Re Trump's Faction
So, what's happenin', as they say in the vernacular?
Easy's patriotism argument is a gesture in the right direction. But it is more organic than that. Patriotism for all its nobility - or perhaps because of its nobility - is an aspiration, an ideal to be achieved. But the founding of this blessed country was not only an example of patriotism of the highest order, as Whit tells us, but also a congruence of cultural forces ingrained in the America colonialists by their peculiar history and traditions.
The Glorious Revolution in England some 150 years earlier that established true representative government as a political ethos; the sturdy self-reliance demanded of a people who literally had to hack their existence out of the wilderness; and perhaps most important of all, the uniquely American Protestant Christian emphasis on the primacy of Christian conscience before God, that issued forth as a commitment to toleration of religious and political plurilism.
All of this congealed to form a people that were quite committed to democratic reform, the popular will, the rule of law, and civil order, but extremely obstreperous and jealous of their prerogatives ... when the political hierarchy appears to be over stepping its proper jurisdiction.
And thus the American Revolution. So what connection do we find with that singular event of 200 some years ago to Mr. Trump?
Issues change, politicians change, people change, rhetoric changes, even principles morph and transmute over time. But culture has an inertia all its own that resists change. And this exceptional culture of the United States has been building up mass for some 200 years and will not go away quietly in the face of political challenges.
The American culture operates mostly on the visceral level; but it makes its appearance in response to specific political programs that enable it to express itself in the body politic. It is this that has bollixed up conservative pundits about the Trump Faction. Inasmuch as Trump is no true blue conservative, then his supporters must not be conservative and ipso facto, the people are not as conservative as we all once thought.
But this puts the cart before the horse; or better, it puts the principles before the passion. Conservatives are nothing if not principled, so much so that they actually think their principles are sufficient in themselves to motivate people. But life does not proceed purely en raison. There must first be a given passion in the culture to which reason might appeal, or more properly, convince to give vent to itself. In Platonic terms, the Charioteer can crack his whip all he likes, but if there is no snorting horse of Valor or Desire at the ends of the reins, then he will go nowhere.
The key is that American cultural passion generally finds its best expression in conservative principles and policies. This is so simply because conservatism is nothing more than a return to the Founding principles of this country, and hence it resonates profoundly with the culture that Founding nurtured. But it is not self-activating; you can't just stand up and shout "Liberty!" and expect to move the American viscera. You need leaders capable of articulating conservative principles, effectively communicate the same, all within the context of the current political moment.
That is what Reagan did so effectively. And notice that he did so without relentlessly invoking the Constitution or the Founding or Enlightenment principles of freedom per se. He did not give a history lecture. He spoke instead of policies and a future that would unleash the energy of the people to solve problems of his day, in ways that excited the populace. He himself was clear about what kind of country he wanted to bring back, and was well versed in the Constitutional scheme that needed to be reinstated. But he knew that he needed to move people. And he did; boy, did he.
There is the Republican/conservative problem we have had since Reagan in a nutshell. We have had no leaders capable of instantiating conservative principles in a robust policy prescription for contemporary problems. No one capable of tapping into the unique American cultural passions. And so we've wandered politically, finally falling exhausted to the mat in the failing Presidential bids of John McCain and Mitt Romney
Then Trump came down his escalator with a straightforward political program: build the wall, make better trade deals, spur economic growth, and quit entering into stupid foreign entanglements. His overarching theme was putting America and the American worker first, and it's corollary, winning once again.
Manifestly, there is nothing unconservative about this agenda. But manifestly, Trump has not attempted to back up his agenda with a political manifesto of American principles and ideals. Instead, he has offered his program as sheer red meat, to an electorate starved for something more than the bare subsistence on offer from the Republican leadership class. And hungry Americans have flocked to him, ravenously.
This, then, is the Trump Faction, visceral conservatives as only the exceptional American culture can produce. In this context, what has been startling is how truly conservative Donald Trump has remained - even after winning his prize. Principles, after all, are the guardrails of behavior when you are navigating twisty mountain roads of events, and most men uninterested in principles (which is different, be it noted, from being unprincipled) will lose their way as the rush of political events sweep over them. But our President seems to be clear and focused about the way forward, as evidenced by the way he has assembled one of the most conservative cabinets in the history of cabinets, to give but one example (See also Judge Neil Gorsuch).
The answer to this is that Donald Trump is culturally an American and as such is unmoved by the cheap rhetoric and anti-American tactics of the Left. He is no mental light weight as his adversaries think, but he is comfortable with his instincts and willing to give them their head, and those instincts are shaped and formed by the American culture he grew up in. And that culture, as I said above, is basically conservative, as conservative as was the Founding itself.
And that is why Trump has a Faction: like is attracted to like, and Trump is nothing if not authentically himself, and that self is American, through and through.
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