Donald Trump –
Patriot or Demon?
To hear the leftists, or liberals, or progressives, or
democrats, or socialists, say it, Donald Trump is literally the embodiment of
evil. He is the devil incarnate. He should be impeached and imprisoned. Why, you ask?
Well, while his enemies obfuscate the real answer, and cite myriad sins
and moral peccadilloes dating from Trump’s age five, the real reason they hate
him so much is because he beat them in the 2016 presidential election and
continues to rub their noses in their defeat.
This brash, outspoken, “in your face” billionaire New Yorker
is not your normal politician. He is
part businessman, part showman, part populist demagogue, who has harnessed the
populist and patriotic currents of mainstream America into a viable political
movement, and replaced traditional republicanism with an active, right wing
populism. For every derogatory editorial
by the New York Times or the Washington Post, or by the Krugmans or Reichs or
Blows of the left, there is a counter-swell of patriotism and pro-Americanism at
one of Trump’s rallies, broadcast by Fox News to over half of the real country,
and not only to the coastal and urban elites that the pro-left mainstream media
targets.
To those of us Burkean, Smithian, Kirkian Buckley
conservatives/libertarians, Donald Trump is an enigma and difficult for some to
follow, as evidenced by the sizable number of anti-Trumpeans in the
conservative community. Many of us,
however, dismiss his overtly roughshod personality, and concentrate on the truly
beneficial results for our country that he and his administration have
instituted.
It has to be obvious to any rational and honest observer,
that Trump’s removal of overly restrictive regulations on business and industry
is the main reason for the booming economy we now have in this country. Leftists will tell us that the recovery
started under Obama, (and it would have continued at a 1 ½ % rate under Obama’s
regulations, not the nearly 4% under Trump).
The left will continue to disparage and denigrate anything
beneficial that the Trump presidency has done or will do. They continue to try to convince all of us
that he is truly evil, and is destroying America. In fact, by coaching himself in the red,
white and blue mantle of patriotism, law and order, and conservative values,
Trump has slowed the leftist rush of radical cultural identity politics, and
preserved a little of our historical and cultural past. That does not mean that the cultural war has
been won, but it does mean that the headlong rush to outrageous and radical
ideas has been slowed a little.
It’s obvious that Trump is no saint. But it is also obvious to anyone who is truly
honest, that he is not the selfish, racist bigot that he has been painted by
the hypocritical left. The left cite
megalomania and narcissism as the reasons that Trump left his billionaire lifestyle
to become president, and to be reviled and have himself and his family dragged
through the mud by his leftist detractors.
That is a bit of a far reach. It
is much more likely that Trump has a true streak of patriotism to go with his
overly large personality, and that he really wants to redress the abuses and
ills he sees in our country.
I personally worked in New York City during Trump’s rise to
wealth and to public prominence in the 1960-80’s. I must admit that I was not a fan, since I am
not particularly attracted to Trump’s brand of public display. Having said that, and remembering recent
Washington politics, anything is better than the do-nothing governments of both
of our conventional political parties.
IMHO, let Trump and his brand of populism have their chance.
Ray Gruszecki
July 10, 2019
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