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Trump, Conservatism, and Me
Greetings, Gentlemen and Gentle Ladies of Ricochet. I’ve been away for a while, I know.
Some of you wrote to the editors to ask what happened to me and whether they should be worried. I was touched by that. You’ve heard, then, that I’ve been working on my book, which is coming along well. But in truth, that’s not the only reason I’ve been away.
About a week ago, the Blue Yeti, who also noticed my absence, sent me a message to ask if I was okay. I was on the verge of writing, “Oh, yes, I’m fine, I’m just working on my book,” but then I stopped myself and thought, “Why not tell him the truth? It is, after all, the truth.” And so I did.
I wrote back and said that I was horrified by Trump. That I’m heartbroken for my country and for what I thought were our ideals, our decency. That it seemed to me the United States was experiencing the political equivalent of a psychotic break, one that has at best turned America into the punchline of a joke, and at worst will end the American experiment altogether. That I was exhausted from arguing about Trump. That I’ve already lived through this presidency once, in Turkey — although it took years for Erdoğan to sound the way Trump already does — and didn’t want to chronicle this story twice in my life.
“I’m outraged by Trump and what’s become of conservatism,” I wrote,
I’m depressed by all of it and sad that I’ve devoted so much of my life to a political ideology that in the end looks as corrupt to me as socialism. This hasn’t seemed like an appropriate thing to share with our entire membership, so I’ve been keeping quiet before saying anything rash — either to our members or to you. But I’ve been feeling this way now for long enough that I probably just need to say it.
So the answer, really, is that I’m not so okay. I’m quite depressed. A large part of it is an overdue reflection about my role in all of this, and a realization that whatever I believe about politics, it has no place in the conservative movement as it now exists.
The Yeti asked if he could call me. We spoke for a while. He started by trying to reassure me that I wasn’t responsible for Donald Trump’s election. This on the one hand is obviously true; but on the other, I’m not sure I can escape the responsibility for this disaster that every American shares, whether or not we supported him or voted for him. We’ve all, together, created — or failed to do enough to prevent — the conditions such that a phenomenon like this might emerge. We all share some part of the blame for allowing our country to descend into nihilism and despair; we all contributed, in some way, to the hollowing out of civic virtue, to the eradication of gravitas and dignity from the public sphere, to the conflation of reality television with reality, to the dumbing-down and the commercialization of everything, to mindless and unprincipled partisanship, to the cultivation of the imperial presidency. We are all all in some part responsible, even if our only contribution was doing too little to prevent it.
And in my case, the contribution was greater. I didn’t mean to, but I did. Ricochet, after all, was part of a gullible media that offered Trump five billion dollars’ worth of free advertising because we assumed his candidacy was just a terrific joke and great for site traffic. “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS,” Les Moonves said. I can’t say our editorial approach was more foresighted.
I’m not so full of my own sense of importance as to believe what I write has much influence over anything, but it’s a fact that for the past few decades I’ve supported myself by writing by writing about, and for, politicians and audiences who called themselves conservatives. I believed I shared a set of assumptions and values with conservative readers, or at least, I believed their assumptions and values closer to mine than those of the American left. But it turns out that a substantial cohort of those people did not share my assumptions and values. And a significant number of them are now given over to isolationism, protectionism, nativism, authoritarianism, and sheer craziness. Or outright nihilism. Not to mention opportunism. I want no part of that.
Newt Gingrich, arguing that Margaret Thatcher was the model for the Trump presidency, recently buttressed this claim by allusion to my book about Thatcher, which made me cringe. As I replied in the American Interest, the idea is utterly unserious; that he could assert this is profoundly disturbing for what it says about how little the truth matters to anyone in this perfervid political climate:
I was glad to see my largely forgotten book mentioned, but at the same time I was baffled—because the comparison is ludicrous. Readers who doubt this may consult the online Thatcher archives, which contain every known statement made by Margaret Thatcher between 1945 and 1990; or take my word for it for $12.10 on Amazon. They will find nothing to suggest that Thatcher and Trump are similar in any relevant aspect, be it their political ideals, beliefs, moral values, temperament, style, experience, intellect, competence, decorum, or probity.
