Thanks Christine. I'm upset, too, about the cruelty and the incompetence and the damage. I want to understand why others don't feel the same way other than due to ignorance or personal gain.
Lol. Neoliberalism, offshoring and decimation of the working class "is a faceless group of men at the very top pulling the puppet strings." "Trumpism" is a rejection of the rot that has made a very few incredibly rich at the expense of the vast majority of US citizens.
You're correct to believe that "Trumpism" isn't about Trump. It's about betrayal. It's about a working class that refuses to go quietly to its death at the hands of a shadowy global elite that demand we admit infinite illegal immigrants and place allegedly oppressed groups above us in some perverse hierarchy that only they have the key to. The "rules based order" is the international manifestation of this arbitrary authority that you, knowingly or not, perform obeisance to.
In addition there are fair numbers of Trumpist (or Republican non-Trump supporters like me) who feel that society has been going in a toxic direction now for many years and a drastic correction was needed. So a significant part of "Trumpism" is conservative reaction to what we perceive as destructive trends in our culture.
There are different subtribes of Trump supporters coming from different ideological places (besides those mentioned by our host here).
He misses Trump's appeal to white christian nationalists...it is not only his greed which will lead to his fall...itis his moral bankruptcy which has turned Christ followers, liike me, against him.
Christianity or " Christianity " has been eviscerated, turned into hollow, substance - less MOCKERY of what it was originally intended to be *&* has been WEAPONIZED - AGAIN - to fit an isolationist / nationalist agenda.
Many Evangelicals believe that Trump intends to start a 3rd World War, leading to Armageddon & the Second Coming, which would mean than DJT is " playing God " or at least forcing His hand, which isn't a WISE thing to do.
Lyons does emphasize religion and tradition. But you really have to stretch "the ends justify the means" rationale to be a devout Christian and a fan of Trump.
It's interesting to hear an avowed Christian express this view. Because his constant lying, his affairs, his bullying, his flouting of laws, stiffing of contractors, bending the knee to dictators...don't seem to bother many Christians. Which as someone born Christian, strongly repels me...and makes me doubt the morality and integrity of Christianity itself.
Trump should be morally repellent to anyone with a strong moral code. But the ability of the human mind to rationalize is endless. I suffer it from myself.
It’s important to understand that ‘Trumpism,’ MAGA, etc. are not really a coherent ideological project. Trump is smart, but his approach is less intellectual than instinctive and intuitive. He senses a need and meets it, like the clever businessman he is. This leaves others to give coherent philosophical substance to his program.
There are really three factions at work. One is the nationalist-populist, represented by Steve Bannon. This group sees globalism as the prime enemy of American workers, allowing finance vampires to leverage labor arbitrage against them, through outsourcing and mass immigration. Most Trump voters are probably motivated by these concerns. Then there are the techno-futurists, like Musk. These men see progressivism as antithetical to actual progress, and are the most libertarian of the Trump factions. And represented by JD Vance are the post-liberals, who see America’s primary problem as the abandonment of tradition, particularly traditional forms of religion. They tend to be Catholic or Orthodox and have far more in common with European rightists than American conservatives of prior generations, apart from some of the Paleocons. Ask someone from each of those groups what Trumpism means and you’ll get some real variety; just look at the dust-up around Ramaswamy from some weeks ago to see the divergences in action.
Isolationism has little or no place in today's world. One need look NO FURTHER than North Korea with most citizens living in ignorance, extremely poor health & CRUSHING POVERTY to see its effects. Globalism is so much better for human society on a multitude of fronts.
The advantages of trade and sharing cultures have not been banished. It will be to American disadvantage to close ourselves off, if that's even a realistic possibility.
Pushing Autarky through punishing tariffs--especially of raw materials like steel--will devastate American manufacturing, not help it. Especially N American auto manufacturing. Trump's disruptive acts to destroy NATO will drive away over a trillion dollars in US defense exports to European NATO competitors over the next few years. It's amazing his actions have not already caused a massive equities devaluation.
And FOX Business can only applaud these actions. Have US conservatives gone mad?
Am on the same page as you. Trump's policies will most likely devastate the US economy. His actions are all performative and he doesn't have the capacity to understand the long range outcomes of his policies.
As you note, his recent actions in alienating Europe and Canada are going to cost our defense industries billions. Just one of the many poorly thought out choices he has made.
I don't like the Democrats and hope Trump would rein in his worst characteristics.
But instead the opposite has happened. He is so crazy and destructive I am hoping something removes him from office.
The GOP had their chance during the Impeachment trial. They blew it then; just like they're blowing it now. My parents and grandparents are rolling in their graves at just how far the Grand 'Ol Party has fallen.
Germany which you imagine can just print money to crank out shells and panzers like it’s 1938 again has some of the most expensive electricity on the planet, a big reason Rheinmetall 155 mm artillery shells cost 💶8,000 each and North Korea is literally out producing all EU NATO combined in arty rounds and rockets (backfilled by China ofc). The pseudo centrists and WorldWarWoke veterans cheering on a EUroReich are going to be very disappointed at the actual results from this supposed 800 billion euro war chest Merz has busted German budget caps to introduce.
This means you're planning on immediately selling your Rheinmetall stock?
Besides, Rheinmetall makes the best SP 155mm artillery in the world--not the EU's most cost-effective munitions. Now that Trump/GOP has cost US weapons manufacturers $200bn a year in defense exports, the Europeans will be most happy to fill the gap.
I'm not shorting the Rheinmetall stock, no. But I am suggesting that Germany's failed energy transition which made getting off Russian gas vastly more expensive will mean that the EUropeans collectively will pay a significantly higher price for a very overhyped, disappointing volume of munitions. And that the Romanian election cancellation will come back to bite Brussels in the butt, if nothing else by allowing MAGA to ridicule their claims of authoritarianism under Trump by pointing to Romania.
