This is Leadership? Mr. Trump and the Politics of Resentment
“I
think these debates are absolute nonsense. The way these debates are set
up there’s almost no interchange of ideas, very little even of
personality. There’s also a terrible thing about this medium – hardly
anyone listens. They sort of get an impression of somebody, and they
think they figured them out just by seeing them on television.”
- Gore Vidal, 1968 Debate with William
F. Buckley
“Does
television run America? There is an implicit conflict of interest
between that which is highly viewable, and that which is highly illuminating.”
- William F. Buckley, 1968 Debate with Gore
Vidal
By
J.M. Hamilton (11-26-2015)
Nineteen
sixty-eight was the first time a major television network interrupted gavel to
gavel coverage of a political convention, and introduced political commentary
and debate, between a conservative and a liberal pundit. As posited in
the documentary, Best
of Enemies, television and political reporting would never be the same.
The
tension built until Mr. Vidal called Mr. Buckley a “crypto-nazi,” and Mr.
Buckley retaliated by calling Mr. Vidal a “queer,” and threatened physical
violence in front of a nationally televised audience.
Based
upon that technical infraction alone, Mr. Vidal won the debate and Mr. Buckley,
one of the greatest debaters America has ever produced, knew that Mr. Vidal had
gotten the better of him. Rule number one of debate is never get emotional,
and rule number two, is never resort to ad hominem attacks,
as the violation of either or both rules detracts from the debater’s arguments.
By resorting to the emotional attack, the debater is also acknowledging their
case’s inferiority, or argument’s failings, and conceding the debate.
But
as Mr. Buckley so astutely acknowledged above, what makes for illuminating
television, and entertaining television are two entirely different things.
Ipso facto,
what makes for intelligent and sound public & foreign policy, does not
always give Americans what they yearn for, a quick fix to many of the nation’s
ills. Americans, rightfully so, are exceptionally upset with the
political establishment; and particularly w/in the Republican Party, if one
believes the polls, the constituency is throwing out the political elite (just
as J.M.H. foretold). The financial and political aristocracy have
shafted the interests of everyday Americans for several decades now, and can be
found worshiping at the altars of greed,
power, and nihilism.
Even
within the Democratic Party, Mr. Sanders, a populist, has forced Mrs.
Clinton, the establishment’s candidate, to take notice and
tack left. Mr. Sanders – a liberal - is a worthy and thoughtful
adversary, and more than likely, will not allow a group of murderous thugs,
called ISIL, to distract from his core message: namely, the oligarchy
owns our government, and has looted Washington for personal gain, via
redistribution of wealth from the 99% to the 1%.
On
the right, one wishes we could say the “populist” candidates were equally
enlightened, but then again, perhaps Mr. Trump is only play acting to his
audience? But I have my doubts. Early on, Mr. Trump offered some
hope…. He talked about taxing shadow banking/hedge funds at considerably higher
rates, but then his tax plan came out and it appeared to have been written by
Grover Norquist, the plutocracy’s tool. Mr. Trump said that he was
through with nation building and a jingoist foreign policy, but then ISIL
attacks Paris and he throws red meat into the crowd, with promises of a more
bellicose and adventurist foreign policy. And as many have seen, these
are Mr. Trump’s finer moments. If Mr. Trump wasn’t so frightening and
non-illuminating, he would certainly be considered entertaining.
No
one appears to be able to pin Mr. Trump down. Gaffes, fabrications, and
outburst that would ruin other candidates seemingly have no impact upon
Teflon-Don; and yet, he leads the national polls, and is headed for a possible
Republican nomination. The establishment (aka the plutocracy) is pulling
its collective hair out over his rise, but the elite have brought Mr. Trump
upon themselves. The owners of the Republican Party, the billionaire
class, have long ago substituted: the profane for the coherent and logical;
racism for racial harmony; wars without end, that have bankrupted the nation,
were chosen over a sane/rational foreign policy; and the elite have run the
country’s economy into the ground for short term profit maximization, via
financial engineering, in lieu of sound long term business fundamentals.
In
short, the establishment created Trump, and now their monster is running around,
stirring up the villagers, and threatening to throw Lady Liberty and the
Constitution into the lake. I wish I could say I pity the Robber Barons
for their folly and greed, but the Lords of Karma will, likely, exact a heavy
toll and are already doing so. The Villagers of the United States have
taken up pitch forks and torches against the establishment. What the GOP
Villagers haven’t quite figured out is that Mr. Trump, albeit not a
professional politician, is the very same establishment they profess to loathe.
