There is a Simpsons episode where two aliens, Kang and Kodos, invade our planet and scheme to take charge by abducting and impersonating the two US Presidential candidates.
They are discovered before polling day, but this does not prevent their triumph. Kodos declares: “It’s true, we are aliens, but what are you going to do about it? It’s a two party system; you have to vote for one of us”. One plucky man says: “I believe I’ll vote for a third party candidate”. But Kang responds witheringly: “Go ahead,
throw your vote away!”
Millions of Americans must be contemplating the choice of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and finding it deeply unedifying. It is certainly possible that Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate and former Governor of New Mexico, may have an impact. But it is difficult to imagine him winning.
Trump is usually described as right-wing but he is a parody of a Conservative. His racist and misogynistic outbursts – with a random mix of personal abuse – have allowed him to dominate the media. While Trump and the left-wing TV networks attacked each other it was a mutually advantageous antagonism. During the primary contests the Leftists loved the chance to give attention to the oafish Trump rather than his more reasoned but less exciting rivals.
Yet Trump is a gatecrasher to the Republican Party – and a boorish one. In the past, most of his campaign donations have been to the Democrats – including to Hillary Clinton when she was a New York senator. Part of his difficulty in trying to secure loyalty from the Party is that he has no record of loyalty to it.
While it is true that Trump is a capitalist he is not a friend of capitalism in the sense of having an iota of faith in an open, competitive, free enterprise system. On the contrary, Trump is the ultimate corporatist. If Trump has shown any consistent belief it is for subsidies, bailouts, and corporate welfare. The author of The Art
of the Deal feels the way to get on is by securing political favouritism.
Ever since Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations was published in 1776 it has been understood that free trade offers the path to prosperity. Trump prefers protectionism. He wants to rig the system with state meddling. Free trade has provided the most extraordinary reduction in poverty in developing countries while also further enriching the western world. Yet Trump reaches for the mean-spirited, easy populism of there being a fixed amount of wealth and a “zero sum game” to grab a bigger share. So he champions that most disastrous of policies, protectionism.
Some British pundits have compared the rise of Trump with the victory for Brexit in the EU referendum. The idea is that the two have in common a backlash against the smug elitist establishment. But for decades the amoral Trump has been schmoozing away at the centre of that world.
Furthermore, while the Guardianistas and the BBC might have suggested Brexit was an isolationist and xenophobic revolt it was really an assertion of confidence in globalisation. It was a statement that Britain has nothing to fear from opening up to trade with the whole world.
Trumpism by contrast is a shrivelled message of defeatist introversion. There is plenty of bellicose rhetoric about taking on the terrorists. But the reality would be that under a Trump Presidency the United States would retreat into its shell. It would mean a policy of appeasement that would allow terror groups and rogue states to be ever more assertive.
There could scarcely be a bigger contrast between Trump and Reagan. Part of the Reagan Revolution was lower simpler taxes. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 embodied that. At the time Trump claimed it would be “a disaster for the country” as it scrapped special tax breaks for vested interests. Instead the reform helped to bolster enterprise and growth.
Reagan was an optimistic, outward-looking President who won the Cold War. He was a warm-hearted, freedom-loving Christian and a patriot who restored America’s self belief. “It’s morning in America” was his campaign theme. Now we have Trump as the Republican nominee, the man from the dark side.
There is still an abundance of good Republicans carrying out fine public service in the Reagan tradition. But let’s face it, the Party’s Presidential candidate is an interloper. It is no use being in denial. The best thing for the Republican Party and the values it represents would be for Trump to lose in November. Only then can its laudable mission be resumed.