Why Does Trump Go On (and on and on)? [Hint: It's not just his shtick]
"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August, 2018)
Of course, I tried to get the instantly famous "Trump mug shot" for this space, but could not manage it electronically. However, the day it was taken and published, I had this to say about it on Twitter: "This one has 'comin' to get 'chu' ' written all over it. He must have practiced for hours to get it just right --- for use in campaign posters, his (and others') websites, and other campaign advertising. Sure is a scary picture --- NOT. It's a caricature." And indeed, by the next day the "campaign stuff" was already up on line, ready for sale.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Indeed, why? He only got to be President in 2016 with a "little" help from his friends. He did run a campaign based on racism and xenophobia (see below) which attracted the core of those folks who now form his MAGA base, and got a lot of votes for so doing. But he did get significant help from elsewhere, namely Russian interference (Mueller Report-plus) and good old Jim Comey, who gave the election to Trump on a silver platter with his very short-lived (first, "we're looking [at a laptop{!}]" then, oops, nothing there, sorry") pre-election "Hillary" investigation. Of course, Trump then rewarded Comey by firing him for his "mis-handling" of the original Trump-Russia-connection investigation as well as the "Hillary-Clinton-email-controversy."
Trump accomplished little of substance during his presidency other than engineering a huge tax break for the wealthy and making lots of noise about "the Southern border." (Of course, he actually did nothing to solve that problem --- which, one should say, is so intractable that even the well-intentioned Biden Administration has been able to do little about it either. That is because of course it begins with unstable-to-miserable conditions in a variety of Latin-American countries over which no U.S. Administration has much control). Trump also ran up the largest Federal deficits in U.S. history. So, the answer to the question "Why Trump?" cannot relate to any positive accomplishments.
There are three primary reasons for "Why Trump?" They are obvious to many observers, but well worth repeating. First is the "stolen election" meme which actually goes back to the 2016 campaign. Remember, he refused then to say that he would accept the result of the election if he lost. He said the same thing throughout the 2020 campaign. It is hard to know just how much Trump knows (or knew) about a major propaganda theme of the German Nazi Party: " 'The Stab in the Back,' of course carried out by the dastardly German Social Democratic Party."
As it happened, back in 2014 that "dastardly party" had voted for "war credits" for the Prussian Emperor's government the outset of World War I. After the Empire lost the war, the same party helped to crush a communist uprising in 1919). But when the truth does not serve the long-term interests of the Right, they just abandon it [sound familiar?]. So the Nazis nurtured the myth of the "Stab in the Back, engineered by the Social Democrats and "The Jews [check out the images]" not only until they took power on Jan. 30, 1933 but on into the first five years or so of their rule. And so, the "Stop the Steal" myth goes on as well.
Second, very well-known but again very well worth repeating, are the principal themes on which Trump ran in 2016. Remember, Trump did not propose any major new programs. There was a list of ten (some here with brief comments).
1.'Build a wall' and make Mexico pay for it; 2. Temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States; 3. 'Bring manufacturing (jobs) back'; 4. Impose tariffs on goods made in China and Mexico (he did impose some tariffs; apparently wanting to re-create "Smoot-Hawley," a major factor in causing the Great Depression, he is presently doubling down on this one); 5. Renegotiate or withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement and Trans-Pacific Partnership (he did get the former renegotiated and withdrew from the latter, which, as it happened, had Obama's name all over it); 6. 'Full repeal of Obamacare' and replace it with a market-based alternative; 7. Renegotiate the Iran deal (he did leave the Iran "nuclear agreement" [just like Sen. Ted Cotton wanted to do right from the time it was announced --- and before he possibly could have had the time to read it]; 8. Leave Social Security as is (well, he's not THAT dumb); 9. Cut taxes (which he did on a grand scale --- for the wealthy; 10. 'Bomb' and/or 'take the oil' from ISIS (didn't do that, and didn't do much for the domestic oil and gas industry either).
OK. So, it's not his program(s), then or now, which account for his hold on the Republican Party. It is the substance of what he really ran on. First and foremost was the racism. In his famous escalator-announcement, he substituted xenophobia (which he also ran on, of course) for open racism. But anybody who knew anything about Donald Trump knew what he really meant at the time. But even he thought better of it than to say it right out loud at the time. But again, anyone who knew him knew exactly to what he was referring: the built-in family racism of his youth, his attacks on the eventually-proven-innocent "Central Park Five" in the 1980s, his leadership of the "birtherism" movement in 2011-12. In sum, for many of his base, personal racial prejudice, on which he opened his campaign, was emphasized by his relation to the Charlotteville Riots, by his reaction to the George Floyd Murder, and etc. It is still the most powerful force for those who are still with him.
