When times are tough desperate (or insecure) people turn to strongmen and authoritarians to solve their problems. They see that government is the problem but not the problem that those of us who read this blog view it as. They dont want government out of the way they a more effective government and strongmen see it, play on their fears, insecurities with promises that their government will make things better.
Exactly. I don't get why people never learn. They always want daddy-mommy government to rule over them. All they end up doing is changing the flavor and not the substance. Go figure?
With Trump these are people (mainly conservatives) who claim in the public eye that they know government is bad which makes it worst than a leftist. However I agree its just changing the flavor aka "Its ok when my group of thugs do it."
Robert, I think that you are taking this comparison beyond rational bounds. Mussolini was a brown shirt fascist who believed that individuals only existed to serve the greater State. He believed and implemented maximum government control over private business to serve the interests of the State. Trump is not a socialist (government ownership) or a fascist (total government control over business) and has used every ocassion possible to assert that "government" is inept at doing just about anything. He has come out against higher minimum wage laws, against government mandated equal pay (or "equal work"), against higher taxes, against Dodd/Frank, and against more business regulation generally. I would also guess that he is no huge fan of aggressive antitrust policy. Has he been totally consistent? Hell no. His tariff proposals are dumb and he has no real understanding of comparative advantage. But he is not, by any stretch, a Mussolini when it comes to economic (or social) philosophy.
There is something very surreal and synthetic feeling about a (supposedly) multi billionaire Noo Yawk real estate magnate (mostly inherited) and "reality" TV star (I'm not a successful businessman but I play one on TV) that (it has been suggested) uses hypnotic, neuro-linguistic (anchor words, phrases) and visual programming techniques (the ubiquitous red ball cap) in his speeches and has been known to pay people to attend his events appealing strongly to a stadium full of people in Alabama, of all places.
Ideologically, he is not Mussolini but I agree there is a comparison in terms of the megalomania, flair and flourish. Maybe all Trump needs now is a miltary uniform with some braided rope shoulder pads and some fruit salad on the lapels. For him, it's all about the illusion becoming reality anyway.
How can you say that Trump isn't also ideologically like Mussolini. Wenzel has pointed out that they hold the same position on healthcare (Trump's is probably more statist. He is certainly as nationalistic as Mussolini and he wants to boos corporations around like Mussolini, see what he said he would do to Ford for building a plant in Mexico.
@Jack: see Domenick's comment above for some deviations from a Mussolini-like ideology. I also see some similarities and some differences. Mussolini was an ideological alchemist in a way, melding collectivism with nationalism/militarism and thus bridging the left/right, liberal/conservative divide of his time to consolidate his own power. Trump has these tendencies but is more like a spoiled, self important blowhard picking positions out of an incoherent ideological buffet, at times purely in a manner designed to pander to certain voting blocs. Doctrinaire fascist, he isn't.
Ultimately, though, I don't think any of this matters because it's all an act. I think he's a Trojan horse for Hillary. Anyway, guys like him are used to getting what they want when they want it. He's never held an elected office. Bureaucracy doesn't work like that. He's not going to overcome the prerogatives of the Deep State and somehow change the trajectory of the country in any meaningful way for the better. It's all just another "reality"show for the sheep to make them think what they learned in their public school civics class is still really the way the U.S. works now.
Not sure if you saw it but I caught Justin Rainmondo's interview with Alan Colmbs in which he agrees with you that it's ultimately Hillary to ascend to the thrown providing this email scandal doesn't sink her first.
I grew up in the 1980s and early 90s in a South Jersey beach town where the local paper was the Atlantic City Press. There was not much news to report and let’s just say I learned a thing or two about The Donald and how he operates. Add to that a dozen years on Wall Street that included seeing how Trump branded publicly held securities tended towards “high yield” and bankruptcy left me less than impressed with his business acumen.
That being said, I am a daily reader of Raimondo’s site as well as others that have called out Trump’s recent political history. All of these point out how he is ideologically ambiguous and way too close personally with Bill and Hill. Trump himself has brushed off speculation about contributions to them and other politicians across the ideological spectrum as a “cost of doing business.” Rand Paul was actually right to call attention to these payoffs and connections but, somehow, got drowned out in the media furor over the aftermath of the debates, including Trump’s row with Fox News and Megan Kelly. I don’t think that was an accident, either.
Right now, Trump is destroying the Republican Party (a good thing, in my opinion) and, although he could possibly win the nomination, he has very little chance of winning a general election. Somehow, though, that may be just fine with the Republican Party based on the trajectory of the economy and the country. You never know. The email scandal might just drag Hillary down but she is a survivor and deadly dangerous. I’m not counting her out just yet.
Either way, when a man is wanting power like Trump does, any of them, and all of them, it is a danger to Liberty. "I will get things done!!" God help us.
Holy crap, Trump just compared himself to Billy Graham? Seriously?!! Graham wasn't holding rallies to glorify himself. He held rallies for his savior, Trump I think sees himself AS the Savior. Bob, I think Trump has to be stopped by all political means just as much as Sanders. Wow.
Look every time someone different comes on the political scene the naysayers are armed either it is the threat of SOCIALISM(Stalin) or NAZISM(Hitler). As long as the delusion of CRONY CAPITALISM stays firmly supported by all candidates leaves voters with no real choices. Still voting for TRUMP who allegedly uses no pollsters, speech writers or sponsors. I want an unencumbered candidate that can do best to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.
Trump has never been a soldier, thank goodness, and as I and people far smarter than I have pointed out, there has never been a businessman-dictator. “Businessmen are builders, not destroyers,” as Jeff Deist notes.
When times are tough desperate (or insecure) people turn to strongmen and authoritarians to solve their problems. They see that government is the problem but not the problem that those of us who read this blog view it as. They dont want government out of the way they a more effective government and strongmen see it, play on their fears, insecurities with promises that their government will make things better.
