Sunday, November 15, 2020

Whither Trumpism?

Donald Trump is headed for the exit. But the movement he spawned isn't, Robin Sears writes -- unless Trump refuses to leave the stage:

Political movements and their parties rarely die; they merely go into hibernation for a while.

This rebound is eminently possible for Trumpism, if the GOP codifies its policies and prejudices into a socially acceptable discourse. Americans in every generation have struggled with immigration. Anger at free trade and globalization has a broad and deep resonance in the American electorate. Contempt for all governments has often been widespread in American history. America First isolationism also has deep roots, with the GOP almost successfully blocking American participation in both world wars, the Marshall Plan, the United Nations and the Bretton Woods agreements that created the global economic infrastructure of the post-war years. Trump is merely a cruder version of a long line of conservative champions of these views.

Those positions have defined The Ugly American around the world. Trump was the Ugly American personified. 

And television magnified that personification. That's why there's talk of Trump starting his own TV network. It would renew his potency and keep him in the public eye. However, if Trump TV was the only network to cover his outrages, the man and his lunacy would fade. 

But Trumpism without Trump would garner lots of supporters:

A Trumpist GOP, without Trump, has another enormous advantage. They have access to hundreds of millions of dollars of support from rich right-wing American PACs, foundations and billionaires. The Koch brothers created and funded the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute, think tanks that provided the policy underpinnings to the Reagan revolution. A new generation of politically engaged billionaires from both Wall Street and Silicon Valley will back a new America First GOP agenda with generous support.

So much depends on what Trump does when he's out of office. But whichever path he chooses, his curse will not go away.

Image: pinterest


4 comments:

The Disaffected Lib said...

Unless Republicans join forces with the Dems to heal America's dangerous rifts the divisions might reach a point where they can't be resolved at the ballot box. Trump, in an act that reeks of sedition, wants to stoke the myth that he didn't lose but that the election was stolen. That's all the Gullibillies need to keep their xenophobic and racist-based resistance fueled. Unless you conclude that America's law enforcement and intelligence agencies, including the FBI and NSA, are just playing Deep State games, there is a dangerous danger of domestic terrorism. These experts have said this alt.white, alt.right, white supremacist movement is the greatest threat facing the United States. Even as these gun thugs brazenly tote their assault rifles to public demonstrations and invade state houses, they present the left as radical.

At times it can seem that the Civil War has never ended but has been at a low simmer for a century and a half. Could these groups coalesce into an insurgency? There does seem to be an appetite for that. What if one of these losers gets a lucky shot at Biden?

America needs to get Trump behind bars although there is an alternative.

Owen Gray said...

The law is waiting for Trump, Mound. If he is tied up in court -- and if he faces bankruptcy -- he may be too busy to lead the assault on the state.

Anonymous said...

Sears talks around the issue by referring to Republican struggles with immigration, isolationism, free trade and (((globalization))). He misses the core of Trumpism - hatred, white supremacy and fascism. That's what the Republican party espouses - Trump simply ripped off the veil.

It had better be wither Trumpism, or the US is in for a whole lot of hurt.

Cap

Owen Gray said...

That ugliness has always been there, Cap. Trump has simply made it harder to deal with.