On June 16th, 2015, Donald Trump declared his intent to run for President. A lifelong Democrat and progressive populist, Donald Trump took aim at the heart of the Conservative Movement and found it. Indeed, unlike Libertarians, Conservatives, and Constitutionalists such as Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul, Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal, Donald Trump identified the real motivation behind the conservative movement in America – and it wasn’t Conservatism.
Our Government has been poorly run and the American People feel as removed from their Representatives as they possibly could; and Donald Trump, to his credit, I suppose, named the source of their anger and lit a fire. It doesn’t matter that Donald Trump is the most liberal Republican to run for office since Herbert Hoover. Trump told America that they were right for feeling angry…feeling angry about our open borders, and our stagnant economy, and our woefully feckless and inefficient government.
Donald Trump has no solutions. He understands that conservatives never really did care or think too much about solutions in the first place. All they really wanted was to watch their political parties burn to the ground. They want justice. They’ve been wronged and they want to watch those who’ve wronged them hang; and we mustn’t worry too much about what comes next.
Nietzsche, having peered into the darkness of Man, once wrote,
And how clever such an ambition makes people! For let’s admire the skillful counterfeiting with which people here imitate the trademarks of virtue, even its resounding tinkle, the golden sound of virtue. They’ve now taken a lease on virtue entirely for themselves, these weak and hopeless invalids—there’s no doubt about that. “We alone are the good men, the just men”—that’s how they speak: “We alone are the homines bonae voluntatis [men of good will].” They wander around among us like personifications of reproach, like warnings to us, as if health, success, strength, pride, and a feeling of power were inherently depraved things, for which people must atone some day, and atone bitterly.How they thirst to be hangmen!Among them there are plenty of people disguised as judges seeking revenge. They always have the word “Justice” in their mouths, like poisonous saliva, with their mouths always pursed, constantly ready to spit at anything which does not look discontented and goes on its way in good spirits. (Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals, Essay 3, section 14).
Whenever I see a mob, I think of this section. It can be applied to religious fanatics, political populists, anarchists, nihilists, or any other mob which forms for the purposes of destruction, without any intent or capacity to rebuild what they’ve destroyed.
How I pity the intellectuals who thought they were leading a thoughtful movement of conservatism! They were leading a mob they did not understand; and because they did not understand them, they were deprived of a majority of their followers, not by an intellectual, but by a man who knows how to excite and control a mob.
The effect? Let’s just admit it. The Conservative Movement is dead. Conservatism is an intellectual movement, predicated upon thoughtful consideration of historical experience. There is room to disagree about solutions, but we were not to disagree about reality in the first place. What role, I wonder, does reality play in this new populist masquerade? Truly, all this movement has become is the unification of gasoline and a torch without any consideration for tomorrow’s rising sun.
I’ve never been a fan of our political elite or our establishments, but I always assumed that once we (the grassroots) defeated them, that we would institute the thoughtful discipline and respect for authority requisite of a positive change. My own naivety astounds me and I am embarrassed. I looked blindly upon the angry masses and assumed they were angry men and women with solutions. Sadly, they were simply angry and angry only.
The rise of populism within the Republican Party won’t make me turn my back and walk away. In a way, I am truly thankful. I embrace our future decades with eyes wide open. Whatever Donald Trump really is, he’s not Hillary Clinton and he’s not Bernie Sanders.
In truth, Donald Trump is simply the first member of the Corporatist Establishment to figure out how to win the support of mobs on the left and the right.
There is still a Republican Party to rebuild. I hope, that despite our current misfortunes, that we can rally together to support our Republican intellectuals locally, in Virginia, and our Representatives in Congress – wherever we find them. Many of us believed that now was our time. We were wrong. The road is long, but the distance must not dissuade us. Accepting reality for what it is and dealing with it is what conservatism is all about.
Also published on PendletonPenn.com
30 comments
I just finished listening to Trump’s foreign policy speech at the Mayflower today on C-SPAN radio. If he follows through with what he states (the big “if”), then the conservative movement is not dead and will have found a new champion in Trump. It was an excellent speech.
1 person does not a movement (or death of a movement) make. Conservatives got outmanoevered by Trump. We lacked, and still lack, a unifying leader. Nature abhors a vacuum and Trump stepped into the breach. Excellent timing on his part. He is nothing if not an opportunist.
Yes, this may be the winter of our discontent. As many of these posts demonstrate, it seems “conservativism” still lacks solid edges and the people within the movement seek to define just exactly what it is. But that amoeba-istic structure makes it easy for people to slip in and out and for false prophets to take the reigns…there is no firm basis to challenge their heresy.
Ironically, Trump is the ultimate “parachute” candidate and that is part of his appeal. I suspect the next great conservative leader will have to fight the hard fight and come up through the ranks a la Reagan. Unfortunately, I don’t even see that person on the horizon.
