Posted on 01/18/2016 6:49:04 AM PST by AndyJackson
Coined by political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, the term Davos Man was meant to refer to members of the global elite who view themselves as completely international. They have no need for the term "nationality" and feel that governments are merely shadows of time past to be used as facilitators in their global operations. ~ Akash Arasu
The pundit and activist class can't seem to figure Donald Trump out, but as I have attempted to argue elsewhere, Trump's politics are not really as inscrutable as all that. Trump is that guy at the barbershop who says "We need to run the US more like a business. What America needs is a CEO, not another President." Trump just happens to have a lot of money and the credentials to be that CEO himself. The theme that the US is getting out negotiated on the international stage and we should start acting more in our own economic best interests have been there since Trump first became a public figure in the 1980's. Trump, for example, opposed NAFTA before opposing trade deals was the cool thing to do on the right. The consistency of this message suggests that it is sincere, regardless of whatever one might think about the Trump phenomenon that has erupted since he announced his campaign. This economic nationalist message is the key to understanding Trump's politics. All the rest is noise.
Due to their confusion about where Trump is coming from, an argument that I have encountered frequently in social media and the conservative blogosphere is the contention that Trump is actually himself just another member of the Establishment. Therefore, his anti-Establishment supporters are misguided and being played. But if Trump is just another member of the Establishment, why does he have the Establishment so panicked? There is more to being a card carrying member of the Establishment than being rich, hobnobbing with stars and giving money to politicians in both parties. People who mistake the trapping of wealth for Establishment status are allowing the details to distract them from the big picture.
In fact, Trump's economic policies and theoretical framework challenge the Establishment's basic operating assumptions to the core. The Establishment economic policy is globalist neoliberalism. They want to decrease the importance of national borders and national sovereignty in order to make the world safer for international finance and commerce, hence their support for mass immigration and sovereignty compromising "free trade" deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Trump's opposition to "free trade" deals and open borders and unabashed advocacy of economic nationalism directly challenges the Establishment consensus in a way that no other candidate dose. All the major candidates in both parties with the possible exception of Bernie Sanders actually take Establishment neoliberal presumptions for granted.
I wince a little when I hear Trump says that America's leaders are "stupid" and are being out negotiated by the more clever leaders of Mexico, Japan, China, etc. This is grating and potentially unhelpful. What is really the issue here is not smarts but priorities. The leaders of these other nations negotiate with the economic interests of their own countries in mind, while the US negotiates on the basis of fidelity to some imagined set of international rules of fair play, which just so happen to perpetuate the current system that enriches the global elite at the expense of national integrity. But regardless of Trump's less than ideal formulation, who else is saying this?
Trump is ultimately a patriot who loves his country and wants to restore it to its former glory, as suggested by his campaign slogan "Make America Great Again." Imagine that. But this chauvinistic attitude is contrary to the rootless cosmopolitanism of the global elite. If you're still struggling with Trump's place in relation to the Establishment, ask yourself this: "Would Trump fit in at the World Economic Forum?" Trump is not Davos Man described in the introductory quote. He is the antithesis of Davos Man. He is a red-blooded American patriot from Queens, New York who just happens to have a really big bank account. Criticize Trump's policies and ways if you must, but let's not have any more of this nonsense that he is just another member of the Establishment. If you don't see the fallacy of this claim, you don't get why Trump's rise represents such a fundamental challenge to the ruling order.
Folks wonder what they are watching when they see Sanders take on Hillary and Trump take down Jeb and be popular for it. Centralized planning works for the world no better than it worked for the Soviet Union, or worked for the infamous and demolished Pritt Igoe public housing development in St. Louis.
The enemy of my enemy is still not my friend, and won’t get my vote.
The enemy of my enemy is a whole lot better than the friends of my enemy. Jeb, Christie, Rubio, Hillary, and Bernie will not get my vote.
Cruz is my first choice by a huge margin. I’m still looking for a second choice better than Trump, but I haven’t found him (other than Scott Walker, who dropped out).
Damn good article. The author sees clearly, and writes well.
Trump knew it, targeted it, the timing was impeccable, and yet the cruzzers refuse to recognize it and are off an social conservative agenda that is not selling.