Either way, their monster, Mr.
Trump, is not exactly appealing to “the better angels of our nature,” but is
feeding and fueling fear, intolerance, and resentment. The mark of a great
Republican leader, say Eisenhower and perhaps even Reagan, is that they bring
calm and a cool head to a crisis. These leaders soothed the public, not
rev-ed it up on rhetorical
meth. And trust me, the foreign policy challenges that Eisenhower and
Reagan faced, and the manner in which they conducted themselves in public, make
the current Republican field look like amateurs, in their gross exaggeration
and fearmongering of the ISIL threat. Then again, the Republican field,
and the establishment, has little more to offer the American public on economic
matters, than a failed trickle down ideology, globalization, free trade
agreements that gutted the middle class, and tax cuts for the rich. As such, my
guess is that the GOP candidates view ISIL, and the Paris attacks, as a road
out of perdition.
What
Reagan and Eisenhower demonstrated was that a sound foreign policy, rarely if
ever lends itself to the quick fix or unilateral action. The defeat of
National Socialism (i.e. the Nazis) was through a broad coalition of nations,
not the least of which was Russia and the Russian army. The subsequent
defeat of the Soviet Union, and communism, spanned many decades and was carried
out with the help of many allies, largely though the highly patient policy of
containment.
Now
imagine the current crop of GOP candidates telling their followers that the
defeat of ISIL will likely take a true international coalition, as the U.S. is
bankrupt from the two GOP initiated/failed nation building exercises in Iraq
and Afghanistan? Moreover, imagine the GOP field explaining that to truly
solve the ISIL issue, and provide long term stability, will ultimately require:
a
move to renewable energy; and the spread of democracy in a part of the
world, the Middle East, where the West has propped up dictatorships and
monarchies for generations for plutocratic profits.
Unfortunately,
that level of honesty is not going to happen (excepting possibly from Senator
Paul), because the GOP today, doesn’t do nuance… it perpetuates and feeds
geo-political fear and offers up quick fatuous solutions (to hear Mr. Trump
tell it, like bombing ISIL back to the stone age; turning away Middle East
refugees, fleeing from the terror the U.S. helped unleash; religious
persecution; and all manner of intolerance). Today’s GOP – courtesy of
Mr. Trump - does the 15 second sound bite, and entertainment. And the corporate
owned news media eats it up, and regurgitates it to the American public.
When Mr. Trump is forced to deal with the economy, he tells us
he’s going to create many jobs, so many jobs (but if one is looking for
details from this candidate, there are none to be found). Instead, Mr.
Trump and the GOP generally turn the debate on the economy, into the politics
of intolerance, xenophobia, and resentment.
Too many Republican voters are willing to give the plutocracy a pass, and
instead blame poor immigrants for their problems. Trump’s supporters know
that the establishment has taken their jobs, but they aren’t quite willing to
hold them accountable just yet. Instead, Trump’s
cadres embrace the politics of resentment, that is to say, immigrants to
the country maybe obtaining jobs or social benefits, and this is somehow taking
away jobs/benefits from white conservative voters; but the reality is
immigrants are doing jobs that conservative whites don’t want, or are unwilling
to do, and many immigrants are ineligible for federal and state benefits, due
to their illegal status. But that doesn’t stop Mr. Trump from playing to
these base fears, and engaging in demagoguery, and not crypto-fascism, but
overt fascism.
Mr.
Buckley to his credit spent much of his lifetime, attempting to drive Birchers
and assorted racist from the Party ranks; but the usually calm and genteel Mr.
Buckley lost it against Mr. Vidal, because Gore skewered a nerve. Mr.
Buckley’s response to Mr. Vidal’s charge of crypto-fascism was savage because
Mr. Buckley knew deep down within his Catholic soul, the charge - at least
among some members of the GOP - was fundamentally true. Capitalism,
unless reined in by the state to insure competition, devolves into crony
capitalism, monopoly,
and ultimately, state takeover by the elite (i.e. corporatism and worst case,
fascism). There is something about the Republican Party that attracts
the elitist, the racist, and the exploiters, and if the political elite are
doing their job, these elements must be, continually and vigilantly, purged.
Today’s GOP is utterly devoid of compassion, and has become amoral.
These
are the same folks, Mr. Trump and his crew, who would have turned away a 1930s
ship load of Jewish
immigrants fleeing Nazi persecution. What's next - internment camps?
To
protect the GOP and capitalism from its worst impulses, Mr. Trump is the very
thing Mr. Buckley fought against his entire life.
Copyright JM Hamilton
Publishing 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment