Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

Trump Changes Republican Philosophy

In accepting the Republican nomination for the Presidency of the United States, Donald J. Trump spent 75 minutes delivering a speech that showed he has to practice using a teleprompter. The delegates cheered where appropriate, booed even louder the rest of the time, and the party faithful swallowed the feast of red meat without chewing much. However, Mr. Trump has also made some changes to the party's philosophy. If he wins, it will mark the end of the Reagan GOP. Nationalism will replace conservatism.

The main point in support of this thesis is Mr. Trump's reluctance to embrace free trade. Last month, Mr. Trump said in New Hampshire, "A couple of people in the Republican party say Trump is against trade. I'm not against trade; I just want to make better deals. I think it's great. I think having trade is great. I want to make better deals." He added,"But I want to make great deals. I want to take a deal that's faulty -- where we're losing hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars a year -- and make it good. Isn't that a positive thing? Okay? . . . . And if we can't fix them, there are consequences. We won't trade." In other words, he wants a better outcome from free trade. The market gives only one result. If one doesn't like it, one must tamper with the market system. That is not free trade no matter how much Mr. Trump says he likes it.

Then, there is the non-straight population. Last night, he said, "As your President, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology, believe me." The foreign ideology is jihadi Islamic terrorism. "And I have to say as a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said," he said. "Thank you." This may not seem like much, but one must recall that there is a section of the Republican base that believes non-straight people are sinners deserving death. This is the only demographic Mr. Trump seems to want to bring into the Republican fold that is not already in it -- this journal is glad to support those words.

When it comes to foreign policy, Mr. Trump starts from a completely different place than the last 70 years of American global thinking. He is on the record with a number of plain stupid statements about foreign policy. He will honor America's NATO commitments to the Baltic States, and one presumes other NATO member, only "If they fulfill their obligations to us." He has no problem with nuclear proliferation in the northwest Pacific. Moreover, he is happy to withdraw troops from Korea, "If we decide we have to defend the United States, we can always deploy from American soil, and it will be a lot less expensive." He ignores that it will cost time, which is the difference usually between victory and defeat.

Finally, there is the idea of small government. The Republicans are good at talking about shrinking the size of government, but they never seem to be able to do it. Mr. Trump is abandoning the pretence of shrinking the size of government. He wants to round up 12 million people and deport them. That will require significant government manpower and money. His wall may be built by Mexico (in some peyote fueled hallucination of a world), but it will have to be patrolled by Americans, which means a bigger headcount for the border protection agencies that will have bigger budgets.

This journal has a great many disputes with the ideology of the Republican Party as it has been to date, and this journal believes Mr. Trump's divergent views are worse (save the LGBTQ civil rights change, which again, is laudable). This journal views itself as humanist, globalist and believes market economics must be limited to prevent destabilizing mass inequalities. Neither conservative nor nationalist thought is palatable. However, they are not interchangeable, and the Republican Party is going to have to spend quite a bit of time deciding what kind of party it is going to be.

© Copyright 2016 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.



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