As a second and third order effect in a piece we're writing, we are also considering the strong possibility a Budapest-Belgrade pact could emerge from the constant EUrocrat bullying of the Hungarians and Serbs--one that a significant number of MAGA American vets would sympathize with. A scenario of Hungarian, Serb and maybe Slovak with some Romanian "weekend warriors" drilling five years hence to knock out blue and yellow flag flying German/French OPFOR armor with drones is definitely not on the "Europe must unite against Trump and Russians" crowd's bingo card.
The US was "isolationist" even up to WWII. Many wanted us to return to that stance after the war but were overwhelmed by the factions of empire. Somehow we survived and thrived without infinite globalization. Ever-increasing globalism has led to our inability to produce manufactured goods without infinite foreign inputs. Inputs that are notoriously unreliable.
We assemble components - that's our manufacturing "base" at this point. Our military procurement processes are entirely broken. We spend hundreds of billions a year with "defense" contractors that are really hedge funds who, in their spare time, produce overpriced, underperforming weapons systems. That's not a recipe for long-term national security or success. It's a recipe for disaster.
It's long past time to right the ship. And somehow I think we'll manage to avoid the fate of North Korea in the process.
Japan was isolationist until Cmdr.( ? ) Perry. Then post WW2 they became an economic " empire ".
They may not be quite the trade empire that they once were ( the Chinese are moving ahead in that direction, looks like..... ) but they're definitely not SUFFERING. Unless I MISSED SOMETHING.
Japan was colonialist pre-WWII. They occupied China and Korea, started multiple regional wars. There was nothing "isolationist" about them then. And there's nothing particularly isolationist about them now, in terms of economics, manufacturing, etc.
I agree that in action it's not coherent. But I do believe that Lyons identifies the "pure" form of Trumpism, which is why he denounced Ramaswamy and Musk in his most recent post.
It's more coherent than you might think. The 1st and 3rd factions the Librarian identifies are very close to each other in spirit and conception. The techno-libertarians are the least coherent part but even they have a role to play.
Very interesting essay. And I know why I as a woman am right to be ‘hysterical’ - it’s the misogyny that is terrifying. All your analysis is through the eyes of men, including yours. The feminine as enemy
I can assure you that I do not view the feminine as enemy. But you are right and I agree that misogyny is a theme that runs through Trumpism, including Lyons' version.
One of the challenges in writing this was to present Lyons' analysis in an objective way without endorsing it myself.
There is no confusion. They're the same. Misogyny is the hatred of women based on the belief that women are inferior to men. Feminism is the advocacy for equality of women. Anti- feminism is anti to that belief. You can't be equal and inferior at the same time. Splitting the hair is still part of the same shaft is it not?
You skim right past what I see as the true appeal to Trumpists for changing the current world: the suppression and control of women. All this chest beating bravado and focus on “family” and the taint of “feminization” they dread are a direct result of women’s slow and painful move toward actual equality and autonomy. What’s the argument in support of diversity? “Don’t taint our white masculinity with your ethnicity”—stay over there where you belong. Where in this world are gay people, disabled, or uninterested in reproduction? They are outcast. Others have made this argument more eloquently than me. I suggest you and your son—and others—follow Lyz Lenz whose “This American Ex Wife” and Substack columns detail the feminist objections to being buried beneath men’s fears and held back by their unwillingness to adapt to THIS world in THIS century. Trumpists believe in a world that never existed. They want their Disney without any messiness. We see already what they consider the messy side dishes of their vaunted masculinity.
Well put. The "war" on DEI and Woke, is just code for the aggressive loathing of women, Blacks, Gays, Hispanics, and Democrats in general. Naked aversion, without a shred of love or honor.
Trumpism as a form of intellectualism? Don't make me laugh. It's an oxymoron. Putting lipstick on a pig.
As I wrote to the comment above yours, one of the challenges in writing this was to present Lyons' analysis in an objective way without endorsing it myself.
Further as I wrote in the post, "Lyons doesn’t use the word “feminization,” but it’s implied. Can men really be men in such a disenchanted world?"
So yes misogyny is implied by the values Lyons finds compelling.
Again, these are not my values but I contend that if we want to understand what is happening to our country, we need to understand what's driving the pure believers.
I do think that many young men are afraid of the rise of women in our society, best evidenced by the 60/40 edge that women have in higher education. Many young men become susceptible to ideologies that fit their own experience, often lonely and rejected by the women they want to be with.
P.S. I subscribe to Lyz Lenz and I read her book.It has valuable advice for men, including husbands like me who've been married for 40 years.
What a cloistered world you live in. You should use your fists for something other than shaking at the TV, or go to the shooting range sometime. Your perspective might change. Maybe.
So you are suggesting beating people up or shooting guns will turn people into Trump supporters? That's an interesting insight into you, personally, but if you think Trump, whose 'shin splints' got him out of Vietnam is a masculine man, well... no.
