WHAT IS “TRUMPISM” ?

The "Trumpster" at one of his Town Meeting Speeches
 

Trumpism is not a governing philosophy, it’s just one man’s love for himself.

 

A well know columnist recently wrote, “It is no longer inconceivable that Trump could win the GOP nomination — unlikely, but not impossible.”  Now that’s a frightening thought, but for now, the author is correct.

But if that’s really true, my question is, ”What is Trump’s coherent political philosophy that underlies his candidacy?”  In other words, what is “Trumpism?”

The reality seems to be that there is no coherent governing philosophy.  Trumpism is basically Donald Trump’s positive feelings about himself.  It's also his personal belief that he has the ability to govern the most powerful nation in the world.  It’s not the belief that those supporting him in the polls have in him.  It is just his belief in himself.

And we are all aware that no one is more in love with and has as much support for Donald Trump……than Donald Trump!!!!

As to what alternatives to The Donald the other GOP voters have?  Well, as long as there continues to be more than 10 potential GOP candidates for the voters to choose from, the party won’t be able to coalesce around a single or even a couple of Trump alternatives.  The polls will just continue to spread the party’s support amongst the many Republican candidates.

If we look back to the Republican’s revered Reagan Presidency, “Reganism” was where Reagan believed that big government was bad and needed to be shrunk.  Apparently, in “Trumpism”, Trump believes he is the one being chosen to “manage” the government as its CEO, not to shrink it.
 

But Trump doesn’t seem to understand that as the CEO of Trump Industries, he can make all the company’s final decisions.  As a corporate CEO, he is not required to work things out with an opposing congress or to deal with a US Supreme Court that may not find his decisions as being within the law.
 

According to Mr. Trump, ”The US Government is not bad, it’s just the dummies running the government that need to be replaced.”

And Trump sincerely believes that he is the only one that can straighten government out.  He’s the only one that can bring on The Art of the Deal (The book he wrote he says is second only to the Bible.), and the only one in D.C., that can brow-beat foreign leaders into making better trade deals.  Plus, while doing that, Trump says he would be building more roads for pennies on the federal dollar, while subjugating Congress to his strong will.

In other words, Trump believes he is “More powerful that a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, and can stop speeding bullets”.  Yes, according to Trump, he is the real, “SUPERMAN!”

But when one gets down into the “weeds” of his beliefs, things look a lot different about Trump compared to most regular Republicans.

When it was mentioned that the country has had its mandates on equal pay for women since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Trump questioned the entire concept.  “I want women to be paid,” he said. “But you know when you start tinkering with the free market and you start having mandates put down, it’s a very dangerous subject because we’re competing against the world.”

For those areas where his fellow Republicans want to support block-grants, vouchers and means-tests, Trump says: “Save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without any cuts. We have to do it,”   Trump said this in his campaign announcement speech. “Get rid of the fraud. Get rid of the waste and abuse, but save it [Medicare]. People have been paying into it for years.”

Face it, this is not your budget-cutting Paul Ryan type Republican.

So, therefore on health care, Trump is more of a populist than any GOP establishment. He says a single-payer health-care system “works in Canada” and “could have worked in a different age” in the United States, he said this at the first GOP debate.  

And Ronald Reagan must have turned over in his grave on that one.

In Trump’s signature issue of immigration, he has big-government authorities going after those in the United States illegally and sending them all back from where they originally came.  All 11 million of them.

Regarding money in politics, “When you give money, they [the politicians] do whatever the hell you want them to do,” he told the Wall Street Journal.  On taxes, Trump told CBS that he would eliminate the carried-interest loophole that gives huge tax breaks to hedge-fund managers. “The hedge-fund guys are getting away with murder,” Trump said. “They’re paying nothing and it’s ridiculous.”

When asked about the massive costs of his programs, Trump just pooh-poohs it all saying “It’s just a basic management issue.”  Ah, that means to him it's no big deal.

According to Trump, government isn’t the problem, government without Trump running it, is the real problem. 

This is Trump’s definition of “Trumpism”.

Donald Trump is actually more of a liberal than most Democrats, and that’s not good for the Republican Party.

Everything I’ve said here is true and it’s why Donald Trump is one of the largest problems that the Republican Party has for 2016.  Even if he is forced to drop out of the race, the damage will have already been done.  Done by those candidates that have continually tried to out Trump….Trump!

As I have said, the 2016 election is not just about the normal political competition between the Republicans and the Democrats.  It is about what the GOP is going to look like after November 2016….?

Copyright G.Ater  2015