Over at the American Spectator libertarian Ross Kaminsky admits he was wrong about Donald Trump (he voted for Evan McMullin) back in 2016. Donald Trump has emerged as a "president of consequence."
So I got to thinking about why chaps like Kaminsky got it wrong, and why chaps like me got it right.
Nothing wrong with being wrong: it is impossible to predict the future. Everything we do when we look to the future is a leap of faith. And obviously Ross Kaminsky had no faith in Donald Trump. The reason is obvious: Donald Trump ran as a populist, and for a hard-core libertarian like Kaminsky or a traditional conservative populism is foolishness at best and the first step to totalitarianism at worst.
But now that President Trump has governed as a pretty mainstream conservative/libertarian we can see that the populism was in part a ruse. To win the election Donald Trump understood -- either consciously or unconsciously -- that he had to appeal not just to the normal Republican base but to another sector of the electorate that wasn't libertarian or conservative: the white working class.
Imagine that: to win an election you have to be popular.
Trump promised to Make America Great Again and to fight against the free-trade policies and the immigration policies that had brought the white working class low. And he promised to bring jobs back.
Now we doctrinaire libertarians and economic conservatives would argue, from our deep understanding of economics, that the way to Make America Great Again would be to lower tax rates and cut regulations, and we were troubled that Candidate Trump did not really spell that out, but just talked in generalities about a great tax cut and draining the swamp.
Let us assume that Donald Trump is not an idiot, but just plays one on TV. This Donald Trump would understand that, in order to bring the white working class into the Republican camp, he would have to de-emphasize the details of tax-cutting and regulation cutting, because the white working class has been fed lefty propaganda for generations about evil corporations that get tax loopholes and screw the worker and the consumer. The Republican Party has obviously failed in the past to sell the white working class on traditional economics, so Trump would have to soft-pedal the pro-business aspect of his agenda.
So Trump campaigned on Making America Great Again and assumed that when his tax-cutting and regulation-cutting hit the street they would provide enough of an economic surge to deliver on the basic promise of Making America Great Again -- by creating jobs and lifting wages for the average employee -- and never mind how he got there.
In that he was obviously right. The average voters understand bupkis about economics and tax rates and regulations. They just regurgitate catch-phrases, and most of the catch-phrases come from the left, thanks to the schools and the media. But the average voter does respond to an improving economy, and that response seems to kick in at about 3 percent growth per annum.
The other thing that Donald Trump has done that people like Kaminsky -- and many others -- do not like is the insulting and the tweeting.
Maybe so, but it has to be understood that the nice polite conservatism of George W. Bush and the establishment Republican Party has not worked. While we act all nice, with white gloves and all, the left amps up the insults.
After all, what could be more insulting than to call everyone right of center a racist, a sexist, and a homophobic bigot? Not to mention a hater and a xenophobe? Whatever may be the right and the wrong of left-wing propagands, a politician of the right cannot allow his supporters to be attacked and humiliated in this way. He must fight for his supporters.
Now, a lot of nice polite people don't like the Trump Culture of Insult. Of course they don't. It goes against the polite culture of the bourgeois middle class. But I argue that the default culture of men is the Culture of Insult that comes from the male honor code of courage under fire. And if politics is not a war of insult I don't know what is.
For instance, "Chuck and Nancy" have reacted to the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as the end of the world. Sen. Schumer (D-NY) has said that Republicans would "rue the day" they passed the bill, and Rep. Pelosi (D-CA) has warned of "Armageddon." Really? And Trump is supposed to smile sweetly in response?
In reality, the Trump insults are nothing like enough. What is needed is a full-frontal culture war on the left's neo-tribal identity politics from a solid cultural fortress that defends bourgeois culture, understands the problems of the marginalized, and drives past the educated elite's culture of creativity to something higher and nobler. Problem is that the genius needed to build that solid cultural fortress has not yet emerged from the brow of Zeus, and so we are stuck with guerrilla tactics, worrying at the flanks of the dominant left and keeping them off-balance with Trumpist insult tweets.
One fine day, we righties will emerge trailing clouds of glory with a religious faith that understands the meaning of life, the universe, and everything in a way that satisfies everyone: from the folks just emerging from rural idiocy into the immense challenge of life in the city; to the middle-class bourgeois that obeys the law, goes to work, and follows the rules; to the educated elitist that wants to do something creative with their life.
But that day is not yet.
Meanwhile, as Donald Rumsfeld said, "you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time."
