As of today’s date, ahead of the second televised debate among contenders for the Republican nomination for President of the United States, opulent New York real estate mogul Donald Trump stands head and shoulders above his closest rival, Dr. Ben Carson, according to most national polls that have most recently been taken. And, all the remaining 14 candidates are seriously behind the good doctor in their polling percentages. Allowing for how early all of this flip prancing is taking place (which is to say, it could change dramatically on short notice), it is prudent to consider what Trump’s candidacy portends for the presidential campaign in chief that will begin in earnest in early 2016 with the state primaries.
Trump is certainly not a new face on the national stage, having set hard-to-exceed pole marks for flamboyance, brashness, profligacy, and marital drama for a great many years. A textbook case of advanced narcissism (especially the element of grandiosity), he has once again exhibited his great gifts of showmanship and a sure talent for Svengali-like enticement. In just a few short months, he has adroitly and deftly tapped into the deep, chronic anger and frustration of the grassroots/Liberty Movement/Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, throwing them huge helpings of red meat on the hot button issues of illegal immigration, the Iran nuclear deal, and Obamacare. At the same time, he has created a quiet consternation in the establishment wing of the GOP, due in equal parts to his uncontrolled outré rhetoric, populist positions, and virtual insularity from the crucial need on the part of all other candidates to raise big campaign funding from lots of other people.
If Trump were a true conservative, with a long record of standing up stoutly and consistently for traditional American ideals and sensible Freedom-focused policies, his entry into the 2016 presidential sweepstakes might have been welcome news, especially in a field so lousy with conventional, unctuous politicians. However, as is now well remarked in the media, he is certainly no one’s true conservative, having contributed financially to the coffers of Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, advocated for higher taxes on the wealthy, and orchestrated the offensive use of eminent domain for his personal gain. Indeed, because integrity in public life continues to have real meaning for the American Right, his claim from the first debate’s podium that his modus operandi is basically to buy adherence to his schemes and desires from anyone necessary is a telltale sign of what his governing-style-to-come will be.
Is Trump competing for the GOP nomination for his own self, or may there be an even darker intentionality lurking? Is it possible that he is really engaged in executing a strategy hatched clandestinely with Ms. Clinton and her backers to occupy the candidates’ stage long and loud enough to preclude a real conservative from getting enough media attention and traction to secure the nomination–thereby ensuring the continued reign of the Washington elites who favors ever-burgeoning Big Government and globalist policies? At this point, we simply cannot say, based on any direct, verifiable evidence.
But if Trump is indeed a Trojan horse, injecting himself into the GOP field as a siren for a large cohort of true conservatives, then all American patriots will lose. Why? Because, if he then goes on to win the general election, he will certainly side with the statists on many, if not most, key issues. Alternatively, if he ultimately misses getting the GOP nomination, he can still–and likely will–act as a spoiler in the general election by running as a third-party candidate, in spite of the Republican National Committee’s risible gambit this past month to corral him by public pledge into supporting whomever the eventual nominee will be, if it’s not him.
In all events, Trump is an authoritarian personality who is ostentatiously and relentlessly over-enamored of himself. He cannot be trusted to be an honest stalwart for what he claims are his conservative values, especially after having spent his adult life apparently purchasing people’s obedience, which he not only freely admits but glories in. America’s Founders knew his type well from Rome’s and Europe’s legacy of usurpers and absolute monarchs, which is why they enshrined constitutional federalism and a national separation of powers. They knew well that there would be an eternal need to frustrate the ambitions of arrogant and designing men who managed to take the nation’s helm. Thus and so, what America manifestly needs today is a true respecter of the genius of the U.S. Constitution–particularly its restrictions, emphases, and allocations of governance powers–to right our ship of state. As a guy whose perennial stock in trade has been unrelenting wheeling and dealing for his own ego aggrandizement and financial enrichment, Trump is simply not such a man.
As for the likely opponent the GOP’s eventual presidential nominee will face, the smart money may soon no longer be on Hillary Clinton. With the recent news flash that her private e-mail server may not, after all, have been irremediably cleansed of all of her supposedly “private” messages–and that such “lost” messages might ultimately be reclaimed–her days as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee seem now to be numbered. Any substantive revelation of criminal corruption by her while serving as Secretary of State could doom not only her own electoral prospects but those of her closest competitor for the Democratic nomination, the avowedly socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is equally, if not even more, eager to surrender America’s national sovereignty and security.
So, watch for former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg to be “drafted” into the race for the Democratic nomination. With his solid statist credentials as a rabid gun-banner and dietary martinet, Bloomberg’s authoritarian predispositions are on a par with Trump’s. Moreover, with a net worth in the realm of $32 billion, Bloomberg could very easily match Trump’s self-funding prowess in any race for the White House. Should such a “draft” happen, the presidential race would then become a battle of a brace of plutocratic Titans–both bizarrely insulated from any need to seek funding or creditable support from other citizens–to see which one will have the privilege of bending all Americans to his iron will in the drive to create a “better” nation.
After which, very sadly, the natural rights of We the People to alter or abolish our government and institute a new one, as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, may well become much more attractive to the commonweal–and more likely to be activated. Whether that works to incite a convention of the states under Article V of the Constitution or some other, more dramatic activity remains to be seen.
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security.”
May we clearly, consciously rue that day ever arriving, in advance. Much better that Americans should work in the coming months to nominate a genuine, constitutionally conscious American nationalist in 2016 to run and win the presidency on the Republican ticket. All Americans will come to live, eat, sleep, and prosper better, more happily, and longer–not to mention more safely and peacefully–as a result.
William Pippin
The Rational Empiricist