I enjoy reading this substack as a white woman, owns my own healthcare business, has and will have no children, returned to church upon living in a pandemic, who leans red. I was worried about the last post and while on vacation, didn't post I was worried about you. Those of us red leaning people were at home for four years also yelling at our TVs. We survived. I didn't thrive under Biden. In all honesty, since becoming a PT 25 years ago, I make less now than I did then. Most of this time has been due to government policies and corporate greed. The CEOs make more, I make less. Having spent due diligence and time with an amazing therapist who specializes in trauma, I can say 2 things. When Biden got in and covid happened and I felt things were headed into a direction hat worried me and scared me, she told me these are big problems, going to be solved by big forces and that I wasn't going to change a thing. I could change my response. I also came to realize that most of my response was due to how I learned safety growing up. My trauma was emotional neglect, living in a middle class family. Who could complain? I had food, clothes, traveled the world with my dad's business. What I didn't have was present parents who taught me how to feel safe and regulate because they were vacant, drunk and too self absorbed to be engaged with their 2 kids. So when I read your post, I felt concerned that maybe your ability to feel safe and self regulate wasn't onboard. I don't know your exact circumstances, but I am thinking that your chances of real existential hardship that should threaten real safety is probably low. I appreciate your concern for your family wealth and lifestyle, your charitable actions etc. I do sense your generous and kind nature and wanting goodness in the world. I would say, me leaning red, feel similarly as you. I want wealth generation for myself, for my charitable actions (I am charitable even leaning red) and for those around me and the country at large. So we have threads that could bind us rather than demonize us to one another. We should find those and make an quilt! One last thought. Check out Braver Angela and take one of their online (or in-person, I would imagine you have one close to you, mine would be 86 miles away or more). Their goal is to bring you (lean blue) and me (lean red) together to not change one another, but to be together safely and allow dialogue. But it requires us moving away from why aren't you like me thinking, to I see how that is for you and you see how it is for me. In this place of equanimity of spirit, we all feel safe no matter who occupied our governmental seats. Pollyannish thinking but I would prefer that than the vitriol we see dominating our country. In the end, we all live here whether we agree, disagree, gay, straight, black, white, Jewish, Christian, atheist etc.
Thanks KTon for your kind comment. Very much appreciated. Given what you write I'm sure we have similar values. I don't seek to disparage "red leaners" nor do I seek to disparage people like N.S. Lyons. Like you and most of us, I have many aspects of my life. It happens that recently what is going on with America is an aspect that I'm trying to understand because I am worried about it.
I don't think you would mean to disparage red cleaners. And understanding "the other" is a lifelong challenge. No one will truly understand you. It's why being with others can push our buttons. If only everyone thought/felt/believed/lived like me, this world would be much easier to inhabit ☺️. And sometimes how we are in the world (like the content of a blog post) isn't an intent and can be a byproduct of our actions. I enjoy your substack because you examine, admit, take responsibility for etc etc. For me, it's a sign of an engaged and caring person!
Also recommend braver angels and also red leaning. We need to accept that others think differently and that doesn’t make them bad or us morally superior.
thank you David...you contribute to my own gestation of this moment and there is a reassuring equanimity in your thought process, readings. Im no Managerial Elite but we are firm allies. This IS about strong vs weak and my fingers sweated longing to deliver my own message like Lyons except i have perhaps 499,900 less subscribers... each of us must fight and from the genuine parts, the limitations but strengths of our own passions.
One omission: Demi's character had the best advice for Cruise's lawyer which was basically feel out Jessup's neurotic dream of grandeur and let him hang himself with its disregard for truth, its blatant contempt for rules. It will require patience, suffering too but Lyons admits it himself: the working class won't tolerate an oligarchy that refuses to hide in the weeds and predates on the vulnerable families, the children, all the values we shed blood for that make our ridiculous consumption of this planets resources and yes we should feel guilty for it, our brutal history of inequity, almost bearable given as these shallow scared fossils are doing it in broad daylight. They dont give a damn about anything but exporting negativity and blame, just like our arms dealers supply the cartels with weapons by the billions of $ and they are the ones which need deporting as drugs claim thousands more lives daily than any Venezuelan gang member. If strong means insane we are halfway there.
I appreciate the perspective sharing, and the clip from a Few Good Men sums the view well. While it is true the "weak gods" need the "strong gods" standing the on the wall, all too often our society idealizes the strong god duty as one who fights to protect our "chicken fried and jeans that fit just right."
Ultimately, an uncomfortable truth to the strong gods can't handle is they also protect the vegan, transgender athlete, and our ability to exercise the First Amendment to debate the proper limitation of the Second Amendment. If fighting for freedom means only fighting for people who look like you, worship like you, and live like you, you are not fighting for freedom at all.
We need each other. And our current pendulum swing represents the strong gods feeling their role in our society was shrinking. It's a defensive measure because their role shrinks in a stable, integrated society. They feel threatened. I get it. Stand down. Because if to feel powerful, strong gods need a closed, dangerous world, what a cruel prayer that is for all Americans.
Well said, Aaron. I agree it is a "cruel prayer." And good point that modern day warriors protect all of us regardless of what we believe or who we are. And yes they protect our freedoms as well.
I wonder if Lyons would say that the return of strong gods is worth the probability of many people dying or suffering at the hands of the state. Because it seems like that is the trade - some sense of meaning or purpose for people who buy into the Strong Gods values, and in return a greatly heightened risk of the state inflicting terrible suffering. It wasn’t just Hitler - fascism has tended to be pretty brutal wherever it is.
I do think that's part of the "trade" and I think the end game of a world of the strong gods would be awful. Nasty and brutish is how Hobbes described the natural state of man without any safeguards.
I value family and human connections and freedom. I want a system in which everyone is able to do good work, to receive respect for that work and to be paid enough for that work so that they can live decently. I want to live in a culture that celebrates human potential, so that every child has a safe home with good food and parents who have time to be there (not working three part-time jobs with no benefits). I want everyone to have medical care and the opportunity to obtain job training and/or education. I want to live in a place where workers are paid fairly and their workplace is as safe as possible. No worker should be unable to pay rent and buy food. I want people to choose their way of life — stay single, get married, have children or not. Be straight or queer and face no judgment.
I want to live in a far less materialistic society based on people, not things! Most of us don’t need any more stuff but could probably use more time with good friends if we only had more time to devote to just spending time with people and not hustling for bucks.
The men who crow about “masculine energy” NEVER have it — they tend to give off what I can only apologize for calling “small dick energy.” All the crap those men spew seems to come from a basic low esteem for themselves as men.
