In effect, he believes that he is running to be the CEO of the country — not just of the government 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.
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.
– From Jeffrey Tucker’s brilliant article: Trumpism: The Ideology
If you want to support Donald Trump go right ahead. Just be honest with yourself about who and what you are really supporting.
Angering the corrupt and incompetent status quo with hateful commentary demonizing minorities does not make you a lover of freedom and liberty. Indeed, as Jeffrey Tucker so accurately noted earlier this year, Trump isn’t about restoring America’s heritage. He’s about “Making America Great Again.”
So what does that mean exactly? If you listen to him, it’s pretty straight forward. “Making America Great Again” means putting someone “great” in charge of America, and Trump thinks he has discovered such greatness in himself. It has nothing to do with going back to what actually made America great for a couple of centuries, which is America’s founding principles. No, such talk is for egghead intellectuals who won’t defend America from the barbarian hordes stampeding at our doorstep. Trump, on the other hand, promises to protect you like that powerful billionaire daddy you never had. Some sacrifices will need to be made of course, such as the outdated and increasingly irrelevant Bill of Rights, but they’re kind of gone anyway, right?
If you support Trump, you are consciously or unconsciously turning your back on everything that actually did make American great. He will be no different than George W. Bush, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton when it comes to the U.S. Constitution. He loathes it for the same reason they did and do; it restrains their dictatorial abilities as President. The only difference, is that Trump will convince his supporters to ignore that inconvenient truth, because as he destroys civil liberties with one hand, he will use his increased power to abuse helpless minorities with the other. The “red meat” that he will throw to his supporters will consist of going after the weakest and most vulnerable segments of the U.S. population (Mexicans, Muslims), while leaving the rich and powerful elite criminals untouched (Wall Street, the military-industrial complex). As I noted yesterday on Twitter:
Problem is Trump is full of shit and will only go after the weak. If he told me he’d throw Bernanke in jail, then I’d listen.
— Michael Krieger (@LibertyBlitz) December 8, 2015
If you still don’t get how anti-Constitution and disdainful of liberty Donald Trump truly is, let’s take a look a portion from one of his speeches yesterday.
“We’re losing a lot of people because of the Internet. We have to see Bill Gates and a lot of different people who really understand what’s happening and maybe, in some ways, closing that Internet up in some ways. Somebody will say, ‘Oh, freedom of speech, freedom of speech.’ These are foolish people, we have a lot of foolish people. We’ve got to maybe do something with the Internet because they’re recruiting by the thousands, they’re leaving our country, and then when they come back, we take them back.”
It’s also important to see how the man delivers these words. Watch the clip below:
#DonaldTrump advocates closing up the Internet 2 stop the process of thought/free speech. So Communist China-like. pic.twitter.com/hRab3xpVcK — NotBuffytheVMPslayer (@NotBUFFY_VS) December 8, 2015
He is downright dismissive of free of speech and calls First Amendment defenders “foolish people.” He is clearly troubled by the notion that free speech could come in the way of King Trump’s vision for “Making America Great,” and there’s nothing more anti-American than that.
This, of course, is not to say that any of the other leading candidates are better. For example, Hillary Clinton was just heard saying the following:
“We’re going to have to have more support from our friends in the technology world to deny online space. Just as we have to destroy [ISIS’s] would-be caliphate, we have to deny them online space. And this is complicated. You’re going to hear all of the usual complaints, you know, freedom of speech, et cetera. But if we truly are in a war against terrorism and we are truly looking for ways to shut off their funding, shut off the flow of foreign fighters, then we’ve got to shut off their means of communicating. It’s more complicated with some of what they do on encrypted apps, and I’m well aware of that, and that requires even more thinking about how to do it.”
Now take a watch:
So there you have it. We now know, without a shadow of a doubt, that the two leading candidates for the Presidency of these United States are actively lobbying against freedom of speech and for a crackdown on the Internet. If we as Americans lose free speech, it’s 100% game over.
