History's Greatest Con Man, Redux
"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August, 2018)
Fred Trump in the 1980s. It's all his fault, literally and figuratively.
(Image by Wikipedia (commons.wikimedia.org), Author: Gotfryd, Bernard, photographer) Details Source DMCA
I have previously characterized Donald Trump as "History's Greatest Con Man." As he begins his next quest for the Presidency of the United States, he is again running on an update of his Greatest Con: that he is somehow qualified to be President, again. Of course, it was a con the first time. Since it worked for him then (with a little help from the Russians --- see the Mueller Report, and the then FBI Director James Comey) he is running it again --- and why not?
Let's see how this has played out and will play out again in terms of policy (that is if, faced with an increasing number of criminal indictments and possible convictions, he doesn't flee the country while he is still able to do so):
1. * There's the promotion of racism, xenophobia, and white nationalism.
2. * There's the frequent name-calling in re opponents.
3. * There's the "our nation must be great again," (as is well-known now abbreviated as MAGA).
4. * He continues to reveal, everso carefully, a sly anti-Semitism.
5. * There are vague promises of a great future, without telling much about exactly how he plans to get there.
6. * There's the ample use of the Big Lie Technique (e.g., concerning the results of the 2016 election).
7. * He doesn't embarrass.
8. * Expanding oil and natural drilling, while shrinking the National Park system.
9. * Continue the appointment of Federalist Society judges to the Federal bench.
10. * Expansion of tax cuts for the rich (although he will not talk too much about that one [sic]).
So here are the Top Ten. Of the World's Greatest Con Man. Redux. "But why do you say 'redux?'" you might ask." Because this list is drawn from the first-ever column that I wrote on Trump, entitled: "Hair Trump or Herr Trump?," published on October 2, 2015.
Yes, the man does not change, has not changed, and never will. It is very important for both his opponents and his allies/supporters to recognize this. If Trump were ever to get back into the White House, he would bring with him nothing new in either strategy or tactics, except that if anything it would likely be worse, because he would clearly be aiming this time around to openly establish a dictatorship (see the discussion of "Schedule F" below).
How do we know this, that is that nothing has changed for Trump, for sure? Because of the "Town Hall" which was brought to us courtesy of CNN. As is well-known, there has been much criticism of CNN for giving Trump the kind of platform they gave him. I do not agree with that position. Whether or not what actually happened was CNN's intention, what actually did happen is that Trump took his political clothes off in public (which is course is an even nastier sight than it would be if he had really had taken his clothes of in public, or even a bit them as he did, according to the conclusions arrived at by the jury's verdict, in the E. Jean Carroll case). In so doing, again, he revealed that he has absolutely nothing new to offer the U.S. public. But even though he has never won the popular vote, he is running nevertheless, and will be until he is overtaken by one set of events or another (like [a] starting to lose primaries {yes, it could happen}, or [b], as mentioned, deciding to leave the country).
Now it should be pointed out that this man has major ruling class support. While some elements of that class believe that they can continue to control the levers of State Power through the so-called "democratic process," others believe that only some form of U.S. fascism will allow them to do that for the foreseeable future. Ergo, Trump, who, as noted, has made it very clear, to those who listen closely, that this time around his primary political aim would be to establish a U.S. dictatorship, with him as dictator.
A major element of this plan would be the implementation of his "Schedule F," which would in one way or another repeal the Civil Service Act of 1978 and replace it with a Federal government bureaucracy totally loyal to Trump as President. (It should be noted that this is exactly what the Nazis did when Hitler took power as Chancellor of Germany in 1933. It should also be noted that this major Trump/Repub. policy proposal was not dealt with in the Town Hall [at least in the major parts that I watched].)
Further on Trump's major campaign theme this time around, that he actually won in 2020, my suspicion is that he knows very well that he lost, in both the popular and electoral vote counts. But what History's Greatest Con Man would do with this issue for 2024 is exactly what he is doing. It should be noted that in the 2016 campaign until the very end he was claiming that that election would be stolen from him. For Trump, who, if he gets the Republican nomination for 2024 will be using it again, it is the equivalent of the "stab-in-the-back" meme (referring to how the surrender of the Prussian Empire at the end of World War I came about) that the Nazis used with great effect, both in the Weimar Republic elections, and even after they took power.
As for some other major issues/positions the man has taken:
*Trump's in-built racism goes back to his "birtherism" campaign of 2011-12. This has of course not changed, and since it is built into his bones going back to the "Central Park Five."
*He proposes to "Keep Medicare and Social Security." How he plans to do this without raising taxes on those who can afford to pay (which indeed is the only practical way to do both) he doesn't' say. He does produce to reduce Medicaid expenditures.
*Without specificity, he wants to get rid of all kinds of regulation, something he tried to do in his first term with limited success.
