A Question of Character

Is Trump a fascist?  This seems to be the perennial question.  But it is not the most important question. Time and again, I am struck by how, if you stop and think, the conflicts around Trump have nothing to do with ideology.  It is important to not treat Trump as an ideolog.  That isn’t to say that he isn’t racist and transphobic.  It’s to say that his bigotry is not part of a cohesive set of arguments.  It is his personal prejudices combined with what he thinks is politically salient at any one given time and place.  His ideology is whatever he thinks it needs to be at that moment.  If we can hold out any hope for the next four years it is that Trump has said he believes anything and promised to do anything that mobilizes his base in the moment.  When it comes time to make good on those promises, it may prove harder than he thinks.  More importantly, the time may come when he has to prove that he truly believes the things he has said he believes.  It may become clear to those people whose ideas he has pledged loyalty to that he believes in nothing but his own desire for power.  

People say they like Trump’s policies even as they don’t like his character.  This is a cop out.  Character is central to democracy.  Actually, it’s impossible to have a properly functioning democracy when citizens and representatives lose sight of the fact that leaders in a democracy need to have certain moral characteristics.  No amount of checks and balances will protect a democracy if an entire party, or half of the electorate, abdicate their responsibility to ensure they support someone who holds basic democratic values.  This isn’t to, as they say, “blame the electorate.”  It is to point out that something has gone fundamentally wrong with the way America selects its leaders.  In our hyper-partisan environment, on both sides, character has taken a back seat to political litmus tests.  People have come to care only about a handful of divisive issues and not the big picture–the person they are helping to elect.  Political “nose holding” has become a way of life at the expense of American democracy.

What is at stake is just how screwed up the character of Trump and those that surround him really are.  Take Hegseth, for instance. What is most relevant is not what philosophical approach he is going to take as Secretary of Defense.  He is dangerous because he doesn’t have the character to serve his country.  He faces serious allegations of rape, and, perhaps even more importantly, has supported armed service personnel convicted of war crimes.  They can talk all they want, but in the end MAGA is a movement that cares nothing about the character of the people it sends to the government that is supposed to be serving the people.  And that is just plain wrong.  It is undemocratic.  Since when did character not count?