This from a reader:
It would be very interesting to hear your take on Trump -- why do you think that his leadership of the country, despite obvious personality flaws, is less risky for the US and the world than a reasonable alternative? Yes, the ideological, thoughtless, and totalitarian far-left is dangerous, but isn't unprincipled, pugilistic and me-and-my-family first leadership any better? Is your thinking driven by "the lesser of two (or three) evils"?
1) I avoid talk of the lesser or least of evils. I prefer to speak of the better or the worse.
2) Politics is not theoretical; it is practical. There is political theory, of course, and it divides into political science (empirical and non-normative) and political philosophy (normative). But politics is neither of the two, despite the fact that politics is informed by political theory. Politics is a practical game! It is not about having the right views. That does no good unless one can implement them. And only a fool lets the best become the enemy of the good. Politics is a matter of better or worse, not perfect or imperfect. Politics is about accomplishing something in the extant suboptimal circumstances with the best implementable ideas.
3) And which ideas are those? The ideas, values, and principles of the Founders. They arrived as close as anyone ever has to a sound and viable political theory.
4) Now if you accept (2) and (3), then the choice is clear: you support Trump over Hillary, and Trump over Biden. For Trump, unlike Hillary and Biden, supports those values and not just with words. He proved his support for them in the teeth of vicious opposition by pseudo-cons and leftists alike in his four years as POTUS. A long list of his accomplishments could be inserted here. To mention just one, and a very important one: the SCOTUS appointments.
5) If you complain about Trump's character, I will agree that he is flawed but go on to point out that the same is true of Hillary and Biden. Character-wise, the three are on a par. The difference is that Hillary and Biden are professional politicians deeply practiced in the arts of deception: mendacious to the core, they know how to hide their flaws, faults, and foibles. Anyone can see that Biden is a fraud and a phony rooted in no principle except that of the promotion of himself and his family's interests. The same goes for Hillary to a lesser extent. Trump, on the other hand, crudely lets it all hang out. He tells you what he thinks. He is blunt, brusque, boorish, and sometimes pointlessly brutal. (I am thinking of that nasty slur he hurled against Carly Fiorina.)
6) What decides the question for me is that Trump alone supports the American system of government whereas this is plainly not the case with Hillary or with Biden who is the puppet of puppet masters out to undermine the American system. That should be blindingly evident to anyone who has been paying attention.
7) There comes a time when a corrective is needed, an outsider self-powered, un-owned, and unafraid to kick the asses of the Demo Rats to his Left and expose the fecklessness of the cuckservatives to his Right. A corrective and a clarifier. No more of the usual Left versus Right. The battle for the soul of America is now a contest between the borderless globalism of the greedy elites and an enlightened nationalism, populist and patriotic. Hillary/Biden versus The Donald, to personify it.
Here:
Describing Wilkes and two of his allies, Walpole wrote, “This triumvirate has made me often reflect that nations are most commonly saved by the worst men in [them].” Why? Because, he concluded, “The virtuous are too scrupulous to go the lengths that are necessary to rouse the people against their tyrants.”
Until the coming of The Donald, that had certainly become the case in recent American politics. Until the Orange Menace loosed the fearful lightning of his terrible swift tweets, the “virtuous,” rather battle-fatigued traditional conservative movement—even when controlling both houses of the Congress—had been out-shouted and outmaneuvered by the unholy alliance of a Left-dominated, morally nihilist pop culture and educational establishment, and what is laughably referred to as the “mainstream” media, all nudging an increasingly radicalized Democratic Party further and further to the left.
"despite obvious personality flaws". This idea and its bruiting-about is the thing that has most consistently bothered me since 2016.
what, precisely, are these personality "flaws", and how are they "obvious"?
and if no one presents themselves for office who possesses this requisite, angelic moral character.....what then? anarchy?
cometh the hour, cometh the man.
i suspect that there's an unreflective connection in these peoples' minds between "good character" and "good governance/policy". but it matters not one whit: "how are we living?" is the litmus test.
and we're living impoverished lives.
i would rather have a boorish, uncultured Trump who left me alone, than some high-tea-having piece of s**t who threatened my arrest for thinking bad thinks.