They should come learn manhood from my husband. He’s very physically strong, can build anything, treats me like a lady, will lend anyone a hand with any project and works so hard that his last position now has four men doing what he did by himself. He can do hard physical labor and can handle ordering millions of dollars worth of steel, which is harder than you think. You can absolutely trust his word. He will get up in the middle of the night to comfort a dog scared of a storm or to rub my back when I wake up from a nightmare and then he gets up and goes to work. He comes home and helps with housework. That’s a real man. Not Musk or Trump or Vance or their acolytes!
Thank you. Yes, he's a good one! I know I am lucky to have him. I will say that as time has gone by and the world has become increasingly unhinged, I have begun appreciating him more and more. He's absolutely not perfect but he's a good person. I am so grateful I took a leap of faith to marry someone from another country who would be starting over here. Character is by far the most important quality in a partner.
I'm not sure if Hollywood realized, when creating all these scenery-chewing hard-ass characters like Jessup or pretty much every character ever played by Ronnie Cox, how often disaffected middle Americans would see them as the misunderstood heroes with their heads on straight.
That's a good point. In The West Wing, Bartlet beats a cliched ignorant Republican played by James Brolin in his re-election. it would be interesting to re-run that election today!
As popular and influential as The West Wing remains (and destructive, much as I loved the show! as I argued in one my very first posts, https://ivyexile.substack.com/p/magical-sorkinism) it's an interesting artifact of a time and place before the Internet had really hyperpolarized politics and when middlebrow network TV shows could still reach a mass audience in a way almost unimaginable today. It was definitely a proudly liberal show, but an ecumenical version of liberalism that turned off a lot less of the country than what's become dominant in recent years.
I suspect that were an attempt made to remake The West Wing today it would be a prestige show of 6-8 episodes per season on a premium streaming service aimed primarily at wealthy people with graduate degrees, so it would probably be racing to keep up with the news cycle and have little of the universality or comfort food quality that's kept the original so fondly remembered.
I had not read that piece of yours and just did. Really fascinating POV. West Wing is definitely easy watching. My exposure inside politics has been very much not Sorkinesque. I appreciated how you handled your experience with Bill Moyers and your guests.
I hadn't thought of the WW as having a malign influence through unrealistic and false expectations. I'll have to ponder that.
if - as seeing/declaring yourself a "Leftist"/ "Left Wing" or not - you remain silent and/or unable when it´s clearly necessary to oppose to the excesses of so-called "Wokeness", then you are guilty of everything that happens to critics of so-called "wokeness," and if they're set into being wronged when they aren´t wrong, and if you're then unwilling or unable to stand in for them and to clearly distinguish the basically (entirely) legitimate content of so-called "wokeness" from its exaggerations and excesses, which massively mostly harm precisely just those who are supposed to get protected from discrimination and oppression by supposedly "woke" content, you are guilty of that what (not) happens !
Someone who doesn't want to see or name the unbearable problem of "woke" excesses should simply shut up when it comes to (claiming of) "(preserving) democracy" which is obviously not what they're concerned about and/or about which they don't understand anything.
And if someone remains silent about Trump and his fans and their excesses – no matter how justifiably annoyed they are by the sometimes unbearable agendas of the "Democrats" – and seriously "thinks" that their excesses and crimes should, would, or could contribute to "bringing things back into proportion," and who ignores or doesn't care how many lives are being lost or destroyed in that process, who doesn't want to be able to clearly and unequivocally counter, when people babble about supposedly "Christian values," how many crimes – including, among other things, the millennia-long persecution and murder of Jews and "non-believers" – have been committed "in the - alleged - name of Christianity," "in the name of family values,“ „in the name of manlihood“ etc. and all these lies, and how many countless lives have been destroyed "in their name": then they should just shut up when it comes to "(preserving) democracy" which is obviously not what they're concerned about, and/or which they seem or don´t want to understand anything about.
HOW, tell me, are "freedom and democracy supposed to be strengthened" when you risk being punished for every critical word toward a mentally ill man like Trump, who well-knowingly, infamously suffered immensely under his despotic father and, as a "consequence," now wants to show" his (dead) father“ „what he´s made of“ by adopting his narrow-minded and despotic characteristics exactly - at the cost of USA and the whole world ??!!???
HOW can you be SO STUPID as trying to distill something "meaningful," "positive" from such dangerous ILL nonsense?
TELL THAT to your son:
otherwise, you have understood nothing of what democracy means—instead of all your empty babble—and what it means to be a good father.
„DEMOCRACY“ MEANS to STAND IN for its values REGARDLESS of whom you have to take opposition against, and be it your own son ! Even if you´re totally alone !
If your son then separates from you and no longer wants to be so generously "creating a family for you", then it's probably for the best and was meant to be.
Useful analysis, thanks David. History cycles from the crazy/passionate and the rational/chilly with murderous force. Hitler with his lebensraum sounded a lot like Lyons with his strong gods -- and it didn't work out well, as I recall. Yeats nailed it: "the best lack all conviction and the worst/ Are full of passionate intensity." The preacher of the Sermon on the Mount surely would not have like this Lyons' roar.
Thanks Christine. I'm upset, too, about the cruelty and the incompetence and the damage. I want to understand why others don't feel the same way other than due to ignorance or personal gain.
Thanks for the comment Heather.
Lol. Neoliberalism, offshoring and decimation of the working class "is a faceless group of men at the very top pulling the puppet strings." "Trumpism" is a rejection of the rot that has made a very few incredibly rich at the expense of the vast majority of US citizens.
You're correct to believe that "Trumpism" isn't about Trump. It's about betrayal. It's about a working class that refuses to go quietly to its death at the hands of a shadowy global elite that demand we admit infinite illegal immigrants and place allegedly oppressed groups above us in some perverse hierarchy that only they have the key to. The "rules based order" is the international manifestation of this arbitrary authority that you, knowingly or not, perform obeisance to.