Mr. Tucker, great article. One of the best I’ve read all year.
You nailed it, but perhaps conservatives were not really outmaneuvered by Trump, but rather spread their forces too thinly, and thus the sanity-driven votes, while outnumbering Trump’s, were divided among ten different candidates. I do not like Trump at all. But I will SURELY vote for him in the general election. He is far better than Hillary. Far better.
Yep. 10 different candidates because there are 10 different opinions of what the movement is: social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, libertarians, small government, medium government, no government, etc.
What is a 21st century conservative?
Click-bait title aside, this is SBT’s standard anti-Trump crap. Mr. D. here is partially right about the movement. But the party has abhorred a Conservative for some time now. Trump is the most electable conservative. Now that ain’t saying much for our roster nor the electorate — but it’s our own damn fault for being incapable of selling ‘conservative’ to voters who already are inclined that way.
The conservative movement will only be pronounced dead when the last of the fighters walks off the field and gives up. I am not seeing that in the delegate counts from mass meetings. I am not hearing that when talking to Republicans in every day life. What I see is people waking up and taking a stand. And it isn’t just Trump supporters that are involved. People are tired of shenanigans and they want action.
The Conservative movement isn’t just about the Presidency. We have 3 branches in the Federal government in which Conservatives are set on making a difference. We have state elections, we have local elections, we have day to day outreach. Until all of those efforts are abdicated and we walk away – there will always be a conservative movement.
I doubt the Republican party will survive a Trump nomination, and the utter betrayal of so many who claimed to be conservative speaks ill of its ability to survive anyway. Trump has nearly succeeded in a hostile take-over and has turned it into a populist, nationalist, progressive party; something conservatives should have no interest in saving. So with Trump the party dies, and if Trump doesn’t get the nom, his cult will riot in the streets commit to destroying those who blasphemed their god. How did we get here?
Actually most of the Trump supporters I know will vote for Cruz if he gets the nomination.
Will the Democrats voting for Trump vote for Cruz? No. The polls show the only only who can beat Hillary is Kasich. So, what difference does it make if it be Trump or Cruz?
The Democrats won’t… but then the Democrats weren’t going to vote for Trump in the general either.
don’t place too much faith in head to head polls this far out.
Could you tell me what it is about Cruz that you like? What has he ever managed? Didn’t Heidi make the Cruz millions at Goldman Sachs? Just what has Ted done?
Which is it? Democrats vote for Trump or won’t vote for Trump? Seems to me that most folks outside the GOP machinators seem to like the Guy — the ones that vote seem to indicate that. (But fret not, the party knows better — they will demonstrate their wisdom as they/we did with Romney, McCain et al.) We can either win with Trump, or shake our fist at the sky with any of the tried.
I’m not sure Kasich could even hold Ohio. And I’m not sure it will be Hilary. We can win with Trump, or lose with any of the stable.
You’re right, most of the Trump supporters will support the nominee whether he is eligible or not. Sure wish it was both ways, but the Cruz folks will probably set themselves on fire or something equally stupid in protest.
“How did we get here”?
Bush 43″, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Citizens United on the national level. Bob McDonnell, Tommy Norment, Bill Howell, in Virginia.
One of priorities on any Republican administration has to be not instituting legislation or policies, that will ensure that the next administration will be Democrats.
Bush 43′ and McDonnell failed miserably at this. One put Obama in office, the other put McAulliffe in office.
I support Trump but you don’t know me so don’t ASSume you do ! I’m no more a cultist than someone supporting Cruz maybe you should learn what it means to ASSume because apparently you have no clue ! If he doesn’t get the nod my life will still go on I’m a realist and the only God I worship is the one on high ! You see if brains was gasoline some people couldn’t power a piss ant’s go kart two laps around a Cheerio ! You get my drift ?
Nah, we’ll survive and thrive. Trump will most likely save the party and the Republic when we don’t really deserve it.
Boy, what really resonated with me were these words that you wrote, “I looked blindly upon the angry masses and assumed they were angry men and women with solutions. Sadly, they were simply angry and angry only.” If that does not describe much of the Tea Party movement to a tee, I don’t know what does. We Tea Party “leaders” in Stafford County quickly learned that in our neck of the woods the crowds were long on complaining, but very, very (and I mean very) short on doing anything.
The Tea Party movement is an intellectual movement back to the principles of America’s founding. The great majority of Americans support America’s founding principles if you do not put a label on them. Individual people who identify as Tea Party come from all walks of life – that is the great beauty of the Tea Party movement: It is incredibly diverse in race, age, gender, economic status, etc.