What does it mean, then, when a respected senior American politician makes this argument in a respected American newspaper? We’re not, after all, talking about an archaic figure known to us only through a disputed Delphic verse. Margaret Thatcher is very nearly a contemporary. She died in 2013. What she believed is as well known as the formula for the area of a triangle. It would be one thing if the newly Trumpesque Gingrich had in his article renounced Margaret Thatcher and her ideals. That would have been surprising, to be sure, but it would have at least made sense. But this is not what he did: He instead made his actual memories of Thatcher vanish in an act of mental thaumaturgy, and returned from his underground dungeon lair with a shape-changed new version of history.
I told the Blue Yeti all about this, and told him that basically, I’d prefer never to write about politics again. I’m exhausted with it, growingly cynical, and deeply pessimistic. When I finished, I expected him to say that he was sorry to hear it, and to accept my resignation.
But instead, he asked me to write about what I’d just told him, all of it. He said I wasn’t alone in feeling this way, and told me that more people than I realized shared my sentiments. I don’t quite remember what he said next, except that he seemed sincere in thinking I should write about this, and adamant that my point of view was one that should still be represented here. He said that if the Trump presidency implodes, or explodes, someone will have to make the case for classical liberalism and the vigorous virtues, since the conservatives who’ve eagerly hopped in bed with the Id in the White House won’t seem particularly credible after that. He suggested — kindly — that I pull myself together.
I figured he was probably right. “Pull yourself together and get back to work” is, usually, good general advice.
So, are there any more of you out there who are feeling like me? Or will I have to do this single-handedly? I will, I guess, if I have to, but it would be nice to know I’m not alone.
Published in General
Perfect. (Except, of course, that should be “lie” rather than “lay.” Yes, I am an out and proud grammar nerd.) I don’t like or trust Trump, but his appointments have soothed me, so I’m not as depressed as Claire is (or I once was). My prayer is that he listens to these solid advisors.
Another factor in my coming to terms with Trump is the sustained primal scream emanating from the Left. I knew they were crazy before, but I did not realize the extent of the psychosis. Those people should be nowhere near the levers of power.
I always get that one wrong but refuse to correct it for I, too, am mortal.
David Deeble just posted this, and I think it fitting.
I believe that is enough. I do not think President Obama was any less driven than Donald Trump, and his agenda is being laid waste, though he did–certainly–do damage to the country. There have been other populists in power in the past who seemed to me to be more formidable than Trump, and they, too, passed… even if getting their faces on money like the $20 bill.
I did not like Trump. I do not like Trump. But I did not like Clinton, and I think she was dangerous in her own host of ways.
Sooo… Yeah.
We work with what we’ve got?
This, for me, is the worrying part, Claire. I get that Trump is the result rather than the cause of a real mess. I also understand that Trump is shaking up a system that desperately needed it and, given where we were/are (culturally, politically, sclerotically) he might have been the only available tool to do it.
The question I have is whether, once Trump has done what only Trump could do (shame and confuse the MSM, slash regulations, appoint conservative SCOTUS justices, open up opportunities for school choice, et cetera) how does the genie go back into the bottle? Assuming Trump survives the present (or the next) scandal, four or eight years from now, how do we —Americans, that is—reconstruct a reasonably civil society?
As a police officer would say, distance is your friend. I have the benefit of physical distance from the District of Columbia, about 2300 miles. I also have some intellectual distance from the bright lights of Manhattan, the rest of the East Coast, and the West Coast. If the bright lights of urban centers are a mark of intelligent life then chicks under the bright lights of an incubator are rocket scientists.
I’m reminded of my late uncle who was finally roped into hosting an office Christmas party in his home. A guest told my uncle that he had never been to my uncle’s home. My uncle replied, that’s been no accident.