In addition there are fair numbers of Trumpist (or Republican non-Trump supporters like me) who feel that society has been going in a toxic direction now for many years and a drastic correction was needed. So a significant part of "Trumpism" is conservative reaction to what we perceive as destructive trends in our culture.
There are different subtribes of Trump supporters coming from different ideological places (besides those mentioned by our host here).
He misses Trump's appeal to white christian nationalists...it is not only his greed which will lead to his fall...itis his moral bankruptcy which has turned Christ followers, liike me, against him.
Christianity or " Christianity " has been eviscerated, turned into hollow, substance - less MOCKERY of what it was originally intended to be *&* has been WEAPONIZED - AGAIN - to fit an isolationist / nationalist agenda.
Many Evangelicals believe that Trump intends to start a 3rd World War, leading to Armageddon & the Second Coming, which would mean than DJT is " playing God " or at least forcing His hand, which isn't a WISE thing to do.
Lyons does emphasize religion and tradition. But you really have to stretch "the ends justify the means" rationale to be a devout Christian and a fan of Trump.
It's interesting to hear an avowed Christian express this view. Because his constant lying, his affairs, his bullying, his flouting of laws, stiffing of contractors, bending the knee to dictators...don't seem to bother many Christians. Which as someone born Christian, strongly repels me...and makes me doubt the morality and integrity of Christianity itself.
Trump should be morally repellent to anyone with a strong moral code. But the ability of the human mind to rationalize is endless. I suffer it from myself.
It’s important to understand that ‘Trumpism,’ MAGA, etc. are not really a coherent ideological project. Trump is smart, but his approach is less intellectual than instinctive and intuitive. He senses a need and meets it, like the clever businessman he is. This leaves others to give coherent philosophical substance to his program.
There are really three factions at work. One is the nationalist-populist, represented by Steve Bannon. This group sees globalism as the prime enemy of American workers, allowing finance vampires to leverage labor arbitrage against them, through outsourcing and mass immigration. Most Trump voters are probably motivated by these concerns. Then there are the techno-futurists, like Musk. These men see progressivism as antithetical to actual progress, and are the most libertarian of the Trump factions. And represented by JD Vance are the post-liberals, who see America’s primary problem as the abandonment of tradition, particularly traditional forms of religion. They tend to be Catholic or Orthodox and have far more in common with European rightists than American conservatives of prior generations, apart from some of the Paleocons. Ask someone from each of those groups what Trumpism means and you’ll get some real variety; just look at the dust-up around Ramaswamy from some weeks ago to see the divergences in action.
Isolationism has little or no place in today's world. One need look NO FURTHER than North Korea with most citizens living in ignorance, extremely poor health & CRUSHING POVERTY to see its effects. Globalism is so much better for human society on a multitude of fronts.
The advantages of trade and sharing cultures have not been banished. It will be to American disadvantage to close ourselves off, if that's even a realistic possibility.
Pushing Autarky through punishing tariffs--especially of raw materials like steel--will devastate American manufacturing, not help it. Especially N American auto manufacturing. Trump's disruptive acts to destroy NATO will drive away over a trillion dollars in US defense exports to European NATO competitors over the next few years. It's amazing his actions have not already caused a massive equities devaluation.
And FOX Business can only applaud these actions. Have US conservatives gone mad?
Am on the same page as you. Trump's policies will most likely devastate the US economy. His actions are all performative and he doesn't have the capacity to understand the long range outcomes of his policies.
As you note, his recent actions in alienating Europe and Canada are going to cost our defense industries billions. Just one of the many poorly thought out choices he has made.
I don't like the Democrats and hope Trump would rein in his worst characteristics.
But instead the opposite has happened. He is so crazy and destructive I am hoping something removes him from office.
The GOP had their chance during the Impeachment trial. They blew it then; just like they're blowing it now. My parents and grandparents are rolling in their graves at just how far the Grand 'Ol Party has fallen.
Germany which you imagine can just print money to crank out shells and panzers like it’s 1938 again has some of the most expensive electricity on the planet, a big reason Rheinmetall 155 mm artillery shells cost 💶8,000 each and North Korea is literally out producing all EU NATO combined in arty rounds and rockets (backfilled by China ofc). The pseudo centrists and WorldWarWoke veterans cheering on a EUroReich are going to be very disappointed at the actual results from this supposed 800 billion euro war chest Merz has busted German budget caps to introduce.
This means you're planning on immediately selling your Rheinmetall stock?
Besides, Rheinmetall makes the best SP 155mm artillery in the world--not the EU's most cost-effective munitions. Now that Trump/GOP has cost US weapons manufacturers $200bn a year in defense exports, the Europeans will be most happy to fill the gap.
I'm not shorting the Rheinmetall stock, no. But I am suggesting that Germany's failed energy transition which made getting off Russian gas vastly more expensive will mean that the EUropeans collectively will pay a significantly higher price for a very overhyped, disappointing volume of munitions. And that the Romanian election cancellation will come back to bite Brussels in the butt, if nothing else by allowing MAGA to ridicule their claims of authoritarianism under Trump by pointing to Romania.
As a second and third order effect in a piece we're writing, we are also considering the strong possibility a Budapest-Belgrade pact could emerge from the constant EUrocrat bullying of the Hungarians and Serbs--one that a significant number of MAGA American vets would sympathize with. A scenario of Hungarian, Serb and maybe Slovak with some Romanian "weekend warriors" drilling five years hence to knock out blue and yellow flag flying German/French OPFOR armor with drones is definitely not on the "Europe must unite against Trump and Russians" crowd's bingo card.
That’s the choice? We can either have full-on globalization or be North Korea? The America of pre-1965 was reminiscent of a communist hellscape?
The US was "isolationist" even up to WWII. Many wanted us to return to that stance after the war but were overwhelmed by the factions of empire. Somehow we survived and thrived without infinite globalization. Ever-increasing globalism has led to our inability to produce manufactured goods without infinite foreign inputs. Inputs that are notoriously unreliable.
