The Problem for Trump's Intellectual Heirs

[Celerity]

The “national conservatives” know what they dislike, but not what to do about it.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/09/trump-national-conservatism-conference-miami/671462/

https://archive.ph/ZxQby



Donald Trump will be remembered as one of the most consequential presidents in American history. On a political level, he attempted to overturn an election—an unusual enterprise for a president—and popularized the idea that democratic outcomes can be rejected outright if you don’t like the results. Oddly enough, however, Trump’s impact may prove more distinctive and perhaps even more lasting on an intellectual level.

Trump had an instinct that something had gone fundamentally wrong in America and felt that his supporters should be angry as a result. And he came to channel that impulse viscerally. That such an anti-intellectual president could provide inspiration for a distinct intellectual orientation is an amusing twist. The struggle to codify Trumpism and transform it into a working philosophy is under way, to mixed results so far. Earlier this week, self-described “national conservatives” descended upon Miami for a major conference of a movement whose members “understand that the past and future of conservatism are inextricably tied to the idea of the nation.” For them, the nation is a distinct cultural unit, whose independence and sovereignty must be jealously guarded against globalists, international institutions, and large-scale immigration. These are not neoconservatives or even just conservatives. For the national conservatives, the George W. Bushes and Mitt Romneys of the world are the problem. And they themselves are apparently the solution.

These partisans of the new right have the potential to push through a genuine reorientation of the Republican Party—not just the haphazard shift that Trump touched off. Because America’s winner-take-all electoral system practically guarantees a two-party system, to transform one of those parties will be to transform American public life. The problem for the national conservatives, however, is that they have defined themselves in opposition to something real but have not necessarily defined what they want to do about it.

Link to tweet

As president, Trump demonstrated remarkable flexibility and little regard for ideology. Self-interest trumped all. And it was his self-interest to draw a stark contrast with a Republican Party that was long oriented around the ideas of limited government, free trade, comprehensive immigration reform, and neo-imperial adventures abroad. Through bumper-sticker slogans, such as “America First” and “Make America great again,” Trump elevated the nation as a sort of transcendent political community. In doing so, he gave conservatives permission to think beyond the bipartisan assumptions—prioritizing the individual at home and globalization abroad—that had structured postwar American politics. And that consensus, if it wasn’t already dead, was clearly dying.'

snip

[dchill]

1. "Trump's Intellectual Heirs..."

Let's just leave it at that.

[niyad]

4. sooooooo glad that I was not drinking anything.

[AKwannabe]

2. Intellectual heirs????

Hahahahaha
Hahaha
Hahahahahahahahahahaha!

There is not one fucking thing intellectual about that growth! Hahahaha!

Fuck

[keep_left]

3. LOL, "intellectual heirs". The link to the "First Things" article was the...

...cherry on top of the shit sundae. As if anyone is going to give the least bit of credence to a nutcase radtrad "journal" that suddenly decided to clout-chase by sucking up to the Trump regime. As if that would somehow bring about their insane TradCath/Distributist/Integralist utopia. They don't seem to get Trump at all; Trump has no "thinking" other than making a buck, usually in the most crass and tasteless manner possible.

[Hortensis]

5. Lol, oxymoronic. "The tRump agenda" is another amusing self-contradicting title.

His agenda is all about "Me." The rest, "the agenda" items, are what power blocs required for their support.

Very dark humor, of course.

[Midnight Writer]

6. Exactly. He is a conman who is adept at detecting and exploiting the weakness in his victims.

The Republican Party should be ashamed of embracing, enabling and making excuses for this criminal.

[Hortensis]

7. They should... RW populist voters created the leader they wanted,

or as close as they could get with him, though. They're hoping to make him far more dangerous than he was when constrained by liberalism-based laws.

We really need to be afraid of the RW extremist powers who've managed to exploit and direct his weaknesses, and his voters', though. So should he and his voters be for that matter. People like these inhumane "governors" and those they're aligned with.