant communities.
Progressive liberals actually doomed the Democratic Party in the 2024 election. They lambasted and abandoned Kamala Harris over inaction in the Gaza crisis. Kamala Harris was a San Francisco liberal that was despised by conservatives and abandoned by the progressives such as Rashida Tlaib.
Look at the states with significant immigration problems – Florida, Arizona and Texas. Trump cleaned up in 2024 in those states. He also made inroads with young blacks and also the Arab and Asian-Indian communities.
“Biden-Harris saw its primary constituency as the LGBT and immigrant communities.”
Not government employees and K Street denizens?
Could not tell you because I have no connection to those in Washington and their predelictions.
But I can tell you how badly mainstream America has reacted to the Dems slavish obedience to the LGBT community and protection of the “rights” of illegal immigrants.
The “Silent Majority” is a real thing, and still around, but it does not represent a particular point of view. It is simply the fact that only a modest portion of the public directly communicates with their elected officials. The ones showing up at public comment at your local city council meeting do not represent the public at large. As a department head in a local municipality I watched at public comment person after person opposing a library millage. The millage passed with 85% approval. The ones who speak the loudest do not usually represent the majority. I found, as a local elected official (in a different city) that I got a better read on what the public wants by communicating with people in a non-political setting in a casual conversation.
“We still can’t figure out why both parties provided us with such unfit candidates last November.”
BINGO!
I remember in 2016 when a member of the MIGOP state committee attended a meeting of GOP activists in Metro Detroit and told them after Trump received the GOP presidential nomination that if you did not like him, please hold your nose and vote for him. I found this astounding that many GOP activists present did not even want too vote for their nominated candidate for president.
I then saw that the Detroit News took the unusual step of endorsing a Libertarian Party presidential nominee.in 2016 – Gary Johnson.
I had hoped that he would lose the GOP nomination to anyone else. But Trump won primary after primary election.
I asked one early Trump supporter what the difference was between Trump and David Duke, he replied Trump was successful. I was shocked by that answer – there was no refutation that supporting Trump was tantamount to endorsing racism policies.
I was finally persuaded just before Election Day by a fellow GOP precinct delegate that voting for anyone other than Trump would be implicit support for Clinton and throwing away my presidential vote. Trump was the lesser of two evils and no choice existed even though Gary Johnson was a better candidate than both Trump and Clinton.
On the early morning of 11/9/2016 i watched Trump declared the 45th U.S. president – and felt some relief that Ms. Clinton was not elected.
To this day, I and others have tried to bring together the MAGA wing and traditional GOP faithful together within the Michigan Republicans – and have been largely futile. It destroyed the MIGOP state organization from within and ruined the GOP control of the Michigan Senate in 2022 that it had held for 39 years. It also destroyed the strong GOP presence on Oakland County that is now leaning strongly Democratic.
I remember some of those who regularly post comments here from my days in Lansing in the 1980s and 1990s – including Jack Lessenberry, Dawson Bell and John Stewart. It was an era of bipartisanship that has since disappeared.
What exactly would constitute fitness for office, in your opinion?
How about a bully who lies about everything. No moral compass, and adulterous know it all with no knowledge, with the vocabulary of a 3 rd grader. A convicted esx predator. A leader who didn’t know what the pearl harbor memorial was. A draft dodger. An all around grifter, to mention a few.
The American public didn’t buy your shtick in 2024, after four years of reconsideration. These lies only surfaced after Trump announced for the Presidency in 2016. Strange that they were never mentioned in the first 70 years of his life. You would almost have to think that they were political fabrications.
Why wouldn’t things surface after you announce you are running for president? Before that Trump was a private citizen and TV figure, and nobody cared about his shortcomings other than his creditors.
50 years ago you could believe that a celebrity like Trump would not receive scrutiny until he ran for President, but not in today’s scorching media environment. Every peccadillo of every celebrity wannabe is broadcast across the world.
A morally fit president is one who sets an example through his attitude and conduct for our nation’s youth to follow.
Certainly Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Jimmy Carter were presidents who clearly fit this bill.
Trump’s statements and general conduct have been an embarrassment to both America and the GOP.
Clearly a false negative as a Quality Engineer, such as Perry Johnson, might say, which is less dangerous than a false positive could be. David Duke, once a card carrying member of the KKK would characteristically be the modern day equivalent of the Nazi party; antithetical to a Jewish state. But no president has done more to preserving the Jewish state than Trump.
