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| Donald Trump |
It amazes me as to the amount of support Donald Trump continues to get amongst some libertarians.
Consider this comment left at the post, Walter Block vs. David Stockman, on Biden vs. Trump:
What are the odds that without Trump the Republican party will actually be any better? How about ZERO???? LOL If that is Stockman's argument it's based on wishful thinking, certainly not on history or common sense. Without Trump the Republicans are WORSE than democrats. Why would anyone assume that without Trump they will revert to anything other than neo-con control? Let's Be honest, there is at least as good of a chance, if not better, that without Trump the Republicans will be WORSE. They certainly were worse before he came along, why would anyone assume that they will be better without the only guy who has done anything at all to reform them? Seriously that's not an argument at all, it's just wishful thinking. The fact is that without Trump the republicans would not have reformed at all and the Democrats themselves would have no reason to improve either, they can just slide along being their usually lousy selves.
By the way, there is a third alternative that might make Trump's loss more palpable. Trump will now be king maker, which also makes the idea of his going away wishful thinking. There isn't a republican on Earth who can win without Trump's support. So the Republican party isn't going back to some ancient form of Republicanism that hasn't existed for nearly a hundred years anyway, because whether he wins or not Trump is still the Man who gets to decide the next president.
Talk about cult worship.
It should not be forgotten that Trump was directly responsible for fueling the early stages of the silly COVID-19 panic. And it was his idea to send everyone a check for $1,200 and bonus unemployment payments that dulled the revolt of the masses against the lockdowns. That this money was printed out of thin air with the price inflation consequences still to come is another major nightmare that can be pinned on Trump.
Further, he is totally responsible for the "warp speed" vaccines that will soon be distributed where no one knows the long-term consequences, including Trump's crony advisers and no one knows how they will indirectly attempt to force us all to get it.
Who needs Democrats to fear when you have Republicans fawning over the buffoon Trump?
It is true that Trump rode into office with support from right-wing populists but it was not Trump who first recognized this potential base. Pat Buchanan did a lot to develop this group when he ran for president and Murray Rothbard recognized the potential for a libertarian alliance with right-wing populists decades ago.
Rothbard wrote in January 1992:
[I]n addition to converting the intellectuals to the cause, the proper course for the right-wing opposition must necessarily be a strategy of boldness and confrontation, of dynamism excitement, a strategy, in short, of rousing the masses from their slumber and exposing the arrogant elites that are ruling them, controlling them, taxing them, and ripping them off.
Both Rothbard and Buchanan were much better political theorists and strategists. They both understood liberty much better, especially Rothbard, and formed their views on sound principles. Not of this can be said of Trump.
As for the idea that no one can emerge with a libertarian bent to replace Trump. What kind of lack of history does one have to have to espouse this view?
At the time of the American Revolution, the population of the American colonies was 2.1 million. That was enough to produce Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine and Patrick Henry to name just three.
With a current population of 330 million, how could it be possible that a few great men do not exist who could capture the ears of the masses? Perhaps it might be Rand Paul, Kristi Noem or Tucker Carlson, hell, perhaps we can talk David Stockman into entering the arena.
It is really time to quit thinking of erratic Trump as a savior. He is not. He has been a reckless president who ushered in the collapse of many small businesses, a soon to come exploding price inflation and, on top of it, the direct result of the growing boom in socialist thinking among the young is because of him.
Trump should exit stage left and let's hope we never hear from him again.
It is time for the leaders with a strong liberty bent to emerge and start preparing to develop the base that can move the country back toward liberty.
-RW
"...no one knows how they will indirectly attempt to force us all to get it".
ReplyDeleteSure we do. You won't be able to enter a grocery store, board an airplane or sit down at a restaurant without proof of having the vaccine, but it won't be the government forcing you to do anything, it will be your beloved 'free market'. Somehow you'll find the energy for feigned outrage, but when it was the free market shutting down the free speech of 'racists', you just said to build your own Twitter.
It's not a free market if that grocery store's and restaurant's imposed restrictions are the result of government pressure in the form of threats of rescinding their business license, or that airline is pressured behind the scenes with threats of being shut down. Same with the other myriad of measures that government bureaucrats will take to control, coerce and manipulate people into "acting voluntary": Rescinding occupational licensing, suspending driver licenses, levying IRS freezes on bank accounts, pressuring landlords to limit tenancies, pressuring banks to deny credit...hotels from serving customers, and so on.
DeleteIt's not a free market when Twitter and other social media platforms enjoy protection under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, yet when they ban anyone to the right of Chairman Mao for perceived racism lolbertarians always speak of private property.
DeleteThere's no free market here. The businesses, the ones that are left, are either giant corporations that partner with government or independents that struggle to survive government mandates. Furthermore the hysteria generated by government and its partnered media is what shapes people's feelings and opinions. A free market requires freely available knowledge as well and people have to go out of their way to find anything that doesn't match the narrative.