So take heart, the sun still rises in the East and sets in the West. One does not have to be intelligent to hold public office, a big ego will suffice. That holds true for those on both the Left and the Right.
Appropriately and proportionally.
I’m reminded of a day in my angst ridden teen years when I was uncharacteristically happy one morning and my mother wryly repeated her mantra to me: this too shall pass. It remains a good perspective — for both Trump supporters and detractors.
Kristol has come out in favor of a Deep State coup against the elected President. That’s despicable.
I’m afraid the American experiment was already well down the path to ending before Mr. Trump arrived on the scene. Under the protective dome of structural corruption and institutional sclerosis (to borrow a few great terms from Mr. Murray) our faux-two party beltway ruling class was constantly acting out charades for change while continuing to manage the consistent decline of our society and our liberty.
Sure, I would have preferred an arch-conservative Pied Piper to ascend to the Oval Office with huge majorities and lead this county back in the correct direction. And that might have worked but I suspect the left would be just as evilly defiant and the intraparty jockeying against that aggressive agenda would not be significantly different than it is now…and in hindsight, I suspect, their collective inertia would have been very effective in stifling the forces from even the most radical-yet-insider President from the faux-two party beltway system to modestly breach or, dare one even suggest, dismantle that protective dome.
[cont’d…]
[…cont’d]
While destined to be ugly and mocked and laughed at, the relentlessly disruptive President we now have is driving a process that will ultimately be very destructive…both from his deliberate actions and from the petulant resistance and thrashing about by the structurally corrupt and the institutionally sclerotic. The collateral damage may be significant but the destruction of that calcified Washington protective dome will create opportunity for real restoration after Mr. Trump. Maybe the last, best chance true American Liberty may have.
Whether We the People take advantage of that opportunity is quite another story.
Yes, work is the curse of the… no, that’s not right, somehow.
Whatever else he is, Trump is temporary. Let’s hope that he does all the good that he can before it’s time for #46 to bring in the clean-up squad.
Don’t get upset, @Hypatia, I’m only suggesting that maybe the next president won’t say horrible things about war heroes and whatnot.
Also: the project of re-building a reasonable, civil society does not have to wait for Trump to be out of office. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself and my friends!
Bill Kristol explicitly wished and hoped that the “deep state” would take Donald Trump out (i.e., force him from office.) That preference for the subversion of our democratic institutions is “far more discreditable” than insulting anyone (particularly a rude, insulting, and nakedly political creature.)
Feel free to offer up another Trump action “more discreditable.”
I’m with you, Claire. Maybe my Gary Johnson vote on an absentee New York ballot wasn’t enough to stop Trump, but we can’t all beat ourselves up that “we didn’t do enough.” Perhaps that may be true, but all we can do is move on and move up. For you to stop writing about politics is for one voice of reason, clarity, and conviction to be silenced, regardless of whether or not Newt quotes your book to make asinine arguments. Conservatism, the country and the cause of human decency need people like you. Civilization is not created or maintained by the crescendos and dramatic peaks that we read about in history books; it’s the continuous diligence of millions of good people doing the right thing and the best they can. Let’s keep doing the best we can, everyday.
The capital T truths contained in conservatism cannot be changed and do not die. If a segment of society denies those truths co-opting that label, we simply have to find another word for conservatism.
Many on the left see themselves as saviors of society and live their lives in anger and despair. I don’t think that’s a conservative perspective. Instead you acknowledge that you can’t save the world or any part of it yourself, and instead just do your best and be content with that effort.
What does this mean? Do you think that all people who had problems with Trump are elitists? My father was in the Army. My mother was a teacher. I went to Harvard on the Highway. (Actually, my diplomas are from two state universities, but the actual Haarrrvard graduates of the world wouldn’t put much stock in them. The first that I attended was actually mentioned as “low tier” in The Bell Curve, but I could afford “low tier.”) I waited tables to get through my BA and worked at a Piggly Wiggly to eat. After college, I still held two jobs for a long, long time.
Trump and Trump’s children are in the social sphere to which I believe you are referring. Per class, you did not choose a different leader.