This article does a superb job of pointing out why.
Holy Crap! I just found this written by Trump. It’s from his article he wrote about Davos.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/22/business/opinion-donald-trump-europe/
“The near meltdown we experienced a few years ago made it clear that our economic health depended on dependence on each other to do the right thing.”
“We are now closer to having an economic community in the best sense of the term — we work with each other for the benefit of all.”
“The good news, in one respect, is that what is done affects us all. There won’t be any winners or losers as this is not a competition. It’s a time for working together for the best of all involved. Never before has the phrase “we’re all in this together” had more resonance or relevance.”
“My concern is that the negligence of a few will adversely affect the majority. I’ve long been a believer in the “look at the solution, not the problem” theory. In this case, the solution is clear. We will have to leave borders behind and go for global unity when it comes to financial stability.”
This is exactly what people see in him, and this is why people naturally support him. Whatever his defects, which are right out in the open for all to see, people believe that he will put the country first. What a concept.
Most of the other candidates (with Cruz as the exception) threw away any credibility they had on national sovereignty as an issue, and can't get it back. Most of them can't figure out what hit them, they thought it was their turn and the election has blown right past them and left them in the dust.
People believe Trump will fight, that he won't back down, and if he has to win ugly then thats what he'll do. But he will do it defending them.
Cruz is my guy, he is for me the best candidate we've seen in decades. But after decades of seeing our sovereignty slipping away, people realize that turning things around requires a very particular kind of boxer, not just anyone can do this job or even wants to do it. The only guys on that stage who have that kind of grit are Trump and Cruz. After the dust settles, these are the two guys that can do this job.
They are meglo-maniacal ego driven creatures living on their own planets in their own realities.
They have nothing in common with middle class work a day Christian Americans.
Lenin was popular. Hitler was popular. Shoot, the Kardashians are popular.
One should state the context of Trump's regard for the upside of the international economic community - 2008 was a near death experience for him and for everyone of his ilk. And no it was not, except in the broadest terms "foreseeable." Eventual collapse is always foreseeable, but if everyone were frightened off by that all but the most trivial of economic activity would come to and end now.
That is why we have bankruptcy - to purge the system of its excess, liquidate mal-investment and move forward.
A valid criticism of Trump is that he was on the ropes and was saved as much as anyone was saved by the easy money fed policies subsequent to that. But the easy money climate in the world has been going on most of my adult life and his investments are premised on that climate.
You and your friends who back Cruz should back Cruz. I think he is a fine man. He won’t be president, and the perceived insanity of his backers causes a lot of folks to look at him askance, but we need folks like him in government.
Read the whole article. Trump is proposing the exact thing you’re criticizing.
“The enemy of my enemy is still not my friend, and won’t get my vote.”
So, you’ll just sit back and let your enemy (continue to) have control over the direction of this country? Congratulations, you are part of the problem that the Republican Party has had for decades. No disrespect intended, I am sure that you have thought this through and have the best of intentions, but you’ve probably left something out of your thought process. Many of us (and I was once guilty of this) have thrown out the good because we were waiting for the perfect - that is how we got Bill Clinton in the first place, because Bush 41 made some big mistakes (from a conservative P.O.V.) and we were ticked off enough to stay home or vote for Perot as a protest.
Part of the problem is that business as usual just ain’t gonna cut it anymore. Business as usual is what got us into this mess. Pols and those with influence over them being that Davos Man and caving in to (whether slowly or quickly) the siren song of internationalism. We need a dramatic change, someone in charge who actually gives a damn about THIS nation, not our external enemies like Iran and China, someone who understands IN HIS BONES that Islam is THE great enemy of all of Western Civilization, and not some ideal where all the nations get along like lions and sheep after the Messiah comes. That day might be worth working toward, but not at the expense of our security (military or economic) or that of our allies. No, we need a nationalist leader, and the only one out there who I believe has a real shot at being elected (there’s another thing that we all need to consider) is Trump.
We also do need someone who understands that government is not the answer to all things, and that government itself has to be run at least somewhat like each household in this country - which is to say, in an economically-sound manner. Of all of the candidates out there this year, Trump is the ONLY one with any kind of significant business experience. He knows that if he ran his affairs like the government did, he’d be a nobody because he’d be broke.