DeleteThe major components of a free market are missing. So this isn't a free market action by any means. It's no more free market than the forced discrimination in southern states in the 1950s and before. It's a bunch of economic nonsense that results from government imposition and coercion.
You don't get it. Trump is a clown. But he has a talent for driving socialists nuts. He did more to expose the ugly face of American Left (and neocon right) than all libertarians together. He also exposed the American "democracy" for the sham it is. In that, he created strong opposition to State and its propagandists. Fully half of America no longer believes a word from the scoundrels, and the number of people recognizing the evil is growing.
ReplyDeleteThis, and not the intellectual expositions of libertarian blogs, creates actual popular resistance to statism.
As a President, Trump managed to keep the State paralyzed with infighting and puerile mud-slinging. We need more of that.
I still believe there has to, at the end of the day, be an ideological underpinning to any movement for change, including populist movements. Otherwise, how does the movement know where it is going...know when success is achieved...know when to stop? Change for the sake of change simply results in different hands on the same corrupting levers of power. Think the French Revolution and its resulting Reign of Terror...leading to the rise of the dictatorial Napoleon, and thence quest for empire, implosion of said empire, a price-inflation, unemployment, unrest...
DeleteThe state was “paralyzed” yet managed to continue all wars, explode spending to an unprecedented degree, and reach farther into the everyday lives of citizens than it has in its history with the lockdown nonsense.
DeleteSome will go to astonishing lengths to give the street hustler props. Truly bizarre.
While I think there is too much "identity" politics for averros' statement to be entirely correct (I see no widespread rejection of statism or even of corrupt institutions nor an embracing of individualism) I don't believe there is any way to predict the effect of Trump's presidency on future trends (perhaps paralyzed is the best we can hope for). Nor do I think ideology is helpful except at the individual level and then only as a label not as a standard. The "movement" can know nothing. Hayek observed that we may be able to identify certain general guidelines of human behavior and interaction that most often leads to wealth and well being but no one can ever fully understand how the guidelines work in total. Even though some label this an ideology it is still not fully comprehended. Where do all the threads of human interaction go? Perhaps through averros' "Trump is a clown" poking his finger in the eye of statists.
DeleteYour observations about the French revolution and Napoleon are well taken. But Nature has its own tine schedule. The disasters that followed may have simply cleared the field of fools. Fools who think they influence the course of history when they are nothing but a leaf on the wind. Once blown away the rest of us can get back to life. The only history you can truly impact is your own.
Unfortunately, the masses, so poorly cognizant of sound economics, believe "the economy"---and primarily Wall Street---is a barometer of a President's performance, and that that barometer works in real-time; When the Great Depression 2.0 really kicks in during Biden's term, the Trumpistas will attribute it to Biden, blame Biden for wrecking "Trump's glorious Economy," and completely give Trump a pass.
ReplyDeleteTrump might have been a disaster in terms of economics (although likely no worse than the alternative), and was pretty weak at standing up to the COVIDCon (although likely no worse than the alternative), but he has done a few good things in my book.
ReplyDeleteHe has damaged the credibility of the American political system, both at home and abroad.
His Tweets have publicly voiced what normal people think about the establishment (even if his Tweets were never backed up by action).
He didn't start any new wars.
Ronald Grump to his credit ran against political correctness, the ME wars, the econ and mass illegal immigration, with the first being the most important one.
DeleteDid he back it up? Duh, but it's a start.
Granted he's part of the problem, but he did have a lot of the right enemies and that's more than can be said for Joe and . . . Willy B's consort.
cheers
RW - I am no Trump supporter and generally agree with your post. But this statement was a bit over the top.
ReplyDelete"At the time of the American Revolution, the population of the American colonies was 2.1 million. That was enough to produce Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine and Patrick Henry to name just three.
With a current population of 330 million, how could it be possible that a few great men do not exist who could capture the ears of the masses? Perhaps it might be Rand Paul, Kristi Noem or Tucker Carlson, hell, perhaps we can talk David Stockman into entering the arena."
This is too good a set-up for an old Mort Saul joke. In response to your statement (comparing Paul, Carlson and Stockman to Jefferson, et. al.):
APPARENTLY DARWIN WAS WRONG...
What are you talking about? Let's not forget how Rand Paul bypassed the opportunity to support the true libertarian candidate Ron Paul (I think they're related in some way) to throw his support behind the freedom fighter Mittens Romney. That takes courage.
DeleteClueless and egotistical libertarians suffer from a different form of disregard for reality than liberals do, but they nevertheless do. Trump doesn't.
ReplyDeleteThe bit most revealing of cluelessness is "Trump was directly responsible for fueling the early stages of the silly COVID-19 panic".