Seems Trump’s racist tendencies would rub off on his daughters. But one is married to a Jew and one to a Muslim. Just doesn’t add up.
I suggest you “ghost” your “early Trump supporter” friend and spend more time with your, “fellow GOP precinct delegate” friend.
Trump also welcomed Kanye West in the Oval Office.
Many right-wing extremists in America are actually accepting the right-wing extremists in Israel as comrades due to their similar separatist beliefs.
The Jewish-only roads in the West Bank dovetail with the values of Southern white segregationists.
I still think Gary Johnson would have made a better president.
But I do not regret that Trump defeated Clinton in 2016.
“The Jewish-only roads in the West Bank dovetail with the values of Southern white segregationists.”
This is a lie, worse than your weak grasp of Presidential history.
The overwhelming majority of roads in the West Bank are open to all traffic. For security reasons, a very small percentage of West Bank roads, solely around Israeli settlements (about 40 km in total according to the Israeli human rights organization B’tselem) are prohibited to Palestinian traffic,
Even the 40 km of restricted roads are open to Israeli citizens of all faiths (including Muslims), east Jerusalem Palestinians (most of whom are Muslim), and foreign visitors of all faiths – Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze and Circassians.
I agree with 98% of what “Bishop” wrote about the issues of the “Silent Majority “
Temperament is the Issue for 2026. We are tired of the flamboyant rhetoric and public vulgarity. Do you get it ?
Moderately-conservative will win November 3, 2026
As Rick Snyder did in 2010.
So, as long as you can look directly into the camera without flamboyant rhetoric or public vulgarity, and lie yer arse off that you, “. . . never had sex with that woman”, then everything is, OK? Must be, because we turned right around and elected him again.
JFK’s and LBJ’s womanizing are OK because they looked the decent American and the MSM didn’t report on it?
I think that is part of Trump’s point. Bad publicity is still publicity. If you think not, tell it to Luigi Mangione and his hoped to be brides.
Look, nobody, but nobody, is, nor ever has been, perfect, except for Jesus the Christ.
Trump plays politics from the east coast. Ever been introduced to a Massachusetts town hall? Closest thing to a hockey game I’ve seen. People are trying to live in Wonderland if they don’t like their politics rough and tumble. Right up there with calling judges, “yer Honor” when nobody, but nobody, believes they are. They put their pants on one leg at a time like we all do. REF: Disrobed, by Mark W. Smith copyright, 2006, yes, a little dated.
Nothing wrong with Wonderland. I dream of a kinder, gentler world myself. But it takes two to make peace, only one to make war. When it comes to certain circles, I separate my religion from my politics. I tend to gravitate those as wise as the serpents but harmless as the doves. The ’60’s destroyed the age of innocence, remember?
I could go on about the Romney family, William Milliken and Rick Snyder and their similarities to what the left speaks of when they call conservatives fascists . . . but I won’t, for brevity’s sake.
So, no, I don’t get it.
Bill, you sure punched my buttons on this one, as I’m sure it did to several of your readers just gauging the surmised age of some of them. The first presidential election I voted in was 1968. I loved Nixon all through the Watergate scandal until I found out in retrospect what a stupid lawyer he was and how he totally bungled the investigation. He should have been the first to pull a Hillary Clinton and burned the tapes publicly on TV and thus change the narrative. But he didn’t, he was stupid, he betrayed his silent majority ignoramuses.
With all due respect to your featured commentator, Mr. Bishop, I view the roots of the “silent majority” to go back further into history than Mr. Nixon’s reference to them, especially considering his part in creating them. Please allow me a brief stroll down history lane to illustrate my point. Those uninterested can tune out now.
1) The US refusal to back the incompetent regime of Chiang Kai-shek paved the way to the takeover of China by Mao Zedong and full-blown Marxist communism in 1948/1949.
2) We speak of the Mainstream Media (MSM) now as if it were a fairly recent occurrence. Nothing is further from the truth. The MSM was in full flush during the Korean War. Talk about censorship! We today are just now understanding the ramifications that 1) we were in direct confrontation with China and their People’s Army, 2) we were in direct confrontation with the Russian air force and their nasty MIG 15’s and Russian pilots, 3) Harry S. Truman made Douglas MacArthur a prophet when MacArthur told a congressional committee shortly after his firing, “It is my own personal opinion, that the greatest political mistake we made in a hundred years in the Pacific was in allowing the Communists to grow in power in China. I believe we will pay for it, for a century.” Less than 20 years later, we got Vietnam.