Posted by: john doran | Sunday, January 23, 2022 at 05:49 AM
On the question of Trump's character, I go with David Horowitz response to, I think, Jonah Goldberg. Character is contextual. A man might be eminently scrupulous and professional as a surgeon, but a lousy father, and vice versa. Trump, for whatever perceived flaws in his personal life (many overwrought, but still), he is a politician and it is a mark of his good character as a politician that he followed through with energy and a will to achieve all of his campaign promises in the face of extreme opposition from both Left and Right. And he largely succeeded. Even Rich Lowry wrote a piece acknowledging this at one point. And, curiously, part of the appeal of Trump to the 75 million voters (!) he attracted is that he comes across to the electorate as the most authentic politician. Sure, he engages in rhetorical hyperbole and self-promotion, but that does not mask the fact that he wears his convictions and political goals on his sleeve. He is an open book, with no obvious political agenda except what he says he wants. This is quite startling and noticeable in a politician, especially given the behavior of that class the last 30 years. Finally, both pre-political and political, he has always been a man of action; he wants to accomplish things, not just talk about it. He never wanted to be just a 'PR' real estate developer, although PR is a fundamental part of that trade. Nor did he want to be just a President who gets re-elected because he had good talking points. He had things he wanted to do and his goal was to do them. This too is a mark of his good character as a politician and President.
Posted by: Tom Tillett | Sunday, January 23, 2022 at 06:31 AM
Thanks for the comments, gentlemen. I find nothing to disagree with.
If Trump gets another shot, one would have to be a hate-America leftist not to vote for him. I am not aware of any Democrat worthy of the presidency.
Posted by: BV | Sunday, January 23, 2022 at 07:15 AM
Hi Bill
Just saw your response regarding Trump -- thank you very much for taking the time!
I understand your considerations better now & agree on many points starting with the axiom of politics being practical rather than a theoretical and intellectual affair. Expecting a moral saint and a logician to perform well as a head of state -- without also possessing a strong and pragmatic character -- is childish thinking.
I am most concerned however with the ability of Trump to withstand the temptations of power and his proven weakness in picking up advisors and working with them even when they are critical of his vision of the matters. Responsible leadership requires both qualities. His frequent firing show his poor aptitude as an executive manager, his frequent recourse to litigation fuel further my doubts in this regard. On the other hand, the alternatives -- Biden and Hilary -- are indeed no better.
The bottom line is I wish the best to the US as the carrying pillar of the West. I'll post in comments if I'll have anything more significant to say on this subject.
Best,
Dmitri
Posted by: BV | Sunday, January 23, 2022 at 07:18 AM
Dmitri.
You are welcome to post any further thoughts you have.
The USA is indeed the main load-bearing pillar of the West -- the rest of the Anglosphere having gone crazy and 'woke' -- but the USA is in deep trouble, overextended abroad, and collapsing under the weight of its own decadence at home. Dementia Joe is the perfect symbol of our decline.
Posted by: BV | Sunday, January 23, 2022 at 07:23 AM
John Duran described the same situation we are experiencing in Brazil.
Posted by: Samuel | Sunday, January 23, 2022 at 08:49 AM
Bill,
One point I must raise. You say, "The USA is indeed the main load-bearing pillar of the West -- the rest of the Anglosphere having gone crazy and 'woke'".
But ironically Wokeness is a disease that originated in America and has rapidly overtaken the UK and Ireland. It is a product of the East coast Liberal "intelligentsia", overcompensating for their privileged lives. It is American's version of the Coronavirus.
But the UK and Ireland are far smaller and more homogenous in range of outlooks so it has rapidly taken over. America is much bigger and more diverse, with the kind of constitutional freedoms lacking here, which makes someone like Trump and his broad base possible
Karl
Karl
Posted by: Karl | Wednesday, January 26, 2022 at 04:48 AM