Are Progressives Learning the Wrong Lessons about Trump?
Left Demonology is not the Answer
It’s pretty safe to say that President Trump is the #1 guy on the Left Demonology list. I can’t blame the Left for this ranking. Trump routinely mocks the Left, pursues horrid policies, and is a morally bankrupt person whose been accused and convicted of a lot of bad things.
At the same time, I think Trump Derangement Syndrome is a profound mistake. When you obsess on the personal deficits of Trump and his special place in the world of Left Demonology you arrive at a misleading point. You will interpret Trump and his presidency as a bunch of Evil Rich Guys who screw over the poor, immigrants, and other marginalized people.
Here’s my alternative take: Understand that the Trumps and Musks of the world are exploiting existing structures that we (conservatives and progressives) have set up. The problems of Trumpism are really systemic problems that we should try to fix. Below, I’ll give you three examples.
Federal funding for colleges: A lot of people are upset that the Trump administration is suspending funding for university-based research or massively cutting back the surcharge that universities collect in exchange for hosting research.
Instead, we should ask, “Why are so many fields of science dependent on a few sources of income like the NIH or NSF? Shouldn’t science have more diverse streams of financial support?” There’s an old joke in biomedical research which says that there are not one hundred medical schools but instead one hundred branches of the NIH. As we’ve learned, authoritarians can exploit that.
A Lack of Immigrant Rights: People are justifiably horrified when the Federal government picks people up and deports them. Sadly, this is actually legitimate under current interpretations of the law. In general, the law treats immigration law violations as separate issue from criminal law, so people have very few rights and the US government is granted the authority to just pick people up and ship them off. The only difference is that the Trump administration has decided to use this power to punish migrants who are politically active.
Instead, we should ask, “why does the US state have the right to just pick people up and ship them off? Why not treat migration violations like parking tickets instead of life ruining violations? Why give this US government this level of power over the lives of others?”
Tarriff Powers: Most people don’t realize that the President of the United States can unilaterally jack up tariffs, but it’s true. This is why we’re in such a huge mess. A long time ago Congress just gave away one of its core powers and nobody gave a damn. Now, a nationalist president can use tariffs to wage “trade wars” against people we should be selling stuff to. The bad economics is not the point. Rather, the point is that our political system has given so much power to the president that it can now easily be abused.
Just think about the bigger points: dependency on the Federal government for science, a near total absence of procedural rights for millions of people, and the surrender of Congressional power. These are not abstract issues, they matter for everyday people. The biggest service the Left can do in the Trump era is not resistance. Instead, the Left should draw attention to these foundational problems that have given Trump the ability to make the lives of people miserable.
Bottom line: Drop Trump Derangement Syndrome and think about how we can fix bigger problems.
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I have a strict policy at the Mad Sociologist Blog. "It's not about him. It's never about him." I even stopped using his name. Trump is just the running pustule resulting from an underlying infection. My thesis is that infection stems from capital's takeover of the state and it's rollback of social democracy. Not the fact of the takeover, but the process.