What the Conservative Establishment is Learning from Trump
It’s become something of a sport for liberal-minded political journalists to wax poetic about why the conservative establishment — allegedly once a bastion of high-minded principles and Burkean traditionalism — so readily jumped on the Trump train, despite him being the very antithesis of the careful incrementalism and anti-radicalism of the old-school Right.
And while it’s certainly true that Republican grassroots abandoned Edmund Burke long ago, that alone is not an adequate explanation for why country club Republicans ceded the party to its most radical elements without putting up much of a fight — if any at all.
Obviously, one reason traditionalist conservatives choose to look the other way on Trump’s autocratic tendencies is the unique opportunity to radically transform the judiciary for generations to come by stacking the courts with young right-wing ideologues — something the Republican leadership, led by Mitch McConnell, laid the groundwork for through years of unprecedented obstruction and congressional sabotage during Obama’s presidency after the 2010 midterm massacre.
But I suspect there’s another reason as well. What if the upper echelons of the conservative aristocracy are using Donald Trump’s presidency to carry out a vast social experiment — one in which they study just how far they can go in squeezing the American people and pushing the U.S. Constitution to its limits and beyond? If that’s the case, what lessons have they learned so far?
Well, they have learned that it’s possible for an American president to: forcibly deport 11 million people, cage small children in concentration camps, appoint radical ideologues to lead every government agency, wipe out decades of regulatory precedent, hand themselves enormous unfunded tax cuts, openly enable and support white nationalism, attack and bully the free press, lie copiously, shamelessly engage in the most flagrant and brazen hypocrisies, politicize and abuse the powers of the DOJ, invite foreign interference in our elections, assault and corrupt intelligence agencies, call for insurrection against democratically elected U.S. governors, promote wild conspiracy theories, disclose highly sensitive classified information when it suits their political interests, and transform the executive branch into a monstrous favor mill populated with the surrogates of virtually every special interest known to man.
And despite all of this, Democrats won’t obstruct them in Congress, and the American people — ever priding themselves on their rugged individualism, anti-totalitarianism, and love of freedom — will indeed not rise up, but instead bow their collective heads and take it.
It’s long been a motif of American self-image that we more or less keep our political class in check through the implicit threat of revolution. After all, this very country was created through revolution against distant and unrepresentative aristocratic oppressors. Thomas Jefferson’s motto was “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” Second Amendment fanboys and girls routinely defend their love of guns by claiming we need them to fight the rise of a tyrannical government. Talk of revolution is common on both Left and Right whenever we don’t like whoever occupies the Oval Office.
But when push comes to shove, we do nothing. It’s all words.
Sure, we may have a protest here and a march there, but they eventually fade away — or are brutally suppressed (at least when it comes to civil rights and environmentalism) — and what we once considered extreme gradually becomes the new normal. We conform. That’s the sad truth of American society.
And that’s also the truth Republicans are no doubt learning from the presidency of Donald Trump.
Now, even as he calls for reopening the country — while his administration and medical experts know full well that COVID-19 casualties will continue rising exponentially for months to come — there’s little in the form of serious political warfare to shut him down.
Even though he has been spewing dangerous nonsense and misinformation from the bully pulpit daily, there are no institutional calls for his resignation or aggressive legislative opposition from the Democratic Party.
Despite the fact that the President of the United States is arguably advocating for genocide by virus — all so economic numbers might work in his favor come November 2020 — Democrats are still negotiating with Republicans on corporate bailouts, with little to no oversight on how trillions of U.S. tax dollars are spent.
Republicans are learning that the American people are essentially docile and easily manipulated creatures of comfort and that there is no sleeping revolutionary giant ready to jump into action — even as they plainly subvert democracy and funnel tax money into their own pockets.
They are learning that millions of Americans are yearning for a strongman leader and can be easily controlled and manipulated through right-wing media.
And they are learning that the opposing party doesn’t have the spinal fortitude or moral fiber to pose any kind of serious threat. Democrats are snoozing comfortably now that their guy Biden won the primaries, while the loyal foot soldiers of the MAGA base are out there in their SUVs with their guns, obeying Trump’s call for insurrection against state governments.
Even if Trump loses the next election, Republicans have learned that once back in power, they can essentially nullify the achievements of any future Democratic administration — without eliciting more than a few toothless complaints from congressional Democrats and a wave of resignation and nihilism from the Democratic electorate.
The Trump presidency has revealed some uncomfortable truths about America. Most importantly, it has revealed to Republicans that nothing really stands in the way of plutocratic supremacy in the so-called “Land of the Free.” The checks and balances are a myth — just like the alleged American revolutionary spirit.
In this sense, the Trump Era has already been an extremely successful social experiment — if you look at it through the eyes of the conservative establishment.