The obvious point here is that Trump is no different than Hillary when it comes to civil liberties and the Constitution. He is a great showman, and he is putting on a wonderful spectacle for the plebs so they think they finally have a real choice. But there is no choice. Every candidate running for President this century has been an authoritarian with fascist tendencies. Trump’s no different, he’s just a much better salesperson. And he’s not selling you America, or American principles. He’s selling you himself as an unrestrained strongman.
For related articles, see:
Meet the Immigrants Building Trump’s International Hotel in Washington D.C.
Inside Donald Trump’s Relationship with Alleged Pyramid Scheme Company ACN Inc.
Rand Paul Op-ed Blasts Donald Trump – Calls Him a “Fake Conservative” and Wannabe “King”
Will Donald Trump Run as a 3rd Party Candidate?
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G
Follow me on Twitter.
Coming from the UK, I remember terrorism being much worse in the 1970s.
Terrorism on the news from Northern Ireland regularly.
Attacks on the UK mainland more sporadic, but much more frequent than current attacks.
European terrorism with groups like the Bader Meinhof gang, Black September ….. etc ……
Terrorism today is very sporadic, though the events themselves do tend to be bigger.
Get a grip, its been worse and not that long ago.
“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.”
But before the people are ready to vote for someone like this, something else takes place.
They have to have lost all faith in current elites who have treated them badly for years.
This is the key to Trumps success, the failure of established elites to look after the majority.
It is the failure of the status quo, for the majority, that paves the way for radical change.
Michael, you are dead on right. The more this guy talks, the more I see him with a brush mustache. How can anyone support a candidate who has blatantly shown he will decide what freedoms Americans may be allowed? Astounding.
The fact that gross generalizations demonizing millions at a time are his stock in trade should be an immediate tell about whether we should turn over the reins of power to him. In my opinion, if elected he will turn out to be more of a wild card than the current Sycophant in Chief. Just one time, it would be nice if people remembered the power to arbitrarily act with impunity that is visited on others can be visited just as easily on us if and when the tide turns. And with this megalomaniac, it WILL turn.
In the 1930s, the German people were demoralized. They were tired. They were hungry. They were embarrassed. They were a broken people. And they were desperate…
Then a man came along who was different than the rest of the people that stood on the stages of the beer halls and spoke to them. This man was confident. He was self-assured. He had a plan. He had a vision of a Germany that espoused the values Germans held dear. He told the proud German people that they were exceptional. He affirmed that they had a right to be strong, and safe, and happy. He promised the German people that he would make Germany great again. He said he would rebuild its military, even exceeding its former might, so that no one would even consider attempting to inflict their will upon Germans. And he said that he would drag Germany out of the pit of economic depression. And he said he would unite the German-speaking peoples of Europe. And he said he would feed the poor, and educate the children, and revitalize the currency, and make Germany the envy of Europe and the entire world.
Such rhetoric sounds like the empty promises of a charlatan. But this man, he wasn’t like all the others before. This man wasn’t just another facet of the system that was captured by the moneylenders to which it served. This man only wanted to serve Germany. Like a sacrifice… a living martyr… a savior.
And people trusted him. Good people. Christian people. People with values. People with faith. People that loved their families, and their neighbors, and their country, and their God.
And he came to power. And he did it all “legally”.
In response to “terrorist attacks” by the “Communists” that burned down the Chancellery in Berlin, he assumed unconditional power over all aspects of German society, until such time as Germany was safe again.
And then he did everything he promised he would do.
Germany rearmed and the revitalization of the industrial sector rippled the rest of the German economy. Germany had the best athletes (well, white athletes, anyway). They had the best doctors and health care. They had the most advanced scientists and universities. They had the best tanks, best automobiles, best airplanes, best rifles and best pistols. They had good music, good food and good beer. Their accomplishments piled up and the German people believed they had finally made the right choice and that their faith was well-placed. And the peoples of the world agreed with them.
