… scratch that.
I heard about this William F. Buckley quote but didn’t read it until a few days ago. And since that time, I’ve had a chance to chew on it.
Parts of Buckley’s statement do seem to fit, do they not? Especially the reference to Trump’s vanity. And regardless of what one thinks about Trump’s style — effusive self-aggrandizement, the maundering occasionally incoherent free-verse, the combative elbows-out swagger — the criticism regarding “a successful business man” in this quote rings fair in my view… at least it did on first glance. Now, I’m not so sure.
Upon further thought, this next president, well presumably a responsible, non-delusional president (big presumption given the other side), must deal with the gargantuan, steaming pile of $19,000,000,000,000 of Federal debt, a yearly deficit exacerbating it, as well as crippling Federal inefficiencies and corruption (IRS, VA, EPA, TSA, Secret Service, etc) resulting in a crisis of confidence (Ebola, ISIS, security, every other Federal government responsibility). This does have a “bottom line”, streamline the operational government business feel to it, does it not? And isn’t that what good business executives do in times of existential crisis? (And spending what we’re spending, accruing what we’re accruing is existential. Math is humorless.)
I’m not for Trump, but I think a case for a bottom-line focused, trim-the-fat driven candidate can be made for the next president. That may not be as emotion stirring or as pride imbuing as Buckley’s “midwifing the new republic; freeing of slaves; harnessing the energies and vision needed to win the Cold War” accomplishments. But as sweet and as comforting as those presidential accomplishments seem to be now, their sweetness and comfort blossomed over time masking the pungent twang of insecurity, anxiety, and uncertainty which hung over the eras during which those accomplishments were undertaken.
The same insecurity, anxiety, and uncertainty one can argue manifests itself today in the unprecedented prolonged electoral popularity of “outsiders” and “non-establishment” types. Types perceived who do not have a history of taking the people’s support for granted, types who are perceived not beholden to political or bureaucratic institutions, types perceived who will right the ship of state, stem the spending, and staunch the corruption. Types perhaps like a businessman. Types perhaps like… Donald J. Trump?