My point?
All kinds of people supported Trump for a variety of reasons, some of them very good. All kinds of people opposed Trump for a variety of reasons, some of them very good.
I know no one–including Claire, I suspect–who doesn’t want Trump to leave the United States in a better position than that which it is in. But I believe there are people who feel his solutions to big problems sound a little… off.
Huzzah, however, to some of his cabinet choices. Truly.
Look on the bright side, Claire. At least the press has awoken from its eight-year coma and realized that its primary mission is actually not to celebrate, promote and cover for the president.
“Nihilism and despair” seems a bit over the top but I would agree to some extent with the above.
Where we diverge, however, is in thinking this “phenomenon” has just suddenly evinced in the personage of the current president. He is not the herald of an “eradication of gravitas and dignity from the public sphere” but a predictable result of the damage already done, primarily by two Democrats who habitually demeaned the office of the Presidency with both words and deeds that ranged from the merely classless to the criminal, while the vast majority of “mainstream” press, pundits and even people I know personally, all of whom claim to be intelligent and discerning, fawned, cheered, shrugged and giggled their giddy way to the polls to put them both in office twice, then attempted to continue the legacy with Hillary. Trump wasn’t my first (or even last) choice to try and stop that from happening but I’m certainly thrilled that he managed to pull it off.
I remember a friend asking me in college during the Reagan/Mondale race, “do you actually respect Reagan as a person? As a man? Not just as your party candidate?”
“Absolutely,” I said.
I can’t say that about Trump. I literally cringe a little and peer through my fingers like I’m watching a horror movie sometimes when he starts speaking . . . “please don’t say anything stupid, please don’t say anything stupid . . . ” but I’ll take that stress any day over the last eight years of constant bile rising in my throat during the latest fact-free lecture from our preening Narcissist-in-Chief. Trump’s personality may leave me cold but then, thanks to the previous president’s acolytes, “persona” has dropped considerably in my checklist of qualifications.
His appointments thus far give me hope, which is something I’d all but abandoned during the alleged era of “Hope and Change”.
This is just tiresome.
For crying out loud, Trump says,”The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no more” and you see nihilism?? He’s going to put Gorsuch on the Supreme Court and you see the end of the American experiment?
And here’s a funny kind of authoritarianism: there are brownshirts out there beating up members of the opposition, but it’s Trump supporters getting beaten up! Maybe he just hasn’t learned to do it right yet.
After all, he’s sending control of schools back to the States, and school choice to parents. Remind me, is that how authoritarians do it?
I’m not upset!!!!!! What makes you think I’m upset, Rev? ?
But seriously: Could we retire “hero”? All trump did was point out the facts about McCain:”He’s a hero because he was captured.”
Civility is overrated. I’ve written about this for our bar magazine. It’s ludicrous to think we can pretend we don’t have an adversary system-and that’s as true in politics as in law. When civility becomes a primary goal, what happens, as we’ve seen, is that the most sensitive among us get to decide what everybody can and can’t say.
I’m not sure I read the comment (on this thread) where Trump supporters were called violent thugs, but I definitely find the treatment of many Trump supporters abhorrent.
I have never liked Trump, and I honestly still don’t. But he is the president, and I think the extreme vitriol spilling over onto his supporters is as horrific as anything I’ve ever seen in politics in my lifetime.
Truly, I left Facebook when a friend of mine in graduate school said it was one’s “duty” to shame Trump voters. What?????
I find such thinking disgusting. And truly fascistic.
@trinitywaters, perfect comment. Wish I could like it more.
@claire, might I suggest you listen to Klavan’s podcasts and Dave Carter’s first podcast with D.C. McAllister as a start to help you understand. Maybe they can help you off this depression ledge. It has already been suggested you come back stateside and visit the hinterlands. Not NY or D.C., but Myrtle Beach or Knoxville. Read The NY Times (a former newspaper) with skepticism. I’m sure you do if you read Breitbart.