They hosted the Summer Olympics and invited the world in to see the new Germany and the world gazed in awe as this reinvigorated Germany thrived under National Socialism.
Time Magazine put him on the cover and named him Man of the Year.
Sure, there were some people that weren’t doing so well under the new regime. But they weren’t really Germans. They were outsiders that the proud Germans had tolerated. But these guests had become parasites. They did not hold dear the same values as Germans. They had a different look, a different religion, and they refused to assimilate to German culture. Purging was necessary. It was the right thing to do, for Germany.
It didn’t turn out very well for anyone, except for the America, the bankers, and the industrialists.
The peoples of the world were horrified by what this man had done, the German people most of all. They couldn’t have known what this man had in mind and if you told them, they wouldn’t believe you. They would never participate in such horror.
By the time they realized what was happening, they had been rendered powerless to stop it.
They regretted their decision.
But, at the time, there was no alternative.
They only knew that what they had wasn’t working.
Hitler was created by the corruption and failures of the ones that came before. He was the inevitable result of cronyism and corruption and greed. The world had grown large, so it’s atrocity grew with it.
The world is a much bigger place now. I shudder.
By all means, put your principles before all else and vote for whomever you feel best lives up to your impossible libertarian standards. But if you think a Hillary presidency and an open border to hordes of third world leftist welfare parasites wouldn’t completely and utterly doom the possibility of your libertarian brand of utopia ever existing in America’s future, you’re deluded.
And honestly, with the backlash that Trump is getting for daring to use WORDS not couched in PC-genuflecting bullshit all the while the establishment uses his WORDS against him to effectively call for his political head, do you seriously think he would be as bad on the First Amendment as Hillary?
To say nothing of the positions of both candidates concerning the equally important Second Amendment.
So sure, okay, Hillary and Trump are effectively one in the same.. whatever.
Given a choice between the two, I’ll gladly vote Trump. You go ahead and cast your vote as a write-in for your dear Mr.Tucker.
Absolutely, Dick, only a fool would put something as facile as “principles” before glittering generalities like “making America great.”
I do agree with you that Trump is no neo-progressive, nor am I, but you don’t have to be that to identify his brand of oppressive uncritical uninformed bigotry. He definitely excels at exploiting the general ignorance of misinformed and propagandized Americans.
Hillary and Trump are not the same, each is their own special brand of dictator.
I guess you’re right though, notions like freedom, non-aggression, voluntarism, and privacy are so pie-in-the-sky! Nowhere and at no time have such notions ever led to a stable peaceful community.
At least you haven’t provided any real rationale choosing Trump over Hitler, er, Hillary. Thanks for that. I don’t think my stomach could take it.
At least you’ll always have your principles, right Mr. Wakeman? Uncompromising, unrelenting, never bending even the slightest for even a moment. So tell me, Mr. Wakeman, which candidate are you supporting? And please do inform me as to the exact reasons why you believe the election of your candidate of choice will be the harbinger of a grand dawning of an era of all things freedom and privacy and voluntaryism and non-aggression. Make the case for me that the candidate you’re backing is such a messiah, and if it turns out he’s not just some dipshit libertarian ideologue and actually has a chance of winning and making any sort of headway at all with non-libertarian-zealots, and I promise I’ll throw my support his way.
Oh wait, let me guess: your precious principles have you supporting no one. And I’ll go even further and guess that you principles keep you from even daring to entertain the idea of voting at all for the self-righteous sake of not lending even one iota of credence to the entire current American neo-bladdy-blah corrupt process. Is that about right?
Congratulations on your principles, Mr. Wakeman. Congratulations on steadfastly resigning yourself to complete political irrelevance.
You are right, I would not lend my support to any of the candidates because I think they are cronies and idiots. It is not a matter of principles preventing me for voting for psychopaths, it is common sense.