We assemble components - that's our manufacturing "base" at this point. Our military procurement processes are entirely broken. We spend hundreds of billions a year with "defense" contractors that are really hedge funds who, in their spare time, produce overpriced, underperforming weapons systems. That's not a recipe for long-term national security or success. It's a recipe for disaster.
It's long past time to right the ship. And somehow I think we'll manage to avoid the fate of North Korea in the process.
"The US was "isolationist" even up to WWII."
That didn't work out well, did it?
Japan was isolationist until Cmdr.( ? ) Perry. Then post WW2 they became an economic " empire ".
They may not be quite the trade empire that they once were ( the Chinese are moving ahead in that direction, looks like..... ) but they're definitely not SUFFERING. Unless I MISSED SOMETHING.
Japan was colonialist pre-WWII. They occupied China and Korea, started multiple regional wars. There was nothing "isolationist" about them then. And there's nothing particularly isolationist about them now, in terms of economics, manufacturing, etc.
Not sure who you were responding to but I am firmly anti-isolationist. My point was that US isolation after WW1 turned out to be a big mistake.
I agree that in action it's not coherent. But I do believe that Lyons identifies the "pure" form of Trumpism, which is why he denounced Ramaswamy and Musk in his most recent post.
It's more coherent than you might think. The 1st and 3rd factions the Librarian identifies are very close to each other in spirit and conception. The techno-libertarians are the least coherent part but even they have a role to play.
Very interesting essay. And I know why I as a woman am right to be ‘hysterical’ - it’s the misogyny that is terrifying. All your analysis is through the eyes of men, including yours. The feminine as enemy
I can assure you that I do not view the feminine as enemy. But you are right and I agree that misogyny is a theme that runs through Trumpism, including Lyons' version.
One of the challenges in writing this was to present Lyons' analysis in an objective way without endorsing it myself.
You're confusing misogyny with anti-feminism.
There is no confusion. They're the same. Misogyny is the hatred of women based on the belief that women are inferior to men. Feminism is the advocacy for equality of women. Anti- feminism is anti to that belief. You can't be equal and inferior at the same time. Splitting the hair is still part of the same shaft is it not?
You skim right past what I see as the true appeal to Trumpists for changing the current world: the suppression and control of women. All this chest beating bravado and focus on “family” and the taint of “feminization” they dread are a direct result of women’s slow and painful move toward actual equality and autonomy. What’s the argument in support of diversity? “Don’t taint our white masculinity with your ethnicity”—stay over there where you belong. Where in this world are gay people, disabled, or uninterested in reproduction? They are outcast. Others have made this argument more eloquently than me. I suggest you and your son—and others—follow Lyz Lenz whose “This American Ex Wife” and Substack columns detail the feminist objections to being buried beneath men’s fears and held back by their unwillingness to adapt to THIS world in THIS century. Trumpists believe in a world that never existed. They want their Disney without any messiness. We see already what they consider the messy side dishes of their vaunted masculinity.
Well put. The "war" on DEI and Woke, is just code for the aggressive loathing of women, Blacks, Gays, Hispanics, and Democrats in general. Naked aversion, without a shred of love or honor.
Trumpism as a form of intellectualism? Don't make me laugh. It's an oxymoron. Putting lipstick on a pig.
Ellen,
As I wrote to the comment above yours, one of the challenges in writing this was to present Lyons' analysis in an objective way without endorsing it myself.
Further as I wrote in the post, "Lyons doesn’t use the word “feminization,” but it’s implied. Can men really be men in such a disenchanted world?"
So yes misogyny is implied by the values Lyons finds compelling.
Again, these are not my values but I contend that if we want to understand what is happening to our country, we need to understand what's driving the pure believers.
I do think that many young men are afraid of the rise of women in our society, best evidenced by the 60/40 edge that women have in higher education. Many young men become susceptible to ideologies that fit their own experience, often lonely and rejected by the women they want to be with.
P.S. I subscribe to Lyz Lenz and I read her book.It has valuable advice for men, including husbands like me who've been married for 40 years.
100%
What a cloistered world you live in. You should use your fists for something other than shaking at the TV, or go to the shooting range sometime. Your perspective might change. Maybe.
I have no desire to fire a gun. I hate guns and I hate that we live in a gun-besotted society.
You'd rather suffocate the American citizenry slowly and heartlessly. You're not peaceful. You're a totalitarian.
If you believe guns are a core part of masculinity, god help you.
I don’t believe that at all. A gun is just a tool. Familiarity with how tools work is the mark of a well-rounded individual.
So you are suggesting beating people up or shooting guns will turn people into Trump supporters? That's an interesting insight into you, personally, but if you think Trump, whose 'shin splints' got him out of Vietnam is a masculine man, well... no.
Funny that is your conclusion. Says more about you that it does about me.