You also go to war with the general you have, not the general you might want or wish to have at a later time.
So I got to thinking about why chaps like Kaminsky got it wrong, and why chaps like me got it right.
Nothing wrong with being wrong: it is impossible to predict the future. Everything we do when we look to the future is a leap of faith. And obviously Ross Kaminsky had no faith in Donald Trump. The reason is obvious: Donald Trump ran as a populist, and for a hard-core libertarian like Kaminsky or a traditional conservative populism is foolishness at best and the first step to totalitarianism at worst.
But now that President Trump has governed as a pretty mainstream conservative/libertarian we can see that the populism was in part a ruse. To win the election Donald Trump understood -- either consciously or unconsciously -- that he had to appeal not just to the normal Republican base but to another sector of the electorate that wasn't libertarian or conservative: the white working class.
Imagine that: to win an election you have to be popular.
Trump promised to Make America Great Again and to fight against the free-trade policies and the immigration policies that had brought the white working class low. And he promised to bring jobs back.
Now we doctrinaire libertarians and economic conservatives would argue, from our deep understanding of economics, that the way to Make America Great Again would be to lower tax rates and cut regulations, and we were troubled that Candidate Trump did not really spell that out, but just talked in generalities about a great tax cut and draining the swamp.
Let us assume that Donald Trump is not an idiot, but just plays one on TV. This Donald Trump would understand that, in order to bring the white working class into the Republican camp, he would have to de-emphasize the details of tax-cutting and regulation cutting, because the white working class has been fed lefty propaganda for generations about evil corporations that get tax loopholes and screw the worker and the consumer. The Republican Party has obviously failed in the past to sell the white working class on traditional economics, so Trump would have to soft-pedal the pro-business aspect of his agenda.
So Trump campaigned on Making America Great Again and assumed that when his tax-cutting and regulation-cutting hit the street they would provide enough of an economic surge to deliver on the basic promise of Making America Great Again -- by creating jobs and lifting wages for the average employee -- and never mind how he got there.
In that he was obviously right. The average voters understand bupkis about economics and tax rates and regulations. They just regurgitate catch-phrases, and most of the catch-phrases come from the left, thanks to the schools and the media. But the average voter does respond to an improving economy, and that response seems to kick in at about 3 percent growth per annum.
The other thing that Donald Trump has done that people like Kaminsky -- and many others -- do not like is the insulting and the tweeting.
Maybe so, but it has to be understood that the nice polite conservatism of George W. Bush and the establishment Republican Party has not worked. While we act all nice, with white gloves and all, the left amps up the insults.
After all, what could be more insulting than to call everyone right of center a racist, a sexist, and a homophobic bigot? Not to mention a hater and a xenophobe? Whatever may be the right and the wrong of left-wing propagands, a politician of the right cannot allow his supporters to be attacked and humiliated in this way. He must fight for his supporters.
Now, a lot of nice polite people don't like the Trump Culture of Insult. Of course they don't. It goes against the polite culture of the bourgeois middle class. But I argue that the default culture of men is the Culture of Insult that comes from the male honor code of courage under fire. And if politics is not a war of insult I don't know what is.
For instance, "Chuck and Nancy" have reacted to the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as the end of the world. Sen. Schumer (D-NY) has said that Republicans would "rue the day" they passed the bill, and Rep. Pelosi (D-CA) has warned of "Armageddon." Really? And Trump is supposed to smile sweetly in response?
In reality, the Trump insults are nothing like enough. What is needed is a full-frontal culture war on the left's neo-tribal identity politics from a solid cultural fortress that defends bourgeois culture, understands the problems of the marginalized, and drives past the educated elite's culture of creativity to something higher and nobler. Problem is that the genius needed to build that solid cultural fortress has not yet emerged from the brow of Zeus, and so we are stuck with guerrilla tactics, worrying at the flanks of the dominant left and keeping them off-balance with Trumpist insult tweets.
One fine day, we righties will emerge trailing clouds of glory with a religious faith that understands the meaning of life, the universe, and everything in a way that satisfies everyone: from the folks just emerging from rural idiocy into the immense challenge of life in the city; to the middle-class bourgeois that obeys the law, goes to work, and follows the rules; to the educated elitist that wants to do something creative with their life.
But that day is not yet.
Meanwhile, as Donald Rumsfeld said, "you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time."
You also go to war with the general you have, not the general you might want or wish to have at a later time.
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