If Donald Trump had succeeded in moving the ball on nationalist and populist issues, we wouldn’t have been so bitterly disappointed with his presidency. Instead, he sold out to the Republican donor class and continued Zombie Reaganism, which he had been given a mandate to break with.
“Since the Trump revolution, there has been much ado about “zombie Reaganism.” The “dead consensus” of free enterprise and limited government, the thinking goes, lost its appeal for a newer (older?) kind of conservative. By no means afraid of government power, these conservatives have learned to stop worrying and love the state. Despite Trump’s defeat, they assure us that the GOP has changed tack: Laissez-faire and procedural liberalism are out; industrial policy and the common good are in.
American conservatives are no strangers to these kinds of intramural debates. But the rapid spread of this so-called consensus is unprecedented in the history of conservatism. Many influential figures take for granted that Trump represented a structural break in conservative thinking. It’s true that some of the Trump administration’s policies, notably on immigration and international trade, were deviations from conservative orthodoxy, but these were hardly successes. The trade deficit didn’t fall; in fact, it hit a record high. And while border security tightened, what we got did not remotely resemble the promised border wall and mass deportations. Both in terms of campaign assurances and sound policy, these aspects of “America First” were unambiguous failures.
Where Trump did achieve policy victories, all were straight out of the zombie Reaganism playbook. This isn’t to say they were always in line with the policies pursued by Reagan himself: Reagan’s brand of conservatism has taken on a life of its own, concisely expressed in the Gipper’s famous quip that “government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.” Casey Mulligan, who served at Trump’s CEA and wrote a memoir of his time there, reminds us that the gap between Reaganism and Reagan can be large. Nevertheless, zombie Reaganism represents a specific mythos, one that has infused the GOP for decades. And if Trump’s policy victories are any indication, it isn’t going anywhere. …
Trump’s fiscal policies were even more emblematic of the old consensus. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act slashed taxes for both households and businesses. For those who want the dead to stay dead, the reduction in the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent was a chilling encounter with Reaganism from beyond the grave. …”
The True Cons hijacked his administration.
As a result, Donald Trump’s public image on economics changed in 2017:
It was taken to levels which were electorally unsustainable in the Rust Belt. He cratered with White Independent voters who are Moderates who make less than $100,000 a year.
Ahhhh – Ronny Raygun – the prototype for the faux-Conservatism that we are now straddled with – gave critical support to the Brady Bill and the Assault Weapons Ban, gave 3M illegals blanket amnesty and doubled deficit spending during his 8 years in office.
And RR also kicked off the era of “financial engineering” i.e. scumbagging on Wall Street and mostly getting away with it. The 1980’s was truly an era of greed personified by people like Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, and Dennis Levine who, amongst others presided over the looting of pensions by using junk bonds, gaining control of companies by saddling them with debt, forcing a bankruptcy then buying back the assets out of bankruptcy cheap and without pension and other obligations. All the while that idiot Reagan and scumbag Republicans were worshipping at the altar of their beloved “free market” and bailing out banks in 1982 that foolishly lent money to Mexico and the rest of Central and South America.
Capitalism for thee, socialism for me should have been his campaign slogan. The Reagan period ended with a bang when the stock market collapsed in October, 1987. Predictably, the U.S. Government bailed out Wall Street again but changed the law so the Treasury and Federal Reserve can now do anything they want, in secret, too. Since 1987 the U.S. Government has been keeping the markets up, increasing their control after the collapse of 2008 under another Republican scumbag, GWB II.
Next stock market collapse will start the process of massive inflation ruining the dollar leading to the retreat of Government power. The U.S. Government can print as much money as it wants, no limit there but the U.S. Government cannot guarantee the purchasing power of the money they print. Money is the lifeblood of every government and when the money goes bad, the government’s power is greatly diminished.
The group of leftover Boomers that still buy the Cold War Capitalism ideology is shrinking. They always start giving moral lectures about a small town shopkeeper like a Sunday School teacher.
Meanwhile, in the real world – the globalized economy, with a global internet, global travel, fiat dollars, global trade, and Wall Street and the rest of the global “Capitalist” literally being 100% dependent on government bailouts, subsidies, and regulation – fewer and fewer people are interested in the Capitalism Sunday School lectures about “competition” and “incentives.”
So the Republicans spending the next few years pretending to be worried about “big governments” and “spending” will just go to their increasing marginalization. They would have already lost their majority if it wasn’t for Trump’s coattails. The only Republican less popular than Trump are all the other Republicans. You think anyone is going to vote for Marco Rubio?
Most people are just going to vote for whichever party gives them a better deal – that means “Gibs.” Certainly, the Real Capitalists on Wall Street donate to politicians and get what they pay for – trillions of dollars of Gibs.
I like RamZPaul, I’ve watched his videos for years, but that Boomer Ayn Rand libertarian stuff just doesn’t sell anymore. They can go shill for some Republican two years from now just like they shilled for Trump.
But without TV Celebrity Trump, no one is going to care.
We get it. It’s like Sunday School. Thanks, wag.
