Burying a Party

Mikael Ohman
November 7, 2016

The Party of Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln together with antislavery proponents of the Whigs and

Democrats formed the Republican Party and became its first President of
the United States. Though not running on a platform to abolish slavery,
and even confirming as much in his inaugural address, prevention of further extensions of slavery into any new territories caused several southern
states to declare their secession from the Union. In the resulting civil war,
slavery was defeated. How could such a party nominate Donald Trump for
president?

Four Disasters

In the early 1970s, Richard Nixon was revealed as a ruthless crook who spied
on political opponents. That this was the cause of his resignation and not
the countless bombs dropped on Cambodians is a shameful fact. This person
had no principles. Price controls were enacted, the Federal Reserve was to
be used as a re-election campaign tool, and ethnic tensions were exploited
to gain votes.
Ronald Reagan had the opportunity to stop the expansion of government and revive the economy. This opportunity was squandered and the
national debt increased. In addition, the military industrial complex grew
unneedlessly prompting George H. W. Bush to use all investments in the
Gulf War before they depreciated to zero. The mismanagement of these
years has been described in detail by Mr. Reagans budget director David
Stockman.
George W. Bush gave influence to anti-science evangelicals, fought two
undeclared wars destroying the lives of millions, and presided over an indebted bubble economy that has yet to be purged.
i

A Nation Trumped

With predecessors like these, what hope left was there for Republicans to
find a decent candidate this time around? This author would argue that
Rand Paul represented the best compromise of liberty and liberalism available. Sadly, in the rock star era of presidentialism that Barack Obama
inaugurated, Mr. Paul may not have been exciting enough.
Is it any surprise then that a figure like Donald Trump emerges? Is
it really any different from the likes of Marine Le Pen, her father, Nigel
Farage and other characters? Mr. Trump prays on grievances among people
who are not as competitive in a global economy and whose skills are simply
not worth as much, relatively speaking, as they were before. At the same
time, the opposing party has chosen a highly disliked character facing FBI
investigations and whose use of a charity foundation and speeches to enrich
herself in exchange for political favors is downright disturbing. To top things
off, the Federal Reserve is no longer merely trending rates further downwards
(yes, there was an insigificant bump upwards last year), but have actively
used the printing press in recent years to exacerbate inequity, causing prices
of assets own by the wealthy to increase while regular working people may
consider their wage devalued.
Taken together, this explains (but does not justify) the nomination of
Mr. Trump. It is impossible to justify the nomination, let alone election, of
a candidate who believes that wealth comes from tarriffs and protectionism,
and that taxes can be lowered without corresponding cuts in expenses and
that a budget surplus will still result. This is a person who talked about
his penis size during a Republican primary debate. When a mexican judge
presided over a lawsuit against Trump University, Mr. Trump accused the
man of bias simply because he was mexican.
From a non-US perspective, Mr. Trump is even worse. In 2012 he
claimed China created the concept of global warming to make US manufacturing uncompetitive. His undeniable narcissism made him flatter Vladimir
Putins nasty power grip of Russia, calling it strong leadership, after a modest compliment from Mr. Putin. On support of NATO members in case of
conflict, Mr. Trump declared the support to be conditional, defeating the
entire point of the millitary alliance.
The list could be extended but it is hardly necessary. Suffice it to say,
these policies and statements are not typically Republican. They are typically Trumpian. In the best of worlds, the nomination, and failure of, Donald
Trump will mark the start of the reformation of the Republican party into
a party that adopts a classically liberal platform while forever shutting the
door to scientific illiteracy and mysticism, militarism and dubious warfare,
strong talk but meager action on government size reduction and corporatism
as opposed to entrepreneurship.
The analogous list on the Democratic side is also long, mind you. But
ii

it will be the subject of the coming four years of Mrs. Clintons presidency.

iii