*As for guns, he is for generally less, not more, regulation, although from time-to-time he likes to make believe that he is for some sort of meaningful gun control.
*We will not spend much time here dealing with Trump's claim that "Jan. 6" was "Pelosi's fault." He has, of course, called it a "beautiful day," and claimed that Vice-President Pence could have sent the reported electoral votes back to [certain] states for some sorts of recounts (a procedure [supported by Sens. Cruz and Hawley, one might note] nowhere to be found in the Constitution). He has said that he would pardon the Jan. 6 the seditious conspirators convicted in a court of law. Talk about fascism (as defined below.) On his attitude towards women in general, for example: he called his CNN interviewer "nasty;" said to E. Jean Carroll's attorney that he could not possibly have sexually assaulted either Ms. Carroll (or her attorney) because "she is not his type." He implicitly admits here that he could/would assault women if they were "his type." (Of course, see the "Access Hollywood" tape.)
*On the repeal of Roe --- for which he took the major credit which in that case he deserved --- at the CNN Town Hall at least, he refused to say whether or not he would support a legislated national abortion ban. He did claim that the Roe Doctrine had allowed/promoted late-term abortions. It did not --- it focused on legal abortion and the "time of viability," generally considered to be at 2024 weeks of gestation. As for his ranting about "late term" abortions, they occurred only in certain states, under local law, and were undertaken either to save the life of the mother or to avoid a potentially difficult delivery of a fetus with no known chance of survival. But Trump does have that sense of drama (actually suited more to 19th century Italian opera that 21st century U.S. politics).
*With no evidence whatsoever, Trump holds that antifa and BLM are mass killers.
*He said in the Town Hall that he could settle the Ukraine war in 24hrs., but did not say how he would/could do it (except perhaps by handing victory to the man who would "Make the World Safe for Plutocracy". Of course, we do know that Trump was impeached for attempting to extort certain behaviors from Ukraine.
*In any of the upcoming legal processes being undertaken with him as a central figure --- Indicted? --- Convicted? --- he will have one response: "Political Witch Hunt."
*Finally let's get to "The Great Replacement Theory" which lies at the basis of Trump's Border/anti-immigration-in-general-but-especially-of-Latin-Americans policy. Numbers of political observers hold that this position/policy held not only by Trump, but also by many Republicans in general, is something new. That is that there is some plot somewhere to replace the "regular Americans" with (esp. non-"white") immigrants who will somehow "take over the country." Numbers of political analysts hold that the "theory" is something new, both to the Republican Party and for Trump.
That is hardly the case, and it is very important in fighting both Trump in particular and the Republicans in general, that one version or another of it has been part of U.S. politics at least since Irish Catholics began immigrating here in significant numbers in the 1830s (that is even before the Great Potato Famine of 1845). The formation of the "American Party" (also known as the "Know-Nothings") in the 1850s was a political response to that immigration. One of its founders, the former President Millard Fillmore, became one of the marginal founders of the Republican Party in 1856.
Over the balance of the 19th century there was primarily Republican-led opposition to the immigration of, in turn: Germans, Italians, Chinese (picked out especially by the Chinese exclusion Act of 1882), Jews, and "Eastern Europeans," eventually leading to the Immigration Act of 1924. These legislative and discriminatory initiatives were all based on one or another version of today's "Great Replacement Theory." That doesn't make it any less discriminatory, but it does place it firmly in one the U.S.'s less-attractive traditions, as well as in the basic ideology of the Republican Party.
Finally, there are the more-than-one present and possible future criminal indictments that Trump is facing. Although as noted, I think that he would leave, with as much of his money as he could take with him, he could, as the Socialist Eugene Debs did in the 1920 Presidential election, run from prison. And he could conceivably be elected (especially if the Republican election-fixing operations that are now well-underway are successful). In that case, of course his first official act would be to pardon himself. But that's another story.
THE BOTTOM LINE (literally) is this: Trump has nothing new; Trump has never won the popular vote; and unless the Repubs are REALLY good at vote-rigging, Trump cannot win in 2024. NEVERTHELESS, the hammer has to keep hitting on the anvil: what Trump's record really is, not what he and the Republican Party would like to make it out-to-be. To repeat: learn the most important lesson Trump has to teach: ALWAYS ATTACK; NEVER DEFEND.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post-note: What is fascism, briefly:
"There is a single, all-powerful executive branch of government, in service of a capitalist ruling class that controls, for the most part, the functions of production, distribution, finance, and exchange. There is no separation of the principal governmental powers: executive, legislative, and judicial. There are no independent media. There is a single national ideology, based on some combination of racism, misogyny, religious bigotry and authoritarianism, homophobia, and xenophobia. There is a political party supporting the movement. There is a state propaganda machine using the big and little lie techniques. There may be a full-blown dictatorship, a charismatic leader, engagement in foreign wars, and the use of the mob/private armies to enforce governmental control.