@John Bonaccorsi, Philadelphia
Boomer Capitalist ideology is always a Sunday School lecture about how unfair it is that some college kid gets a loan forgiven, but it’s totally no big deal that Larry Fink of Black Rock was given virtually complete control of the monetary system during Covid – or that the Fed started bailing out Wall street – again, FIFTH time in my lifetime – starting in October of last year, BEFORE Covid.
But the Boomer Capitalists think that anyone is still listening to them lecture about “hard work” and “the welfare state.”
None of the Boomer Capitalist will waste a breathe on the real issues, so people will continue to ignore them when they start belly-aching about “the kids these days with their free college.”
No one cares. You’re lecturing to serfs about abstract liberty none of them have.
The best decision now, not in some theoretical America that is long gone is to take the bag, get what you can because ultimately, the debt is going to kill the system anyway. The Republicans become fiscal conservatives only when the Democrats are in power or the money is for anyone except the oligarchs.
“No one cares.”
I’ve noticed.
If that be the case, then I hope Blacks, Latinos, and especially Jews get all of it, and that Whites get none of it. Its better for Whites to be reduced to absolute destitution and be forced to provide for themselves than to be propped up by the government like helpless children, and become slaves to said government.
“I can’t pay my bills! Please save me!”-White Americans
“LOL, no”-Muds and Jews who actually need handouts
No gibs for beta whitebois
>>> Its better for Whites to be reduced to absolute destitution and be forced to provide for themselves than to be propped up by the government like helpless children
And there you have it – right-wing conservatives are literally the enemy of white people and want us reduced to poverty, all for their religious fanaticism.
The Day of the Pillow can’t come soon enough – ironically the Boomer Capitalists will be smothered by their own Brown Slaves they imported to work cheap.
Note too that he skipped over Wall Street getting the Gibs – he’s fine with that.
Yes, but at least he isn’t racist, nothing more important than that.
Correction: we are the avowed Enemy of poor whites, who, by their own admission, needs gibs from the government in order to survive. It is better for the White Race as a whole, and moral, successful Whites in particular, to let Poor Whites rot and die. I’m not interested in saving all White people, because not all White people are worthy of being saved.
You’ve got me there. The bank bailouts in October 2008, and the stock market bailout of March 2020, do not arouse me to anger like gibs to lazy Muds and white trash does. I have contempt for parasitic poor people of all races in a way that I just don’t for the rich and for bankers. Sure, its unpopular, and I get that a multiracial coalition of lefty voters wants handouts for themselves now, but since Jews are the Master Race of this world, the riches and spoils will continue to fall to them. They deserve it in a way that YOU don’t – you being a lazy, not very bright, misogynistic piece of shit.
Every white person who shriek’s like a stuck pig for gibs proves the Jews right: We are a race of goyim cattle. We deserve the miserable fate they have in store for us. I’m at the point where I’m just agreeing with them and amplifying it.
@DP84
“needs gibs from the government”
Capitalism is 100% dependent on Government Gibs.
You are just posturing, of course. You aren’t a rugged individual, you are a Welfare Queen.
But you play a Rugged Individualist on the Internet, to help the Republican party get more Government Gibs for their patrons.
I get it. My point is that 50 years ago – hell, even 20 years ago – that sort of posturing impressed some people.
It doesn’t anymore. Hence why Trump is the most hated Republican – except for all the other Republicans.
Your ideology you pretend to believe in is just there to discipline uppity Whites, in the interest of Jews.
PUAs are filled with racemixers and shitskins.
https://heartiste.org/shit-cuckservatives-say/
“I would be proud to have a (half) black grandkid”
“I believe in a colorblind society.”
“I don’t have ‘white interests.’ I have the Constitution.”
“Unions destroyed Detroit”
Ayn Rand was a kike who supported abortion, decriminalizing faggotry, and was with a man who was a proud cuck.
Alissa Rosenbaum, real name.
Alisa. The pen name “Ayn” is a form of the Hebrew word ??? (ayin) meaning “eye.” Some also consider it a name for God.
Text of her anti-communist testimony during the Red Scare before the U.S. House of Representatives against Russia, and denouncing a Hollywood production, Song of Ruissia, as “communist propaganda”: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand%27s_testimony_before_the_House_of_Representatives_Committee_on_Un-American_Activities
GOP fraudester champion Reagan because he brought down the evil empire of USSR,demography collapse that Russia became nationalist.
Yeah no one predicted the USSR would disintegrate.
Reagan was the first POTUS to appoint a number of ex-Trotskyite neoconservatives to his inner circle. “The Gipper” was America’s first true zionist president. LBJ was pretty close, but Reagan edges him out by a hooked nose.
Ronny the amnesty President.
Continued: If jews such as Mark Levin and Zio-cucks such as Hannity and Rush love Ronny the amnesty and 1st gun control President, you know he was no good.
Ronaldus Magnus employeed Pat Buchanan as his communications director.
He also praised German soldiers who fought commies at Bitburg.
Additionally I enjoyed his scenes in the new Call Of Duty: Cold War video game!
Oriental Dissent continues to disappoint. Praising the yellow Andrew Yang? Diminishing the commie-stomper Reagan? Shameful!