3) Except for maybe those “10” members of the John Birch Society and their friends and family knew what was going on. Walter Cronkite and the MSM of the day were totally silent.
4) Sen. Joe McCarthy launched a well-meaning but misguided effort to expunge “card carrying” communists from the US government after learning of how pervasive the infiltration had become. Joe didn’t realize just how close the socialist ideology is to the communist ideology. Once the trap was sprung, poor Joe didn’t know what hit him; nor did the American populace. Our MSM was complicit in all.
5) Another MSM quash was the Nixon Khrushchev “Kitchen” debate at the 1959 American National Exhibition at Sokolniki Park in Moscow. Americans heard of it . . . didn’t know what it was about. Now, THAT, was Nixon at his best.
6) Americans had a foreboding that something was going wrong, but didn’t know how to debate the truth because they didn’t have it. They had no idea of the communist threat, just that things didn’t seem right. These folks were the “silent majority” that Nixon referred to in 1969.
7) This foreboding, without the facts, are the retro referrals to this “silent majority” phenomena. This truth is the reason periodic misguided patriots like Edward Snowden and Julien Assange go to drastic measures to get the truth out over and above the MSM and their built-in cover of immunity they’ve built for themselves. It is why Fox news and Newsmax run the perpetual risk of public retribution if they go too far in dribbling out the truth of our government’s foreign policy faux pas.
8) Donald Trump is crashing through this revisionist history house of cards and some folks, in the immortal words of Jack Nicholson, “Can’t Handle the Truth!”. But the silent majority, slowly but surely, is wising up. Lord, hasten the day . . .
Best one yet, Bill
3) Except for maybe those “10” members of the John Birch Society and their friends and family [, nobody] knew what was going on. Walter Cronkite and the MSM of the day were totally silent. [Best censors in the business.]
Absolute truth regarding the foundation of the Michigan Republican Party—only two Republican Governors for 20 years from 1963 to 1983 -George Romney seven years William Milliken 14 years.
Get with the program are my words, but Lincoln‘s words are “we cannot escape history. “
Anyone who denies George Romney-7 years, Bill Milliken-14 years as Governor is a RWNJ/Right Wing Nut Job
George Romney and Bill Milliken did such a great job coordinating with Jerome Cavanagh and Lyndon Johnson in July 1967. The Detroit riot was the defining Michigan event in the second half of Century XX. History Michigan still hasn’t escaped.
How would you have addressed the Detroit riot? It was a no-win situation not a defining moment at all. The MSM is much closer to truth than Fox News. The virulent opposition to DEI smacks of racism.
And the answer is…..Benton Harbor!
George Romney and Jennifer Granholm each derailed riots in Benton Harbor without the capable advice of the Milliken/Cavanagh duo.
Immediately flood the zone with National Guard and/or State Police and don’t wait for John Conyers to sway the rioters.
Khrushchev was right in his United Nations speech when he pounded his shoe on the podium. “We will bury you”, he screeched. Here we are. A hundred dollar bill weighs one gram. The USS Truman aircraft carrier weighs around a hundred thousand tons. The thirty-six trillion dollar national debt, if placed in one mountainous pile in one hundred dollar bill denominations would weigh three-hundred and sixty thousand tons. That’s thirty-six aircraft carriers. If you want to move all this to a different location by truck, the convoy of semi-trailers would be almost three hundred miles long. Ask your AI buddy how to reconcile something of this magnitude. Doesn’t everything else pale in comparison when you ponder it?
I was in college studying economics in the 1980s when I had learned in the news that the U.S. National Debt topped one trillion dollars.
Last I checked it was $36 trillion and growing……………………………….
Fiscal responsibility is a joke in U.S. Congress.
“That’s thirty-six aircraft carriers.”
I think your math works out to be 3.6 aircraft carriers, but that’s OK, we all get your well taken point. 🙂
Our $ 36.9 trillion debt divided by the $ 37 billion all up cost of the latest Gerald R Ford (CVN-78) carrier is the equivalent of 997 aircraft carriers.