Re: Trump's Faction

Whit, I did not say Trump was running a campaign based on patriotism. I was identifying the passion he was tapping into among the Republican base.

 In this, I am putting you might say the best face on the situation. It is clear that Trump's intention is to galvanize a nationalist/populist coalition around an America First agenda, whether that be immigration controls, international trade, or national security. And there is a vast gulf, in my opinion, between bonafide patriotism - which is a national good - and nationalism/populism - which is a national cancer. The former is a positive pride and self assurance that, whatever particular agenda the body politic undertakes, magnifies the civilizational gains of the Founding of this country around individual rights, whereas the latter distorts and ultimately undermines those rights.

Compare the universal admiration of a patriotic leader like George Washington with the worshipful idolatry of a nationalist/populist like Franklin Roosevelt, and you can begin to see the effects, beneficial and deleterious, respectively, on our politics. The former evokes the unum in E Pluribus Unum; the latter, E Pluribus only, and a bitter, divisive electorate, jockeying for power and favors from the Guvmint.

Trump's quasi Dear Leader style does bear watching. But that is part of my point: the patriotic instincts of the American public are there, Trump is tapping into them, and if we advocate strongly for our principles, I think Trump and Trump's style can be directed to enhance the 'good' instincts of the public, preserving what is best in America - its patriotism, love of country, and pride in our Founding principles.

And thereby put Obama's America with all its rancor, animosity, and divisiveness on the ash heap of history where it belongs.

Re: Trump's Faction

Soaring rhetoric, Whit. And I mean that in the best sense because it is in the service of the best cause.

But I think Ezra is onto something, something that I have not seen clearly expressed among the commentariat, which has tied itself in knots trying to come to terms with the Trump phenomenon. Talk about cognitive dissonance, Whit, they got it.

But let me not project my own cognitivity on Ezra's thesis; at least not yet.

Ezra you have the floor.

Re: Trump's Faction

Whoa, Easy. Patriotism? Trump is running a campaign based on patriotism?

I dunno....

Patriotism evokes to me a dignity that befits the object of patriotism: America as founded by the Founding Fathers. It evokes their sacrifice in a noble cause, a cause that held the world spell bound and continues to do so, a sacrifice that at the time it was made held no guarantee of success - quite the opposite. A revolt against arguably the most powerful sea-faring nation in the world and an army that in a few years would topple the great Napoleon?

Our Founders rolled the dice, embraced a truly profound cusp, and with boundless courage enacted one of the greatest moments in history - and defined forever, for me at least, what true patriotism is.

I revere our heritage, and have a hard time getting my head around your equation of the Trump campaign with American patriotism.

In short, I got cognitive dissonance here, Easy; can you help me?

Trump's Faction*

Indiana has spoken and Ted Cruz has suspended his campaign. Barring an awesome surge by John 'The Postman' Kasich, Donald Trump will take the GOP prize, for better or worse.

According to some, it will be the worser part: a northeastern liberal with a Dear Leader complex rivaling the Kims of North Korea, will become the new face of the party of Lincoln.

Well. As one who cannot be accused of being a Trumpster, I am here to advise everyone to calm down. The Trump Faction is not something new in Republican politics, nor is it unconservative. It is instead a strand within conservatism that has largely been abandoned by Republicans over the last decade.

The strand can be broadly categorized as patriotism, a positive pride in America, it's founding and its continuing importance in the world. It is a muscular loyalty to ''My Country 'tis of Thee'', the sense of triumph in ''USA, USA, USA'', and a basket of little reflexive social norms like the requirement that politicians must wear flag lapel pins.

This patriotic strand of Republicanism is so strong that it fairly leaps off the pages of some reputable social science studies, which indicate that any association with things like the flag or 4th of July parades will significantly influence people to vote Republican. Clearly, patriotism is not just a strand of Republicanism, but the strongest, most durable brand it has among the people at large.

What would cause the Republicans to abandon such a positive brand? Democrats, in general, and President Obama, in particular: there has been a fullscale assault on American patriotism from the Left, arguably beginning when Barack Obama tried to go without a flag lapel pin in the 2008 primaries. He failed to pull it off, but the Democrat's continued the fight nevertheless in the ensuing years, branding, ceaselessly branding, every display of patriotism as nationalism, Naziism, and/or xenophobia.They have been so successful that in many instances the display of the flag itself has been banned as some sort of Hate crime.

And thru all of this, the Republicans have been silent, acquiescent, as they have been on so many other Obama agenda items, unwilling to engage and fight for this most basic of American societal values: loyalty to this Country. Thus, the opening for Trump: to pick up on a major inflection of the body politic that crosses all traditional interest groups, men, women, blacks, conservative, liberal, young, old, middle, etc, etc, et al.

So, Trump is not some nascent demagogue, tapping the populist anger of a mob; he's just an opportunist, feeding the patriotic fervor of a people starved by their 'leaders.'

So, what to do? Stick to our principles and be loudly and unapologeticaly American, and we can both steer a Trump Presidency through the gate of liberty and limited government, and bring the people back to an America we can all be proud of once again.

And don't give up, don't ever give up.

*For a similar but not identical take, see also -Trump’s Faction by Henry Olsen, National Review Online.