I enjoy reading this substack as a white woman, owns my own healthcare business, has and will have no children, returned to church upon living in a pandemic, who leans red. I was worried about the last post and while on vacation, didn't post I was worried about you. Those of us red leaning people were at home for four years also yelling at our TVs. We survived. I didn't thrive under Biden. In all honesty, since becoming a PT 25 years ago, I make less now than I did then. Most of this time has been due to government policies and corporate greed. The CEOs make more, I make less. Having spent due diligence and time with an amazing therapist who specializes in trauma, I can say 2 things. When Biden got in and covid happened and I felt things were headed into a direction hat worried me and scared me, she told me these are big problems, going to be solved by big forces and that I wasn't going to change a thing. I could change my response. I also came to realize that most of my response was due to how I learned safety growing up. My trauma was emotional neglect, living in a middle class family. Who could complain? I had food, clothes, traveled the world with my dad's business. What I didn't have was present parents who taught me how to feel safe and regulate because they were vacant, drunk and too self absorbed to be engaged with their 2 kids. So when I read your post, I felt concerned that maybe your ability to feel safe and self regulate wasn't onboard. I don't know your exact circumstances, but I am thinking that your chances of real existential hardship that should threaten real safety is probably low. I appreciate your concern for your family wealth and lifestyle, your charitable actions etc. I do sense your generous and kind nature and wanting goodness in the world. I would say, me leaning red, feel similarly as you. I want wealth generation for myself, for my charitable actions (I am charitable even leaning red) and for those around me and the country at large. So we have threads that could bind us rather than demonize us to one another. We should find those and make an quilt! One last thought. Check out Braver Angela and take one of their online (or in-person, I would imagine you have one close to you, mine would be 86 miles away or more). Their goal is to bring you (lean blue) and me (lean red) together to not change one another, but to be together safely and allow dialogue. But it requires us moving away from why aren't you like me thinking, to I see how that is for you and you see how it is for me. In this place of equanimity of spirit, we all feel safe no matter who occupied our governmental seats. Pollyannish thinking but I would prefer that than the vitriol we see dominating our country. In the end, we all live here whether we agree, disagree, gay, straight, black, white, Jewish, Christian, atheist etc.
Thanks KTon for your kind comment. Very much appreciated. Given what you write I'm sure we have similar values. I don't seek to disparage "red leaners" nor do I seek to disparage people like N.S. Lyons. Like you and most of us, I have many aspects of my life. It happens that recently what is going on with America is an aspect that I'm trying to understand because I am worried about it.
I don't think you would mean to disparage red cleaners. And understanding "the other" is a lifelong challenge. No one will truly understand you. It's why being with others can push our buttons. If only everyone thought/felt/believed/lived like me, this world would be much easier to inhabit ☺️. And sometimes how we are in the world (like the content of a blog post) isn't an intent and can be a byproduct of our actions. I enjoy your substack because you examine, admit, take responsibility for etc etc. For me, it's a sign of an engaged and caring person!
Also recommend braver angels and also red leaning. We need to accept that others think differently and that doesn’t make them bad or us morally superior.
thank you David...you contribute to my own gestation of this moment and there is a reassuring equanimity in your thought process, readings. Im no Managerial Elite but we are firm allies. This IS about strong vs weak and my fingers sweated longing to deliver my own message like Lyons except i have perhaps 499,900 less subscribers... each of us must fight and from the genuine parts, the limitations but strengths of our own passions.
One omission: Demi's character had the best advice for Cruise's lawyer which was basically feel out Jessup's neurotic dream of grandeur and let him hang himself with its disregard for truth, its blatant contempt for rules. It will require patience, suffering too but Lyons admits it himself: the working class won't tolerate an oligarchy that refuses to hide in the weeds and predates on the vulnerable families, the children, all the values we shed blood for that make our ridiculous consumption of this planets resources and yes we should feel guilty for it, our brutal history of inequity, almost bearable given as these shallow scared fossils are doing it in broad daylight. They dont give a damn about anything but exporting negativity and blame, just like our arms dealers supply the cartels with weapons by the billions of $ and they are the ones which need deporting as drugs claim thousands more lives daily than any Venezuelan gang member. If strong means insane we are halfway there.
Thanks Appleton. I can see you're also a fan of the movie. I'm glad you expressed yourself here with passion!
Hi David, thank you for that. We are opposites in many ways. Foremost regarding father/son.
Please read my book 📖‘Election 2016’.
I began following you via Robert Wright.
You can find my book and reviews on Amazon or my blog on Wordpress.
Cheers
Mark
Thanks Mark. I will check out your book.
Thanks, Dave. Your son might dig it, especially. Again I appreciate your open mind.
I appreciate the perspective sharing, and the clip from a Few Good Men sums the view well. While it is true the "weak gods" need the "strong gods" standing the on the wall, all too often our society idealizes the strong god duty as one who fights to protect our "chicken fried and jeans that fit just right."
Ultimately, an uncomfortable truth to the strong gods can't handle is they also protect the vegan, transgender athlete, and our ability to exercise the First Amendment to debate the proper limitation of the Second Amendment. If fighting for freedom means only fighting for people who look like you, worship like you, and live like you, you are not fighting for freedom at all.
We need each other. And our current pendulum swing represents the strong gods feeling their role in our society was shrinking. It's a defensive measure because their role shrinks in a stable, integrated society. They feel threatened. I get it. Stand down. Because if to feel powerful, strong gods need a closed, dangerous world, what a cruel prayer that is for all Americans.
Well said, Aaron. I agree it is a "cruel prayer." And good point that modern day warriors protect all of us regardless of what we believe or who we are. And yes they protect our freedoms as well.
Good for you for doing this exercise!
I wonder if Lyons would say that the return of strong gods is worth the probability of many people dying or suffering at the hands of the state. Because it seems like that is the trade - some sense of meaning or purpose for people who buy into the Strong Gods values, and in return a greatly heightened risk of the state inflicting terrible suffering. It wasn’t just Hitler - fascism has tended to be pretty brutal wherever it is.
I do think that's part of the "trade" and I think the end game of a world of the strong gods would be awful. Nasty and brutish is how Hobbes described the natural state of man without any safeguards.
I want nothing that man is selling.
I value family and human connections and freedom. I want a system in which everyone is able to do good work, to receive respect for that work and to be paid enough for that work so that they can live decently. I want to live in a culture that celebrates human potential, so that every child has a safe home with good food and parents who have time to be there (not working three part-time jobs with no benefits). I want everyone to have medical care and the opportunity to obtain job training and/or education. I want to live in a place where workers are paid fairly and their workplace is as safe as possible. No worker should be unable to pay rent and buy food. I want people to choose their way of life — stay single, get married, have children or not. Be straight or queer and face no judgment.
