Trump’s Nuclear Fallout: And the Future of the GOP
Trump started his political campaign with a bang and ended it with a whimper. The “insurrection” on January the 6th (now sometimes abbreviated to 6/1 to resonate with the scary thoughts of 9/11) caused a ruckus in the mainstream media—MSM—and scared the bejesus out of the cathedral. The fact that ANYONE—let alone a part of the GOP, no matter how small the faction is— could attack the “sacred” holy ground of the state was unthinkable… unless you were left-wing of course, but they seem to prefer local police stations and supermarket stores.
If Trump’s presidency ended with an event like the Capitol hill riot and protests, how could it “end with a whimper”? Hmmm. Well, for starters, the event at Capitol hill was purely symbolic; the end of an era, and the start of another. It was not a serious attempt at a ‘coup d'état.’ I mean, seriously, did anyone expect to overthrow the world’s largest military with a bunch of rednecks and flag-waving crazies? The Capitol protests and riots were more of a drowning dog's last few kicks, more sad and pathetic than the insidiously evil narrative drawn by the MSM.
But what got us to this point? Let us assess the rise and fall of the Trump administration— and more importantly, the prospects for liberty.
Well, it all started with that one speech in 2015. You know the one. The first speech announcing his run for the presidency was met with shock, horror, and mockery. But, there was a growing fan base. And those people grew in numbers as the months went by. Trump’s shocking anti-establishment, anti-MSM, and anti-cathedral messaging was like nothing seen in the mainstream GOP since Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan. With the quite genius catch-phrase “Make America Great Again” Trump managed something not pulled off in a long time— that is, he re-ignited the populist right.
A populist right is truly the phrase “playing with fire” as a political movement. When used right (no pun intended) the populist right can be a wonderful liberty-lovin’ movement. When used wrong, however… well, we all know what happens. (Hint: it rhymes with bashism). To be fair though, “populist right” is quite a broad term, to say the least— it encompasses any anti-establishment (anti-MSM and anti-cathedral) “right-wing” (culturally right of center, everything from regular ol’ conservatives to insane meth-addicted Julius Evola fanatics) political movement.
The Trumpist populist right is characterized by three key beliefs: a) having a general distrust and opposition to the MSM, the “deep state," and the cathedral, and b) a desire to “Make America Great Again,” i.e., to go back to a better time culturally speaking, a time spared of the seeds of progressivism which would come to flourish in the next four years, and, thirdly, c) a loyalty towards Donald Trump. The first two I believe to be admirable— the third, not so much.
The kind of anti-MSM politics pushed by Trump was not really seen before in nearly all of American politics. Sure, here and there there were outliers, but for the most part, politicians were at most passive towards the MSM, if not out-right supportive. Trump changed this by being actively anti-MSM. And boy did they hate him for it. Throughout his presidency, Trump was targeted and harassed by the MSM to a much sharper degree than anyone before him. He was universally hated by the cathedral— not because of his action, but because of what his rhetoric stood for. Right-wing populism is the biggest threat to the cathedral’s dominance.
But it turned out to be just that: rhetoric. After the surprising 2016 win, Trump was expected to turn his pre-presidency rhetoric into reality. That day never came.
What were Trump’s actual policies in office? Well, he lowered tax rates by about 2% overall… yay? Better than nothing. Not exactly the radical change expected, but whatever, maybe he will cut the federal government deficit? The fiscal-year federal government deficit doubled since 2015. Well the NRA endorsed him so did he have a strong pro-gun presidency?
Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks
Not exactly the messiah we were hoping for.
But, again, he represented something more than just his presidency. Trump proved that there is hope for the populist right to expand— and hopefully become truly right-wing.
The paleo-strategy
Ahh, the good old paleo strategy. First thought of in the late ’80s and came close to realization in the ‘90s, the paleo-strategy looks to be having a resurgence. And that’s a good thing. A lot of great paleo-libertarians, such as Tho Bishop, have been attempting (for around 4 years at this point) to turn the American right libertarian. Is it working? I believe so.
