Posted on 07/18/2015 3:31:04 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It’s not too interesting to say that Donald Trump is a nationalist and aspiring despot who is manipulating bourgeois resentment, nativism, and ignorance to feed his power lust. It’s uninteresting because it is obviously true. It’s so true that stating it sounds more like an observation than a criticism.
I just heard Trump speak live. It was an awesome experience, like an interwar séance of once-powerful dictators who inspired multitudes, drove countries into the ground, and died grim deaths.
His speech at FreedomFest lasted a full hour, and I consider myself fortunate for having heard it. It was a magnificent exposure to an ideology that is very much present in American life, though hardly acknowledged. It lives mostly hidden in dark corners, and we don’t even have a name for it. You bump into it at neighborhood barbecues, at Thanksgiving dinner when Uncle Harry has the floor, at the hardware store when two old friends in line to checkout mutter about the state of the country.
The ideology is a 21st century version of right fascism — one of the most politically successful ideological strains of 20th century politics. Though hardly anyone talks about it today, we really should. It is still real. It exists. It is distinct. It is not going away. Trump has tapped into it, absorbing unto his own political ambitions every conceivable bourgeois resentment: race, class, sex, religion, economic. You would have to be hopelessly ignorant of modern history not to see the outlines and where they end up.
For now, Trump seems more like comedy than reality. I want to laugh about what he said, like reading a comic-book version of Franco, Mussolini, or Hitler. And truly I did laugh, as when he denounced the existence of tech support in India that serves American companies (“how can it be cheaper to call people there than here?” — as if he still thinks that long-distance charges apply).
Let’s hope this laughter doesn’t turn to tears.
As an aside, I mean no criticism of FreedomFest’s organizer Mark Skousen in allowing Trump to speak at this largely libertarian gathering. Mark invited every Republican candidate to address the 2,200-plus crowd. Only two accepted. Moreover, Mark is a very savvy businessman himself, and this conference operates on a for-profit basis. He does not have the luxury of giving the microphone to only people who pass the libertarian litmus test. His goal is to put on display the ideas that matter in our time and assess them by the standards of true liberty.
In my view, it was a brilliant decision to let him speak. Lovers of freedom need to confront the views of a man with views like this. What’s more, of all the speeches I heard at FreedomFest, I learned more from this one than any other. I heard, for the first time in my life, what a modern iteration of a consistently statist but non-leftist outlook on politics sounds and feels like in our own time. And I watched as most of the audience undulated between delight and disgust — with perhaps only 10% actually cheering his descent into vituperative anti-intellectualism. That was gratifying.
As of this writing, Trump is leading in the polls in the Republican field. He is hated by the media, which is a plus for the hoi polloi in the GOP. He says things he should not, which is also a plus for his supporters. He is brilliant at making belligerent noises rather than having worked out policy plans. He knows that real people don’t care about the details; they only want a strongman who shares their values. He makes fun of the intellectuals, of course, as all populists must do. Along with this penchant, Trump encourages a kind of nihilistic throwing out of rationality in favor of a trust in his own genius. And people respond, as we can see.
So, what does Trump actually believe? He does have a philosophy, though it takes a bit of insight and historical understanding to discern it. Of course race baiting is essential to the ideology, and there was plenty of that. When a Hispanic man asked a question, Trump interrupted him and asked if he had been sent by the Mexican government. He took it a step further, dividing blacks from Hispanics by inviting a black man to the microphone to tell how his own son was killed by an illegal immigrant.
Because Trump is the only one who speaks this way, he can count on support from the darkest elements of American life. He doesn’t need to actually advocate racial homogeneity, call for a whites-only sign to be hung at immigration control, or push for expulsion or extermination of undesirables. Because such views are verboten, he has the field alone, and he can count on the support of those who think that way by making the right noises.
Trump also tosses little bones to the Christian Right, enough to allow them to believe that he represents their interests. Yes, it’s implausible and hilarious. But the crowd who looks for this is easily won with winks and nudges, and those he did give. At the speech I heard, he railed against ISIS and its war against Christians, pointing out further than he is a Presbyterian and thus personally affected every time ISIS beheads a Christian. This entire section of his speech was structured to rally the nationalist Christian strain that was the bulwark of support for the last four Republican presidents.
But as much as racialist and religious resentment is part of his rhetorical apparatus, it is not his core. His core is about business, his own business and his acumen thereof. He is living proof that being a successful capitalist is no predictor of one’s appreciation for an actual free market (stealing not trading is more his style). It only implies a love of money and a longing for the power that comes with it. Trump has both.
What do capitalists on his level do? They beat the competition. What does he believe he should do as president? Beat the competition, which means other countries, which means wage a trade war. If you listen to him, you would suppose that the U.S. is in some sort of massive, epochal struggle for supremacy with China, India, Malaysia, and, pretty much everyone else in the world.