I want to live in a far less materialistic society based on people, not things! Most of us don’t need any more stuff but could probably use more time with good friends if we only had more time to devote to just spending time with people and not hustling for bucks.
The men who crow about “masculine energy” NEVER have it — they tend to give off what I can only apologize for calling “small dick energy.” All the crap those men spew seems to come from a basic low esteem for themselves as men.
They should come learn manhood from my husband. He’s very physically strong, can build anything, treats me like a lady, will lend anyone a hand with any project and works so hard that his last position now has four men doing what he did by himself. He can do hard physical labor and can handle ordering millions of dollars worth of steel, which is harder than you think. You can absolutely trust his word. He will get up in the middle of the night to comfort a dog scared of a storm or to rub my back when I wake up from a nightmare and then he gets up and goes to work. He comes home and helps with housework. That’s a real man. Not Musk or Trump or Vance or their acolytes!
Michelle, I think you know I agree with you. Your husband is admirable and I bet his goodness radiates out as a model and inspiration to others.
Thank you. Yes, he's a good one! I know I am lucky to have him. I will say that as time has gone by and the world has become increasingly unhinged, I have begun appreciating him more and more. He's absolutely not perfect but he's a good person. I am so grateful I took a leap of faith to marry someone from another country who would be starting over here. Character is by far the most important quality in a partner.
I'm not sure if Hollywood realized, when creating all these scenery-chewing hard-ass characters like Jessup or pretty much every character ever played by Ronnie Cox, how often disaffected middle Americans would see them as the misunderstood heroes with their heads on straight.
That's a good point. In The West Wing, Bartlet beats a cliched ignorant Republican played by James Brolin in his re-election. it would be interesting to re-run that election today!
As popular and influential as The West Wing remains (and destructive, much as I loved the show! as I argued in one my very first posts, https://ivyexile.substack.com/p/magical-sorkinism) it's an interesting artifact of a time and place before the Internet had really hyperpolarized politics and when middlebrow network TV shows could still reach a mass audience in a way almost unimaginable today. It was definitely a proudly liberal show, but an ecumenical version of liberalism that turned off a lot less of the country than what's become dominant in recent years.
I suspect that were an attempt made to remake The West Wing today it would be a prestige show of 6-8 episodes per season on a premium streaming service aimed primarily at wealthy people with graduate degrees, so it would probably be racing to keep up with the news cycle and have little of the universality or comfort food quality that's kept the original so fondly remembered.
I had not read that piece of yours and just did. Really fascinating POV. West Wing is definitely easy watching. My exposure inside politics has been very much not Sorkinesque. I appreciated how you handled your experience with Bill Moyers and your guests.
I hadn't thought of the WW as having a malign influence through unrealistic and false expectations. I'll have to ponder that.
Thanks as always for your comments!
Still, we ask ourselves, even decades later: What Would Toby Do? WWTD)
Most of the new characters would probably be gay or "trans".
It´s as easy as that:
if - as seeing/declaring yourself a "Leftist"/ "Left Wing" or not - you remain silent and/or unable when it´s clearly necessary to oppose to the excesses of so-called "Wokeness", then you are guilty of everything that happens to critics of so-called "wokeness," and if they're set into being wronged when they aren´t wrong, and if you're then unwilling or unable to stand in for them and to clearly distinguish the basically (entirely) legitimate content of so-called "wokeness" from its exaggerations and excesses, which massively mostly harm precisely just those who are supposed to get protected from discrimination and oppression by supposedly "woke" content, you are guilty of that what (not) happens !
Someone who doesn't want to see or name the unbearable problem of "woke" excesses should simply shut up when it comes to (claiming of) "(preserving) democracy" which is obviously not what they're concerned about and/or about which they don't understand anything.
And if someone remains silent about Trump and his fans and their excesses – no matter how justifiably annoyed they are by the sometimes unbearable agendas of the "Democrats" – and seriously "thinks" that their excesses and crimes should, would, or could contribute to "bringing things back into proportion," and who ignores or doesn't care how many lives are being lost or destroyed in that process, who doesn't want to be able to clearly and unequivocally counter, when people babble about supposedly "Christian values," how many crimes – including, among other things, the millennia-long persecution and murder of Jews and "non-believers" – have been committed "in the - alleged - name of Christianity," "in the name of family values,“ „in the name of manlihood“ etc. and all these lies, and how many countless lives have been destroyed "in their name": then they should just shut up when it comes to "(preserving) democracy" which is obviously not what they're concerned about, and/or which they seem or don´t want to understand anything about.
HOW, tell me, are "freedom and democracy supposed to be strengthened" when you risk being punished for every critical word toward a mentally ill man like Trump, who well-knowingly, infamously suffered immensely under his despotic father and, as a "consequence," now wants to show" his (dead) father“ „what he´s made of“ by adopting his narrow-minded and despotic characteristics exactly - at the cost of USA and the whole world ??!!???
HOW can you be SO STUPID as trying to distill something "meaningful," "positive" from such dangerous ILL nonsense?
TELL THAT to your son:
otherwise, you have understood nothing of what democracy means—instead of all your empty babble—and what it means to be a good father.
„DEMOCRACY“ MEANS to STAND IN for its values REGARDLESS of whom you have to take opposition against, and be it your own son ! Even if you´re totally alone !
If your son then separates from you and no longer wants to be so generously "creating a family for you", then it's probably for the best and was meant to be.
I appreciate the time and effort you put in to your comment.
Useful analysis, thanks David. History cycles from the crazy/passionate and the rational/chilly with murderous force. Hitler with his lebensraum sounded a lot like Lyons with his strong gods -- and it didn't work out well, as I recall. Yeats nailed it: "the best lack all conviction and the worst/ Are full of passionate intensity." The preacher of the Sermon on the Mount surely would not have like this Lyons' roar.
Nice pun!
"What rough beast?"