But one thing that is quite common among Tea Partiers is that they tend to be productive members of society, i.e. busy. Being active in such a circumstance takes a lot of effort and I have found that our troops get battle-weary after a while. Our fight is not a short one … it requires long and steady effort. We will win because 1) We are right, and 2) Americans are with us in what we stand for. But many are the forces (driven by money, cronyism, power, etc.) that are arrayed against us. Still, we need to keep in the fight.
Why are *some* Tea Party people supporting Trump, a liberal who supports infringement of property rights, protectionism, big government, and (I strongly suspect) cronyism? The answer is that those who are (still) supporting Trump never were committed to Tea Party (i.e. American) principles in the first place. The silver lining of the Trump phenomenon has done us all the favor of identifying those people.
The other dynamic I see unfolding is that people who are concerned about where the country is going regarding security, etc, but who get a little freaked out about moral issues tend to be leaning Trump. There is a fallacy in man people’s minds that an abusive immoral and brash candidate who “speaks his mind” is somehow better than a man of integrity with a moral compass who speaks his mind and acts according to his principles.
Intellectual movement? You gotta be kidding me.
Yes, you heard me. The fact that this surprises you shows that you have failed to understand the Tea Party.
It is comprised of people of all educational levels, but it is a movement deeply driven by principles informed by thousands of years of human experience and thoroughly embracing the thoughtful and well-crafted system of limited government and self-governance that our founders left us. While most others in both political parties have largely abandoned this heritage in favor of bare and short-sighted self-interest, the Tea Party, begun in visceral frustration by Americans who knew things had gone severely awry, has matured as many of its members have gone back to the books and reacquainted themselves with the rich philosophical, moral, and intellectual heritage that made the United States great to begin with, gave us the tools with which to abolish the longstanding institution of slavery, and establish a society of opportunity for all.
That’s the Tea Party. Intellectual movement.
Yep, my experience of the Tea Party has been the local wackadoo cults of personalities gesticulating wildly as the political world passes them by. Any real world examples of this intellectual, clearly not political, movement (looking for deeds not words.)
Please don’t use “Tea Party” and “intellectual” in the same sentence. I’m quite familiar with two Virginia Tea Parties — the 99th District Tea Party and the Montross Tea Party.
Nothing “intellectual” about them . . . just angry old people with too much time on their hands, longing for the days when Father Knows Best and black people sat in the back of the bus. Waving “Big Government Sucks” signs while cashing their Social Security checks and flashing their Medicare cards.
There’s nothing “grass roots” about them either. They have been carefully cultivated by Republican rightwing foundations.
I did not say that everyone who attends a Tea Party meeting is an intellectual. It is a movement that encompasses all kinds of people. What I mean when I say that the Tea Party is an intellectual movement is that it is a truly principled appeal to the core foundational philosophical values on which our nation was established. These (limited government, civil society, property, equality before law, self-governance, and rights emanating from God and not man, to name a few) are the values that made the United States great and prosperous and moral. They are the values that made the abolition of our national pre-existing condition of slavery inevitable. They are the values that made the United States the place in the world to which so many wished to emigrate. They are not the values of the Democrat or Republican establishments any more. They remain the values of America and those who love and understand America. And such people have only one haven any more: the Tea Party.
Great writing.
I will defend Anarchists because they aren’t in it for destruction. Anarchists are, in a way, the ultimate conservatives in that they are essentially separatists who wish to exist under a government of 1 person, themselves. Countries are dangerous, they teach, and states are better, cities better still, small communities better, and small groups of people nearing perfection as far as governments are concerned, but the individual is the ultimate government. In the spectrum of group power versus the individual, anarchists are of the mindset that the individual is ultimately where all of the power should reside, and that if individuals choose to band together for some common good, fine, but that once you get to the scale where individuals are no longer making the decisions you’ve gone too far. It isn’t that anarchists want to destroy the world, but rather that they want everyone in the world to become the virtuous people that you refer to, so virtuous that they don’t even require a government. More than anything anarchists want individual people to think clearly, to work hard, to excel, in a way that is 180 degrees away from what Progressives want, which is for people to join the group and abandon their individuality, their goals, and their own decision making. Anarchists are essentially what Libertarians are accused of being – people who don’t believe even the most basic of government functions should be centralized.
Order is a tool, like a hammer, or paint, or a pencil. Order and organization can be used for good or ill, and there’s nothing especially virtuous about things being ordered. The most hateful evils in the history of the world were only possible because of order.
Wait a sec, that’s not Anarchists, that’s the Tea Party Societies!
I also think your assessment of Trump as !Hillary is wrong.
Wow, this is fantastic! A perfect assessment of our current predicament!
Just as with the TEA Party, reports of the death of the conservative movement are greatly exaggerated.
Yep, and with the blessing and support of the Tea Party, Conservative Republicans like Dave Brat and Barbara Comstock will keep on winning!