Donald Trump has declared open war on conservative values
There are many words that can reasonably be used to describe Donald Trump. For the sake of decency I will not reproduce a list here. But one word which cannot, in my view, fairly be attached to what we must regrettably call the American President is ‘conservative’. Indeed I’d go further; Trump isn’t just a non-conservative, he’s an outright anti-conservative. He has spent much of his time in office trashing the values and principles that are integral to true conservatism. One of the great tragedies of modern US politics is he’s been aided in this endeavour by a substantial section of the American conservative movement, which has traded foundational principles for short-term political gains.
In order to make this argument I must define what I mean by ‘conservatism’. If the term is used merely to describe those who wish to halt or reverse ongoing societal change you could, at a push, incorporate Trump into the category. But this leaves the phrase so relativist that it becomes all but meaningless. A conservative in the later 1980s Soviet Union for example would be an orthodox Leninist, whilst one in the Afghanistan of the early noughties may back the Taliban. Used this way conservatism doesn’t describe a functional political ideology, but a sociological condition; humanities seemingly innate suspicion of change.
I’m confident the modern conservative movement is a good deal more coherent and significant than this. At its core it aims to preserve, and where possible extend, the institutions and value systems that form the basis of the western model of organising a human society. That is one structured along liberal-democratic-capitalist lines. Specifically this means defending and strengthening parliamentary democracy, core freedoms like speech and association, property rights and the bodies that exist to safeguard the above. These principles, to borrow a Trumpian phrase, are what has made the west great.
The trouble is that Trump, both as president and before that as a candidate, seems to have an at best conditional attachment to these values. He is the first American president in the modern era who gives the impression of general indifference, and sometimes hostility, towards basic democratic norms. It’s worth at this point dropping back to the 2016 presidential election campaign. Trump’s campaign was, by the standards of an advanced democracy, extraordinary.
Trump repeatedly refused to say he would concede defeat if vanquished by Hillary Clinton, a core requirement of civilised democracy. He pledged to put his opponent in jail on what were, if you’ll forgive the pun, trumped up charges, while his supporters chanted “lock her up” at rallies. During the campaign, Trump endorsed political violence, to an extent unheard of in modern US politics, saying of one protestor “I’d like to punch him in the face” and suggesting he might pay the legal fees of one of his supporters who went ahead with such an assault.
Ahead of the poll Trump repeatedly claimed the elections was “rigged” against him. Even after achieving an electoral college win, his ego was left unquenched, leading Trump to assert , entirely without evidence, that he would also have won the popular vote “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally”.
If we go back a little further, to Barack Obama’s re-election in 2012, Trump’s attitude to democratic norms becomes even more disturbing. The future president furiously, and incorrectly, tweeted of Obama “He lost the popular vote by a lot and won the election. We should have a revolution in this country!” He went on to suggest people should “march on Washington and stop this travesty” before adding “this election is a total sham and a travesty”. In short, Trump responded to the 2012 presidential election result by refusing to accept its legitimacy and openly calling for a coup.
Given this track record Trump’s record since assuming office in January 2017 has been about what you would expect. He has taken every opportunity to fawn over and complement some of the most brutal dictators on the planet. Between 2008 and 2016 Obama was repeatedly accused by his Republican opponents of being soft on the opponents of tyranny, yet many of them stayed silent after Trump claimed he “fell in love” with North Korean butcher Kim Jong Un, while praising Vladimir Putin for being “very, very strong”. An impeachment inquiry is currently under way over allegations that Trump attempted to pressure the Ukrainian government into investigating one of his domestic political rivals by withholding military aid, whilst Ukraine continued to fight a low key war with Russian backed militias in its east.
The American conservative movement has a proud history. Its role in defending the liberty of the western world during the Cold War was commendable and arguably decisive. Yet its present is shameful. Trump has hollowed out American conservatism, turning its leading figures into grotesque parodies of himself. On a personal level he has disregarded just about every core conservative value.
Trump has no time for the rule of law, basic democratic norms or the defence and advancement of freedom abroad. On the contrary, he gives every impression of a wannabe tyrant, constrained for now by the elaborate checks and balances of the American political system. Trumpism may be defeated in 2020, or by Trump’s impeachment, but it won’t be destroyed. For that to happen the American right must rediscover the true essence of conservatism, allowing its values to once again define the Republican Party.
