Trump vs. Trumpism
I have a confession to make. I’m a DINO, that is, a Democrat In Name Only. What I mean by that is my status as a supporter of Democratic candidates and the Democratic Party is something I evaluate day by day and moment by moment depending on the circumstances. My appearance as a staunch supporter of all things Democratic is therefore an illusion.
The reason I appear to be a party line Democrat is because Democrats are usually (and by “usually” I mean the vast majority of the time) on the side of truth and morality and I am on the side of truth and morality. My first consideration is whether or not a thing is moral or true, not whether or not a thing is supported by the Democratic or the Republican Party, and politics and party be damned. In other words, the day a Republican takes a moral stand and a Democrat takes an opposite and immoral one is the day I will be on the side of the Republican. For me it really is that simple.
But the most compelling reason I have for being a DINO is the example set by Republicans. I have seen what being a party line Republican inevitably leads to. Blind and unquestioning support of an ideology can lead to evil, because ideology is secular religion. Steven Weinberg once famously said, “With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil – that takes religion.” He could have just as easily been talking about ideology, as far as I’m concerned.
Which brings me to Trumpism. Trumpism is the new ideology that Donald Trump has given wings to. It has of late taken on a life force and personality of its own, as ideologies so often do, and, if it can be imagined, it’s actually worse than Donald Trump.
When Trump encouraged people to get vaccinated he was booed by the Trumpist crowd. When Ted Cruz referred to January 6th rioters as “terrorists” he was beaten back, not by Trump, but by Trumpism as represented in the person of Tucker Carlson.
Trump is Victor Frankenstein and Trumpism is Frankenstein’s monster. The world of evil has finally reached the point where it no longer needs to be led by Donald Trump.
There was a time not so very long ago that had Donald Trump died his insane ideological fan base would have died with him, not unlike the way national socialism died the day Hitler died. But Trumpism has become a thing independent of Trump in a way national socialism was never distinct from Hitler. It has become a monster, an all-devouring ideology of hate, and Donald Trump is no longer a component necessary for its continued existence.
The next Republican presidential candidate will probably be a thoroughly Trumpist one. It’s even possible that he or she may not even require the endorsement or even the informal imprimatur of Donald Trump. The RINOs of the Republican Party will become fewer and fewer and the radical Trumpists will become legion. That is my prediction. I hope I am wrong. Because Trump is mortal, Trumpism very well may not be. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.