It takes a bit to figure out what the heck he could mean. He speaks of the United States as if it were one thing, one single firm. A business. “We” are in competition with “them,” as if the U.S. were IBM competing against Samsung, Apple, or Dell. “We” are not 300 million people pursuing unique dreams and ideas, with special tastes or interests, cooperating with people around the world to build prosperity. “We” are doing one thing, and that is being part of one business.
In effect, he believes that he is running to be the CEO of the country — not just of the government (as Ross Perot once believed) but of the entire country. In this capacity, he believes that he will make deals with other countries that cause the U.S. to come out on top, whatever that could mean. He conjures up visions of himself or one of his associates sitting across the table from some Indian or Chinese leader and making wild demands that they will buy such and such amount of product else “we” won’t buy their product.
Yes, it’s bizarre. As Nick Gillespie said, he has a tenuous grasp on reality. Trade theory from hundreds of years plays no role in his thinking at all. To him, America is a homogenous unit, no different from his own business enterprise. With his run for president, he is really making a takeover bid, not just for another company to own but for an entire country to manage from the top down, under his proven and brilliant record of business negotiation, acquisition, and management.
You see why the whole speech came across as bizarre? It was. And yet, maybe it was not. In the 18th century, there is a trade theory called mercantilism that posited something similar: ship the goods out and keep the money in. It builds up industrial cartels that live at the expense of the consumer. In the 19th century, this penchant for industrial protectionism and mercantilism became guild socialism, which mutated later into fascism and then into Nazism. You can read Mises to find out more on how this works.
What’s distinct about Trumpism, and the tradition of thought it represents, is that it is non-leftist in its cultural and political outlook and yet still totalitarian in the sense that it seeks total control of society and economy and places no limits on state power. The left has long waged war on bourgeois institutions like family, church, and property. In contrast, right fascism has made its peace with all three. It (very wisely) seeks political strategies that call on the organic matter of the social structure and inspire masses of people to rally around the nation as a personified ideal in history, under the leadership of a great and highly accomplished man.
Trump believes himself to be that man.
He sounds fresh, exciting, even thrilling, like a man with a plan and a complete disregard for the existing establishment and all its weakness and corruption. This is how strongmen take over countries. They say some true things, boldly, and conjure up visions of national greatness under their leadership. They’ve got the flags, the music, the hype, the hysteria, the resources, and they work to extract that thing in many people that seeks heroes and momentous struggles in which they can prove their greatness.
Think of Commodus (161-192 AD) in his war against the corrupt Roman senate. His ascension to power came with the promise of renewed Rome. What he brought was inflation, stagnation, and suffering. Historians have usually dated the fall of Rome from his leadership. Or, if you prefer pop culture, think of Bane, the would-be dictator of Gotham in Batman, who promises an end to democratic corruption, weakness, and loss of civic pride. He sought a revolution against the prevailing elites in order to gain total power unto himself.
These people are all the same. They are populists. Oh how they love the people, and how they hate the establishment. They defy all civic conventions. Their ideology is somewhat organic to the nation, not a wacky import like socialism. They promise greatness. They have an obsession with the problem of trade and mercantilist belligerence as the only solution. They have zero conception of the social order as a complex and extended ordering of individual plans, one that functions through freedom and individual rights.
This is a dark history and I seriously doubt that Trump himself is aware of it. Instead, he just makes it up as he goes along, speaking from his gut. This penchant has always served him well. It cannot serve a whole nation well. Indeed, the very prospect is terrifying, and not just for the immigrant groups and imports he has chosen to scapegoat for all the country’s problems. It’s a disaster in waiting for everyone.
Reality is we, yes WE as in the USA, have given away the store to foreigners to benefit corp bottom lines, corrupt our politicians and bankrupt America and the dollar. Only real POS would say what we, yes WE ss in the USA, are doing now is sustainable or good for us, yes us as the USA. But again nobody is going to change any idea in that anti American noggin’ of yours, I post these things so others can see an opposing view to your gloBULL world views.
OH! There’s one of THOSE words again....”bourgeois.”
Any time you start to read any article that has words that clearly identify the intent of the subject by “one of those words...i.e. bourgeois, struggle etc” you can be absolutely sure that the article is written by a 1. Socialist, 2. A Marxist, 3. A Communist and 4. someone who lives in a special shell made of imaginary pixie dust.
When I read an article as soon as I see one of “those words” I stop wasting my time reading it.
No, business is NOT done as “the USA” - it’s done by individuals, daily, making billions of buying selling hiring firing investing cashing in moving staying put decisions in liberty, as it suits them.
To trust one man, Donald Trump, to swoop in and suddenly replace millions of those individual decisions with his own decisions is just another type of big government statism. It’s close to what Putin and his 20 bazillionaire oligarchs in Russia are doing.....which is good for Putin and those select oligarchs but still screws their population just as badly as communism did.
you shouldn’t have stopped reading...after that crap you mentioned (and it is crap) - there were some nuggets of truth.