But what is the paleo strategy? In short, it is a movement attempting to draw an alliance between cultural conservatives, traditionalists, and right-libertarians— most libertarians being anarchists. Rothbard gives, in his great article, the steps that the conservatives and libertarians must utilize.
Slash taxes - All taxes, sales, business, property, etc., but especially the most oppressive politically and personally: the income tax. We must work toward repeal of the income tax and abolition of the IRS.
Slash welfare. Get rid of underclass rule by abolishing the welfare system, or, short of abolition, severely cutting and restricting it.
Abolish racial or group privileges. Abolish affirmative action, set aside racial quotas, etc., and point out that the root of such quotas is the entire “civil rights" structure, which tramples on the property rights of every American.
Take Back the Streets: Crush Criminals. And by this I mean, of course, not “white collar criminals” or “inside traders” but violent street criminals-robbers, muggers, rapists, murderers.
Hey Trumpists. This is real conservatism.
Defend Family Values. Which means, get the State out of the family, and replace State control by parental control. In the long run, this means ending public schools, and replacing them by private schools. But we must realize that voucher and even tax credit schemes are not, despite Milton Friedman, transitional demands on the path to privatized education; instead, they will make matters worse by fastening governnent control more totally upon the private schools. Within the public school system, the only sound alternative is decentralization, and back to local, community neighborhood control of the schools.
Decentralization, baby! That’s the key. The problem within the Trumpist GOP movement is that they don’t endorse complete and total decentralization… but they could. What part of the decentralist ideology— paleo-libertarianism— goes against the anti-cathedral ideology of the right-wing populist movement? Is it not even complimentary, perhaps? You see where I am getting at.
But wait, didn’t Trump use decentralization in his Covid-19 “battle”? He did— and it was probably the best thing he did throughout his presidency. By letting the states decide what level of lockdown they would implement, Trump opened the door to right-wing populists such as Ron DeSantis to rise to the very top of the GOP.
The future of the GOP and the strategy for liberty
After Trump, the GOP (the party of Trump) is looking for a new direction. Somewhere to place their faith. I say, read some Rothbard and abolish the damn state— haha. But more realistically, the GOP needs to become the party of a) state rights and secession and b) anti-establishment, right-wing populism. Both are achievable goals in the next ten years, perhaps even five years. The latter is three-quarters complete, the former a third to halfway done.
The ideology of the GOP isn’t set in stone— no political party’s ideology is set in stone, but they do have levels of “moldability.” And the GOP’s “moldability” is at an all-time high. The iron is hot!
The idea of secession is rising in the GOP’s ranks, much harder than the last few times. This time seems different. “[S]ecession is the next big MAGA play.” I sure hope it is! A secessionist GOP is something every libertarian should get behind.
So then, who does it seem will become the next leader of the GOP? At the current moment, it seems Florida governor Ron DeSantis will become the king of the GOP. That’s ok, he seems alright— much better than the majority of the GOP for sure. I highly doubt that DeSantis doesn’t become the Republican presidential candidate in 2024— I also highly doubt he wouldn’t win.
The most important question about Ronny here is this: would a DeSantis administration allow for states to secede from the union? While we don’t exactly know the most probable answer is, yes. Or, at least, he would be the most open to it out of the available options. I cannot imagine a George Bush or Mitt Romney allowing any state to leave the union. But a DeSantis? Maybe. Hopefully. Power does corrupt, but maybe after his presidency he can ride back to Florida in a white Ferrari— which he bought with Democrat state tax money— and become the absolute monarch of the free nation of Florida. We can all dream.
And secession is for sure a possibility. 50% of southern Republicans and 45% of southern independents support southern secession— exciting! Now, while that only sums up to 33%… wait only? That is a lot! Considering most revolutions are actively supported by a minority of the population this is an actual possibility, something we may actually see in the next 10 years.
My comments on the GOP should not be confused, however, as “putting faith into a political party.” It is not. It is simply scoping out the probability and prospects for decentralization and secession.
A good quote should end this article off right (no pun intended). Here it is:
Don’t put your trust in democracy, but neither should you put trust in a dictatorship. Rather, put your hope into radical political decentralization
— Hans-Hermann Hoppe