Frankly, from an ideological point of view, I like Cruz better (although I have some problems with his long-standing H1B visa stance, and his recent conversion to being a hard-liner on immigration)...but he has no realistic shot at winning many states in the East and Midwest that are critical to getting over 270.
I used to view Trump as both a clown and as a distraction - but I listened to what he was saying (not how, but what). I observed his willingness to gore a lot of oxen across the political spectrum, and I liked it (because I’ve been saying or thinking the same things). I observed his staying power, despite the GOPe and media offensive against him - and I LIKE that. This is someone who is an unabashed patriot, someone with the guts to tell it like it is, and who resonates with MANY people across the spectrum (because, yes, even many Dem voters love their country before their party, and he appeals to a LOT of independents and people who’ve never voted, or haven’t voted in 20 years because they don’t think it matters). So, he’s not perfect, ideologically speaking - name someone who IS! Even Reagan made his mistakes, gave in too easily to the other side, and he was the best President in my lifetime by far - and probably since Coolidge. No one is perfect, NO ONE - you play the hand you’re dealt. If your high card is a Jack instead of an Ace well, deal with it. That’s where, IMHO, we are right now.
Is Trump our generation’s Reagan, or Washington? Maybe in some ways and certainly not in a lot of other ways. But who else out there, WITH A SIGNIFICANT CHANCE TO WIN, offers this country the chance to return to those policies that made it great, and which the liberals and our enemies both hate and fear? No one but Trump, IMHO.
Trump has framed the issues facing this country. None of the other candidates actually see them clearly because there own interests are tied to very different world-views. He has chosen to make his stand on that field, where he has an enormous strategic advantage, and when other candidates choose to shift the ground of the debate, they wander into a swamp no one really wants to hear about.
I would prefer a less flawed man to carry this agenda forward. But we don't have one, not one who can marshal the forces on this field to win this battle. Cruz is the leader of those who want to fight a battle in a far of land no one cares about.
“Lenin was popular. Hitler was popular. Shoot, the Kardashians are popular.”
See, I can play that game, too. When you have all of human history to pick and choose from, you can come up with any example to “prove” your point that you’d like.
Popularity is neither good nor bad in and of itself - but it IS an indication of whether someone can be elected. Once you’ve found someone you like, you then have to filter that person through the electability filter. If he/she doesn’t make it, then move on to the next on.
Cruz is a great guy - I even sent him money when he first declared - but this is not his year. He needs more people to know who he is through his accomplishments, he needs to be like Reagan and DEMONSTRATE that he’s not the monster that the other side paints him as being. His time will come, and I look forward to it - but it isn’t this year. This year we need a wrecking ball, someone who will destroy the edifice of the Leftist establishment that has controlled this country since 1933 when FDR was inaugurated. Trump is the ONLY one who can do it who can ALSO be elected.
Is Trump our generation’s Reagan, or Washington?
Washington certainly had a lot of flaws. He was the original real-estate speculator and used his positions in government to further his own interest of buying land cheap and selling dear. The misuse of government position is not a good thing, but the national mania against people who make money is not helpful either. And of course we discredit the Muslims for still practicing slavery, but this one of the greatest of our founding fathers was a slave owner.
Perhaps Jesus Christ will return one day, but even he had his petulant moments.
One real problem with Cruz is that he is painted by his supporters as what a number of people see as a monster. His most avid [rabid?] supporters do so because they see him as the champion of the "social conservative" agenda. Now I have a real problem with gays in the military and think gay marriage is somewhat north of silly because it is a comical legalistic fiction - to state the obvious - families exist to propagate the species biologically and socially. But the "social conservative" agenda scares far too many voters to get any traction. I wish it were not largely dead, but to revive it will require something on the order of bombing the whole world back into, if not the stone age, an idolized and idealized middle America that I don't think ever really existed.
Even Ronaldus Maximus had his family and social flaws. He did not do a very good job of watching over the mischief of his agencies. But where he excelled was understanding, like no one else did or could, that the Soviet Union was in its death throes.
“I think he is a fine man. He won’t be president...”
Neither will Trump.
I am sort of ok with Bernie actually, flaming communist that he is.
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