It is common for presidential
primaries to be about change. Political
actors with a vision for America will often spend time and money in support of
marginal primary candidates who support their fringe views. While the candidate supported may not win the
nomination, the views of the non winner have often influenced the party
platform and ideological positions going forward.
What is different about the 2016
republican primaries is that a personality has “trumped” conservative
ideology. Instead of advocating change
within a party framework, legions of supporters have abandoned and ridiculed the
republican establishment in favor of this personality, Donald Trump. There is an intuitive feeling among Trump
backers that what traditional political leaders with strong views could not
accomplish, a strong leader who appears to think and talk like they feel, will
accomplish. Better to move forward with
a powerful leader than to get nothing done with a weak right thinking
ideologue.
The Trump philosophy was summed up nicely when he re- tweeted the well
worn quote: “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep”
just days before the Super Tuesday Primaries.
This statement is attributed to fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini who got the
trains to run on time in Italy by crushing all political opposition. Like Trump, Mussolini’s political slogan was:
“make us great again” in the hope of returning Italy to the glory of the Roman
Empire. Maybe like Trump, Mussolini saw
no need for inept coalition building after the electorate gave him an open
mandate to create order from perceived chaos.
If Trump sees himself as the flash
in the pan lion the rest of us must ask who he sees as the old and wizened
sheep. Getting things done through a
blitz of bullying and bravado at the expense of democracy is not an original
political doctrine. It is a path to
power most of us thought was buried at the end of the Second World War.
Another fascist leader famously said:” Make the lie
big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.” Adolf Hitler captured the imagination of the
German electorate as a straight talking bully with the big lie he could “make
Germany great again” and went on to destroy the world. Hitler unified disgruntled Germans by
attacking Jews and weak- kneed politicians.
Trump is unifying disgruntled Americas by attacking immigrants, Muslims
and weak-kneed politicians.
Those of you who are raising the middle finger
to the republican establishment in support of Donald Trump, in the hope of
returning America to the Promised Land, be careful what you wish for. Your candidate may soon be raising the middle
finger to our constitutional republic as he seeks to have his yet to be
articulated vision for America trump all others.
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