Trump is Not New

Just read an interview with Steve Bannon, Trump’s appointed Chief of Staff.  He went on and on about how Trump gets it, he is a nationalist, that the globalists eliminated America’s middle class and created an Asian middle class.  He claims this is new thinking.  He wants to re-shape the Republican Party to align with Trump’s view.  Bannon believes this is revolutionary, new and in the best interest of the USA.

Poppycock.

There is absolutely nothing new in such beliefs or in the strategies triggered by such beliefs.  In fact, they are the oldest beliefs in the U.S.  Isolationism, protective economic practices, nationalism have been with us from the very beginning.  Add to such thinking a dash of prejudice and the belief that somehow white males should rule, and you have the exact arguments made in the following settings: 

Prior to the Civil War such arguments were made by southern legislators regarding the economic impact of freeing the slaves.  Their sense of globalism was the entire US.  Their sense of nationalism was the southern states.  Read George Fitzhugh’s position in 1854 and it sounds like Trump.  They rebelled and they lost.  Human rights prevailed over provincial thinking.

In 1918 the Republicans in Congress voted against the Treaty of Versailles effectively rendering the League of Nations without power.  They were isolationists and nationalists and did not want any part of an international organization dedicated to resolving international conflicts.  Read Henry Cabot Lodge’s speeches in 1918 and he sounds just like Donald Trump.

In 1939 the US was very reluctant to enter World War II.  94% of the American public opposed such entry into foreign entanglements on the heels of World War I.  The height of this isolationism was embodied in the Neutrality Act.  Hitler attacked Poland in 1939.  America did not join the war until 1941 with the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Though Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, Republican opposition to entering the war in Europe was very vocal.  The America First organization espoused tenets of isolationism and protectionism that read just like a Trump stump speech.  This organization had 600 chapters and hundreds of thousands of members. 

And on and on.  Trump’s ideas are not new.  They are old.  And they have shown failure at every step of the way.  Plans grounded in nationalism and isolationism and scientific denial and the persecution of minorities have historically failed.  If we must endure another round of such efforts here and now let’s at least admit this is not new, this is not making America Great Again.  The Trump platform is returning to failed policies of the past.

Trump Won. What Lost?

I love America.  I love democracy.  I firmly believe in the notion that the citizens of this nation speak at the polls and the majority rules.  But I also recognize that belief is based on the assumption of an educated electorate.  Trump won the election, and in doing so made clear to us not only who lost the election, but what lost in the election.  So this morning as I reel in shock and pain, these things are obvious to me:

• Inexperience won over experience and expertise and knowledge.

• Bigotry and prejudice won over civil liberties.

• Fear won over reason.

•  “Right” think and “right” belief won over pluralism, openness and support of diverse beliefs and thoughts.

•  Anger won over understanding.

•  Reprisal won over forgiveness.

•  Dictatorial thinking won over democratic thinking.

•  Isolationism won over global thinking.

•  Past won over possible futures.

•  The US government as our enemy won over the US government as protector of its citizens.

•  Chauvinism won over liberation.

•  False economic assumptions won over reality.

•  Support for the few won over support for the many.

•  False campaign claims won over the truth.

•  Retreat won over progress.

•  Ignorance won over enlightenment.

•  Closed doors and hearts and minds won over open doors and hearts and minds.

The Trump Presidency begins in January with Republican control of both houses of congress.  For the next two years the full responsibility for the progress or failure of our nation, our economy, our standing in the world, and the status of the poorest among us lies at their feet.  We will learn, as we have so many times in the past, that such philosophy when implemented benefits the rich, hurts the poor, triggers global conflict, and accelerates immoral market tendencies over decency and human liberties.  I hope we are OK in two years and have a chance to fix the problems that are coming.  But that will be up to the voters.  Again.

Two Donalds

You may remember Donald Sterling.  He was the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers.  In 2014 he was taped without his knowledge making racial slurs against African Americans.  These were not public statements.  These were statements made during an argument with his girlfriend.  When the tape got out it was labeled “scandalous”.  Sterling was fined $2.5 million dollars and ejected from professional basketball forever.  Wow. 

Donald Trump can stand at a public podium, covered by all available news sources, and intentionally make racial slurs, make slurs against women, make slurs against the disabled, etc.  He is not fined.  He is not banished from politics.  He is selected as the Republican nominee for President of the United States.

Times change.  Do values?