Then it was the male chauvinism, which Trump made no attempt to hide. In fact, in the "Access Hollywood" tapes he actually promoted it. And in my view the answer to the question "Why didn't the 'Access Hollywood tapes' hurt him?" is that for some of the voters he was going after, male and female (yes there are some) male chauvinists, they actually helped him. Then of course there is one of his principal (indirect) achievements," the repeal of Roe v. Wade which was based (as I have written many times) on religious authoritarianism (so ironic for this particularly irreligious/a-religious man).
As for the for the "Stormy Daniels" matter, there is likely a male sector of his base that actually likes the fact that he was able to have an affair with that particular woman, even just after the birth of a child with his then new wife. As for the Insurrection, for many of his followers the principal problem is that it was not successful. As for the indictments, for his followers they are either marks of the "Weaponization of the Justice Department" (got to give a shout-out to whomever made that one up to describe a series of indictments for the violation of a broad variety of Federal laws), or marks of "RIGGERS" just out to get him. (Yes, he did use that term.) And of course the promotion of violence to solve political problems has been right out in front for him since he used it symbolically during his 2016 campaign speeches --- leading right up to "Jan. 6 was a lovely day" phrase which he uses over-and-over again.
But most significant for still "Why Trump?" is not "The Shtick." It is the extensive corporate base that supported him in 2016 and 2020, and still is doing so, even if some of them are slipping away. He could be doing all of his propaganda stunts. He could still be flaunting his racism, xenophobia, and male chauvinism. He could still be raising tons of money from small donors (of which, as is well-known, a significant chunk presently is going to pay his legal bills [by doing so is he setting himself up for more legal entanglements down the road?]). But if he did not have that corporate financial support, he and is campaign would be nowhere. Shouting alone does not win elections.
That sector is, of course, anchored in the petrochemical industry, for which he, if re-elected pledges to end all support for "green energy projects," and to open up unlimited oil and gas production/exploration. Much of his support is in the form of "dark money" --- the form of political contribution the Supreme Court created in the "Citizens United" case (you know, like Mitt, the "corporations are people," don't you[?]) that the Court recently strengthened, for the corporate interests.
A major out-in-the-open corporate driver of Trump-policy is the Heritage Foundation and its "Project 2025" (see Appendix I for further details). Its implementation would begin with the destruction of the Civil Service System, originally established in 1883, in order to make the Federal Civil Service somewhat independent from the Office of the Presidency. It was originally enacted in order to reduce the use of "patronage" for appointing Federal civil servants.
Trump and the corporate interests represented by the Heritage Society are not so much interested in re-establishing a patronage system (although they would like to do that too), as there are in being able to exert direct Presidential control over ongoing activities and functioning of various sectors of the Federal government which direct control they presently cannot carry out. The implementation of this program to eliminate what is functionally known as the "fourth branch of government" and bring it under the direct control of the President would be a direct move in the direction of establishing fascism --- what I have called "Republo-fascism" in the United States --- removing any civil service protections for government staff. And that's the principal reason "Why Trump" is exactly where he is at the head of the Republican Pack.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix I. Project 2025: Just one of the many reasons why the Republo-fascist Right likes him so much:
Project 2025 | Presidential Transition Project
www.project2025.org
This is the goal of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project. The project will build on four pillars that will, collectively, pave the way for an effective conservative Administration. More About Project 2025. All News >. Jun 7, 2023.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Project 2025': plan to dismantle US climate policy for next Republican Administration
www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/27/...
Against a backdrop of record-breaking heat and floods this year, the $22m endeavor, Project 2025, was convened by the notorious rightwing, climate-denying thinktank the Heritage Foundation, which.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Republican 2024 Climate Strategy: More Drilling, Less Clean ...
www.nytimes.com/2023/08/04/climate/republicans...
Project 2025, a conservative "battle plan" for the next Republican president, would stop attempts to cut the pollution that is heating the planet and encourage more emissions. 1794 Smoke from...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project 2025 Continues to Grow With 60 Partners Preparing for ...
www.heritage.org/press/project-2025-continues... HERITAGE.ORG
WASHINGTON The 2025 Presidential Transition Project reached a new milestone this week with 60 coalition partners now officially serving as its Advisory Board. The broad and diverse alliance is...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dislodging the real threat to democracy: The administrative state
www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/...
Several presidential candidates have pledged to dismantle the deep state, and the conservative movement's Project 2025 a plan to gut the bureaucracy by making it easier to fire federal ...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A blueprint for the next conservative president would limit ...
www.npr.org/2023/08/08/1192634090
The Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank, has laid out its own climate ideas as part of a wide range of policy recommendations known as Project 2025.