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Amar Patel's avatar

Interesting that one of the most authentically liberal political figures (in the sense postliberal sense) in our lifetime would be get the nod from TAP.

Trumpism has been purely atomizing because it has no true philosophical foundation.

"They hate him because he shattered this liberal consensus and stood for the common man."

He has galvanized varying angers and suspicions of different groups of "common men" without providing any kind of long term promise.

Your three points and how Trump fails to provide a path towards the common good.

Immigration - the Republican and Trumpist failure with regard to immigration has always been and continues to be a complete abandonment of trying to appeal to immigrants especially those of the Latin American type. They don't even try, they just assume that the Dems will gobble up these voters.

These immigrants are far more likely to be moved in principle by #FamilyFriendsFaith than the average atomized American. The difference is they need support to access an #OwnershipEconomy which neither the GOP in general or Trump espouse.

This leads us to Economy and Trade - Tariffs? The common good would be better served by worker cooperatives, small businesses, and employee stock ownership plans being the norm and not the exception. Trump, as a billionaire who has forever leveraged his wealth to squeeze the little guy, has never talked about dismantling the corporate overlord system because he functions within it.

"I am your peacemaker" cannot be our hope for peace in the world. Once Trump is gone, "us versus them" and "America First" will not be enough to forge any form of Common Good discourse. The entire engine is based off of a cult of personality. True international peace must be rooted in principles not personalities.

If your argument is the best GOP candidate is Trump I can see it, but

"Donald J. Trump remains the man to serve the interests of the common good, the common man, and put our country first." is implausible.

Donald J Trump remains the man to serve Donald J Trump is more accurate.

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B.T. Smeller's avatar

-Nothing about Vivek being an insane radical libertarian who wants to somehow cut government spending by 80%. He's just "Trump light".

I plan on voting for Trump, but acting like he would be a realigning president like FDR is false hope that should have gone away during his first term. He will not turn the GOP into a "post-liberal" party. We are looking at strategically supporting Republicans OR Democrats on a election by election basis from now on. I would probably support Biden or RFK Jr. over Haley if she were the nominee. The GOP probably will go back to nominating Haley-esque. candidates in 2028 even if Trump wins. The best argument for voting for Trump is that if Trump wins, there is a small chance this doesn't happen. But let's not overstate Trump's effect on the GOP or his postliberal credentials.

On abortion, there is little the legal system can do to suppress the abortion rate outside of a national ban, which is not politically feasible given the widespread popularity of abortion rights. The post-Dobbs status quo allows a small number of very red states to ban abortion, which has no effect on national abortion rates given the ease of crossing state borders. Meanwhile, the GOP governors in those states oppose Medicaid expansion and pass Right to Work laws. Until we can change hearts and minds so that voters would support a national ban, the issue is moot. This basically eliminates abortion as a reason to vote for Republicans in national elections--the National Catholic Reporter/America Magazine/libcath position wasn't valid pre-Dobbs because we had to overturn Roe, but it is largely valid now. If the GOP forced through a national ban, it wouldn't last one election cycle, and the blowback would be severe. Maybe the blowback is so bad a constitutional amendment for abortion rights is ratified. It sucks to say baby murder is a "settled issue", but that's the reality.

On immigration, Trump is better than Biden, but look at the recent history and the fundamentals. The GOP is structurally pro-immigration due to its donor base consisting of employers, both billionaires like Charles Koch and upper-middle-class small business owners who need to suppress wages to stay in business (think McDonald's franchisees and landscapers). EPI, a liberal think tank funded by unions, is more likely to criticize immigration than the Cato Institute. Bush Jr. tried to force through an amnesty during his second term with Cato/Koch backing. Obama actually increased deportations due to a fear of looking weak and liberal. It looks like something similar is now happening with Biden. He's getting pushback from moderate Democrats who are calling him weak and liberal on the issue. He can make the criticisms go away by getting tough on the border like Obama did. What Trump could do in the White House in 2025 might not look that dissimilar than what Biden ends up doing in 2024, even if Trump talks a big game during the campaign. And Trump can't pass any legislation limiting legal immigration like the RAISE Act because the pro-business wing of the GOP will block him. He's limited to what he can do via executive order, which is further limited by what the courts allow. The only difference between Trump and Biden on a BILL reforming the immigration system is that Trump will try and fail, while Biden won't try.

On trade, Biden has been largely identical to Trump, although perhaps we can thank Trump for pushing the Democrats to a more protectionist direction. But again, the GOP is structurally set up to be pro-free trade. The moment Trump leaves without putting a clear successor in place, we are back the the Dubya-era GOP. And while tariffs might be good on the margins, we are not returning to 1970s levels of domestic manufacturing and employment no matter what the president does.

On most fiscal issues, it seems that Biden is better than Trump from a post-liberal vantage point. Trump only looks good compared to other Republicans.

If your reason for voting for Trump is something like "feminism", realize that these deep seated social transformations are bigger than politics. President Trump cannot undue the industrial revolution or reverse the regrettable secularization of society. Even an authoritarian single party state would be unable to abolish 21st century cultural conditions through government writ. All that would happen is that cultural conservatism would be identified in the public's mind with an oppressive government.

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