Donald Trump became the political vehicle for the American people’s resentment of an overweening, corrupt ruling class. Trump’s invaluable contribution to the Republic was to lead Americans publicly to disrespect that class.
Americans elected Trump to preserve freedoms and prosperity against the encroachments of that class. But instead, he became the catalyst by which that class cohered to transform the American Republic into an oligarchy…
Whoever would lead republican America going forward must reinvigorate Donald Trump’s priceless legacy: rhetorical disrespect of the ruling class. But Trump’s rhetorical leadership was not sufficient. For republican Americans to shield ourselves and restore our liberties, we must specify and explain that disrespect with regard to every part of the oligarchy. Unlike Trump, we must assert and explain the falsehood of claims to superior knowledge and morality, and build on these explanations by organizing and supporting popular acts of collective disobedience.
The next generation of leaders must act on the warning that President Dwight Eisenhower, our collective republican grandfather, gave us about the impending dictatorship of self-interested pseudo-experts: “a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity…” “domination of the nation’s scholars by federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is… gravely to be regarded,” and, “public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.” Read more…