I will not vote for anyone who is not a nationalist.
Ignorance, resentment, and would-be despotism is optional.
You're supposed to watch the videos "It's A Small World After All" and "I'd Like To Build the World a Home", feel guilty, and then vote for Bush or Clinton, based on what team colors your favorite news anchor, celebrity, or pastor wears.
My sympathies... But we do live in a globalist world; politically, economically and socially. It started a few decades ago.
The nationalist sentiments still exist, across the world. Though practically they are of little consequence.
The USA is not ‘bankrupt’. But has led the way for globalism over the mentioned decades. It isn’t something that can be corrected in the next 8 yrs.
Bastille Day, July 14 - it’s still an annual celebration in France - distributing cakes, croissant, and alike. Such was the disdain of French Revolutionaries for Louis XVI & the bourgeoisie (middle-class); it brought in the French Republic.
Nobody from inside the system can beat the machine that was created to prevent another Reagan. That machine uses very sophisticated techniques to dominate a process that is functioning (until the Electoral College assembles in December) in a completely extraconstitutional way, choosing the "opponents" before anyone realizes what is happening.
We need a new paradigm.
Just as "Obama" believed, and then proved, that there were among non-voters a pile of votes for him, a true opposition candidate has to go out and find a bigger pile of non-voters.
Fortunately, they exist among non-urban white Democrats.
Either the Democrat will be elected in 2016, or he/she will be beaten by white, working class votes.
And I don't use "working class" in the modern, ironic meaning of "not working", I mean guys with menial jobs or recently unemployable, with kids, who are being crushed around here and everywhere else in white rural America.
America IS, or WAS, "one entity" and unless it becomes that again it will blow away and disappear.
I’d be embarrassed to have such a ridiculous and ignorant statement attached to my name.....you didn’t read much Adam Smith in school did you?
The other side of that fantasy will involve crossing a river of blood.
For shame.
Love of country, admiration for your nation's history, heroes and achievements doesn't have a place in the collective.
Obviously, an American using the expression "American Exceptionalism" would be offensive in the extreme and anyone seeking high office and using such language has to be a modern Hitler or pick your favorite infamous nationalist dictator.
Okay...fine. If "American Exceptionalism" is new code-speak for "Master Race" and no longer allowed, then how about bringing back good old, helpful, humble "American Common Sense" and just letting the chips fall where they may?
For example, fixing the border and stopping the illegal invasion is just Common Sense.
Common Sense: An idea whose time has come.
Common Sense for America! Common Sense FTW!
Well, “The other side of that fantasy” is Isolationism.
To be sure, I’d say Trump should lead the way...
I actually did read the whole article this time out of curiosity.
You know, having read your book, I realize you are an intelligent guy with a lot of good insights, but I don't like to discuss politics (or much of anything else) with insults, so I will pass. Sorry we disagree.
I prefer to call it nationalism, but, whatever. If it be isolationism, make the most of it.
Many conseratives don’t understand the concept of being global.
Many conservatives confuse business and politics. They believe that a political global union is a goal of the evil ones. That goal is manifest in the form of business entities with far flung operations and evil intent.
It is that fundamental misunderstanding of business in general and international trade in particular that is their error. The companies both very large and very small have one primary motivating force: expand business, make money, make profits for the owners. There are lots and lots of very small American companies with significant international operations.
The world today is joined by instantaneous communications allowing companies spread literally around the globe to have their “girls” communicate on the most mundane of business operational tasks and move stuff and money from one place to another with relative ease. There is no evil political intent, just business. An e mail chain from the office work horses on three or four continents in multiple time zones gets the job done routinely.
The concept of manufacturing in America to create American jobs is a worthwhile concept except when Americans are not economically competitive to do the job at a profit. That has been the reality for some time now. How ever, all those far flung cubical bound war horses work together to produce a purchase and a sale with wonderous economic efficiency.
Lastly, America has tremendous export manufacturing volume. We don’t export paint brushes. That has been ceded to others. We do however export complex computer controlled stuff, automatic valves, pumps, large transformers, control systems and on and on. America is where the world comes for lots of good complex stuff.
It is not political, just business
I’m in favor of nationalism.
If there is a feasible model that can take the current globalism and move us away from it without hurting us even more, then great. But I’d like to see it in practice, not simply in rhetoric.
Bert’s post to you is excellent. And thanks for your comments on the book.
BUT You know Jim, if I hadn’t been called a “traitor” for simply agreeing with conservative economics...If I hadn’t been called anti American.....etc...simply because I agree with Adam Smith and Friedman and Sowell and so on...I might not be ticked off.
But I have been called all of those things by protectionists - so turn about is fair play. They call me traitor, falsely, I claim they don’t know WTF they’re talking about...correctly.
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