Well, my breakfast has arrived so I’ll leave it here. My last request is to please understand why some of us chose to vote this man in office. There have been several good comments posted.
Thanks for writing this. I agree with you. With similar feelings, I almost dropped Ricochet in January because of the predominant views that we have an obligation to support him and the true but now irrelevant fact that Hillary would have been worse. Unfortunately, we nominated the wrong candidate and he won.
Your voice is strong and very important in the long run. As a society, we seem to be committed to be unserious about politics. I do not think it will go well but there will be a future after the current follies (on both sides) have been tested and discredited. I hope you will continue and write for the Remnant.
Maybe the American Experiment has run its course. Maybe it hasn’t. But either way enjoy the ride. There are other things we can do with our time besides mourning. Our time is brief, and the best we can do is to continue to adapt to the changes as they come and try to steer events as we are allowed. Everything else has passed.
And as for Newt taking your book and twisting it out of context? Yeah, that’s Newt. Personally I’d write a healthy rebuttal to that one.
And on a personal request – I’d love to see you ply your hand at fiction again. Loose Lips was a terrific book.
Minor point of order: McCain was a hero not because he was captured, but because of how he carried himself once captured. As the son of an admiral, McCain was a high-profile POW and could have allowed himself to be used as a pawn. He did not.
Exactly.
Viewing American politics from thousands of miles away distorts one’s perspective. I watched the whole 2012 campaign from China. Come back to America and live among us. That will ground your perspective.
I don’t want to always read posts on Ricochet where everyone agrees, especially in a political climate like the one we have now. It is more important than ever that we allow room for every view, whether its on Ricochet or the college classroom, which has been a challenge lately. I also don’t want to be closed off from others who have more of a worldview. The elections in Europe and the sweeping changes that are coming with it affect America and visa versa. Claire – you may have started out writing your new book one way, and will end up with a much different product. Your perspective precisely because of your years in Turkey, as well as your past extensive research on Russia, Europe and elsewhere, gives you a lens that many don’t have.
Someone lent me a book called In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. It is non-fiction about a world lulled into comfort while evil gained a foothold. Both sides of our political life have evidence of evil gaining a foothold. Let’s keep learning from each other.
I loved this book though all of WWII gives me nightmares. I’d highly suggest it to anyone interested in willful blindness. That daughter! Oi!
Look at Europe @katebraestrup . While we deride it, after millions of deaths in two world wars, and an armed truce between Western democracies and communist dictators, they have regained some semblance of stability (possibly to lose it to a Muslim soft invasion, but that is another story). Stability and instability will always alternate, with, we hope, stability having more time on stage. But mankind, as a rule, values and will seek to regain stability.
Also, look at your list of what President Trump is doing. Do you really fear the person who is trying to return us to a government that respects individuals more than groups? The trip is rough, but the destination is worth it.
As for @claire, the best I can say is that she is being willfully blind to the dangers of the left. Looking at President Trump and seeing Erdogan, looking at America and seeing the Sharia-ridden unstable masses of Turkey, can only be explained by a desire to see the worst and ignore positive gains. No Trump is not conservative. He did not run as a conservative. I voted for him because he was the least damaging. And he has far surpassed what I expected. Insted of minimal damage I am seeing positive gains.
You’re horrified and outraged about what’s become of conservatism?! What’s happened to conservatism? Nothing. Trump was elected president on the Republican ticket — what does that tell you about conservatism? Nothing. There was no conservative on the ballot, there hasn’t been since 1984.
I am a white male conservative working as a professor (with tenure). Things have changed so much in the last 8 years that if I brought in the same speakers or said the same things in debates as I did 10 years ago, I’d lose my job. People with my views are always one lecture away from losing our job. If Clinton had been elected I doubt I’d have a job within four years.
So what am I supposed to do, be depressed because Trump isn’t ideal or even good? Should we have sat back and let Clinton win because the Republicans couldn’t come up with an ideal candidate?
If you want to be depressed, then be depressed about a country that elected Obama twice and almost elected Clinton.