The fact that you seem to consider principles to be an impediment to effective political action just makes me scratch my head. If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything. That is what American politicians are counting on: ignorance, amorality, and apathy.
Back to the basics. Is there any candidate out there that will stop over sixty-five years of the abusive application of the state secrets privilege and related doctrine, act, executive order, regulation and related policy abuses? Hillary, vetting does not work, Jeb, denial does not work. Donald, flashy advertisement does not work. The ACLUs lawsuit on behalf of three tortured victims against the two psychologists who designed one of the more recent torture programs is a tiny step in the right direction. And President Obama, pardoning the war criminal Dick Cheney for sure as anything did not work in stopping this abuse.
Regarding Hillary, my note needed to say, Hillary, using the name vetting for bribery does not work.
Well, Michael, it is certainly possible you are right. Many of us, perhaps wrongly, assume that he understands making American great again means restoring the constitution. If it is a showdown between global government Hillary and anti-global government Trump, I feel the best choice is to go anti-global government every time. The outcome with the global government crew is foregone…. we are simply toast with them. Because of that, well, one has to go with the other side and with hope. I guess what I read into Trump’s message – and I realize this too could be wrong – is that he is a billionaire who realizes that a prosperous country is good for the rich, as opposed to the other class of elites who hope to chew our bones and then flee….
Most of these social media sites that are spreading propoganda for terrorists are run from the USA, and our leadership has allowed it to flourish. WHY? because our leadership uses those terrorists to try and remove Assad while arming them and looking the other way while TURKEY literally sells their oil and helps them.
Anyone is better than the establishment who has allowed these radicals to gain a real foothold in this world and embolden more Muslims to pick up their violent roots. Muslims have been killing and torturing all non Muslims since Islam has been founded. Crusades happened because Muslims refused to share the holy land.
This is the new world war, it is decent people of all religions against Islam, it is a violent religion that will always inspire violence because THEY ARE TAUGHT THAT EVERYONE NOT MUSLIM IS BELOW THEM. ONLY MUSLIMS ARE INNOCENT AND EVERYONE ELSE IS GUILTY. Watch how they speak about the innocent and guilty, you will see their bias come out. They are truly a cult that has become very good at gaining the systems of liberal morons who think they are like the good people of this world. Not all muslims are evil, but their religion is and it will always inspire violence and hatred because that is exactly what their book tells them.
Okay Mike, I get it, Trump is bad. But when it’s Trump v Clinton in the general election who am I supposed to vote for?
I’m not telling anyone what to do, but I will not vote for anyone who isn’t a staunch supporter of the U.S. Constitution at the very least.
That shouldn’t be a high bar, but this country has declined so precipitously, apparently it’s too much to ask for.
Trump
But I subscribe to the “principles keep you from even daring to entertain the idea of voting at all for the self-righteous sake of not lending even one iota of credence to the entire current American neo-bladdy-blah corrupt process”…
I figure if we have a general election with a 1% voter turnout, then maybe we can declare that those “elected” have no mandate to authority and we can restart the American Experiment.
Besides, I live in California, which is never in doubt in November, so I’ve already been reduced to political irrelevance.
Hopefully, one day you will become as politically demoralized by the “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” system, as I have, and simply withdraw.
Until then, you keep on Rockin’ the Vote, Dick!
he says “The “red meat” that he will throw to his supporters will consist of going after the weakest and most vulnerable segments of the U.S. population (Mexicans, Muslims)” like its a bad thing…
they deserve “going after” after all the damage many of them are doing to our country
theyres thousands and thousands if not tens of thousands of thousands that need to leave by either being “encouraged” by more and better legislation and a total recommittment to the actual enforcement of the existing laws that are on the books or by outright rounding them up and detaining them until deportation
yes…it can be done…and yes…it can be done humanely
everyone who says it cant are just as much a part of the problem as the muslims and the mexicans