ReplyDeleteExactly. I don't get why people never learn. They always want daddy-mommy government to rule over them. All they end up doing is changing the flavor and not the substance. Go figure?
DeleteWith Trump these are people (mainly conservatives) who claim in the public eye that they know government is bad which makes it worst than a leftist. However I agree its just changing the flavor aka "Its ok when my group of thugs do it."
DeleteRobert, I think that you are taking this comparison beyond rational bounds. Mussolini was a brown shirt fascist who believed that individuals only existed to serve the greater State. He believed and implemented maximum government control over private business to serve the interests of the State. Trump is not a socialist (government ownership) or a fascist (total government control over business) and has used every ocassion possible to assert that "government" is inept at doing just about anything. He has come out against higher minimum wage laws, against government mandated equal pay (or "equal work"), against higher taxes, against Dodd/Frank, and against more business regulation generally. I would also guess that he is no huge fan of aggressive antitrust policy. Has he been totally consistent? Hell no. His tariff proposals are dumb and he has no real understanding of comparative advantage. But he is not, by any stretch, a Mussolini when it comes to economic (or social) philosophy.
ReplyDeleteThere is something very surreal and synthetic feeling about a (supposedly) multi billionaire Noo Yawk real estate magnate (mostly inherited) and "reality" TV star (I'm not a successful businessman but I play one on TV) that (it has been suggested) uses hypnotic, neuro-linguistic (anchor words, phrases) and visual programming techniques (the ubiquitous red ball cap) in his speeches and has been known to pay people to attend his events appealing strongly to a stadium full of people in Alabama, of all places.
ReplyDeleteIdeologically, he is not Mussolini but I agree there is a comparison in terms of the megalomania, flair and flourish. Maybe all Trump needs now is a miltary uniform with some braided rope shoulder pads and some fruit salad on the lapels. For him, it's all about the illusion becoming reality anyway.
How can you say that Trump isn't also ideologically like Mussolini. Wenzel has pointed out that they hold the same position on healthcare (Trump's is probably more statist. He is certainly as nationalistic as Mussolini and he wants to boos corporations around like Mussolini, see what he said he would do to Ford for building a plant in Mexico.
Delete@Jack: see Domenick's comment above for some deviations from a Mussolini-like ideology. I also see some similarities and some differences. Mussolini was an ideological alchemist in a way, melding collectivism with nationalism/militarism and thus bridging the left/right, liberal/conservative divide of his time to consolidate his own power. Trump has these tendencies but is more like a spoiled, self important blowhard picking positions out of an incoherent ideological buffet, at times purely in a manner designed to pander to certain voting blocs. Doctrinaire fascist, he isn't.
DeleteUltimately, though, I don't think any of this matters because it's all an act. I think he's a Trojan horse for Hillary. Anyway, guys like him are used to getting what they want when they want it. He's never held an elected office. Bureaucracy doesn't work like that. He's not going to overcome the prerogatives of the Deep State and somehow change the trajectory of the country in any meaningful way for the better. It's all just another "reality"show for the sheep to make them think what they learned in their public school civics class is still really the way the U.S. works now.
@Hollow Daze
DeleteNot sure if you saw it but I caught Justin Rainmondo's interview with Alan Colmbs in which he agrees with you that it's ultimately Hillary to ascend to the thrown providing this email scandal doesn't sink her first.
@NY Cynic
DeleteI grew up in the 1980s and early 90s in a South Jersey beach town where the local paper was the Atlantic City Press. There was not much news to report and let’s just say I learned a thing or two about The Donald and how he operates. Add to that a dozen years on Wall Street that included seeing how Trump branded publicly held securities tended towards “high yield” and bankruptcy left me less than impressed with his business acumen.
That being said, I am a daily reader of Raimondo’s site as well as others that have called out Trump’s recent political history. All of these point out how he is ideologically ambiguous and way too close personally with Bill and Hill. Trump himself has brushed off speculation about contributions to them and other politicians across the ideological spectrum as a “cost of doing business.” Rand Paul was actually right to call attention to these payoffs and connections but, somehow, got drowned out in the media furor over the aftermath of the debates, including Trump’s row with Fox News and Megan Kelly. I don’t think that was an accident, either.
Right now, Trump is destroying the Republican Party (a good thing, in my opinion) and, although he could possibly win the nomination, he has very little chance of winning a general election. Somehow, though, that may be just fine with the Republican Party based on the trajectory of the economy and the country. You never know. The email scandal might just drag Hillary down but she is a survivor and deadly dangerous. I’m not counting her out just yet.
Either way, when a man is wanting power like Trump does, any of them, and all of them, it is a danger to Liberty.
ReplyDelete"I will get things done!!"
God help us.
Holy crap, Trump just compared himself to Billy Graham? Seriously?!! Graham wasn't holding rallies to glorify himself.
ReplyDeleteHe held rallies for his savior, Trump I think sees himself AS the Savior.
Bob, I think Trump has to be stopped by all political means just as much as Sanders.
Wow.
Look every time someone different comes on the political scene the naysayers are armed either it is the threat of SOCIALISM(Stalin) or NAZISM(Hitler). As long as the delusion of CRONY CAPITALISM stays firmly supported by all candidates leaves voters with no real choices. Still voting for TRUMP who allegedly uses no pollsters, speech writers or sponsors. I want an unencumbered candidate that can do best to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.
ReplyDeleteLew seems to like Trump -
ReplyDeleteTrump has never been a soldier, thank goodness, and as I and people far smarter than I have pointed out, there has never been a businessman-dictator. “Businessmen are builders, not destroyers,” as Jeff Deist notes.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/political-theatre/i-dont-like-this-article/