So argues P.J. O’Rourke in a piece that nearly made me weep.
The election of 2016 was terrible because it wasn’t an election, it was a rebellion. America is having a civil war, or, to be more accurate, a War of Incivility. The war is not between Republicans and Democrats or between conservatives and progressives. The war is between the frightened and what they fear. It is being fought by the people who perceive themselves as controlling nothing. They are besieging the people they perceive as controlling everything. We are in the midst of a Perception Insurrection, or, depending on how you perceive it, a Loser Mutiny.
The revolt against the elites targets all manner of preeminence—political elites, business elites, media elites, institutional elites, and, kind reader, you. You’re reading an article in a serious magazine, and the article is about a serious subject (however flippantly treated). This marks you as an elite.
Elite though I may be by that standard, I have excoriated the elite in this blog for over a decade. I can’t stand those people.
And one thing is very clear.
They deserve Donald Trump.
But now that he is getting around to such “populist” ideas as renewed support for noxious policies like asset forfeiture, I am forced to ask a question.
What about the rest of us — libertarians like me who have vehemently opposed the elites for decades and who opposed Hillary Clinton with all their hearts — do we deserve him too?
What options do we have?
My concern is that while the elites were (and are) terribly, terribly, wrong, that does not make the populists right.
Comments
10 responses to ““Populism is a libertarian tragedy””
I agree with you about civil asset forfeiture, it’s an abomination. I’m not quite ready to condemn Trump on the issue just yet, I think he tends to scatter shot policies to see what kind if reaction he gets, and he shuts up fast if they flop. Lets see if anything at all happens.
Peej really seems to have lost it recently.
You’d think the man who wrote Republican Party Reptile would appreciate Trumpism. (Trumpismo?)
MMM, hope you’re right. FWIW, Breitbart has been condemning asset forfeiture for years.
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/06/25/federal-court-government-not-need-warrant-search-computer/
P.J. is a little late to the real parry.
The City vs Country divide has been a feature of human politics for 5,000 years or more.
Too bad we haven’t figured it out yet.
Two Ecologies
A Thermodynamic Explanation Of Politics
And thanks for the link!
Breitbart has been on a terrible pro-Drug War kick for months.
On top of that they don’t seem to be covering things that would damage Trump with the base (like asset forfeiture) much.
They have become part of the machine. IMO.
I am a non-ignorant southern white trash liberal populist democrat. if you looked what has happened to the mid west rust belt states by libertarian free traders and their bought democrats and republicans you would be scares too! I have no problem with the guillotine for free trader libertarians. most here are libbers because they want to legalize dope. in a democracy you can’t go destroying the economy for the many for a benefit for a few elitists.when they stopped bernie sanders they thought they had won as sanders voters “HAD” to support clinton. WRONG!
PJ endorsed Hillary, I’d say that says a lot about him.
The war is between the frightened and what they fear.
No, it’s between the pissed off and what pissed us off.
Our fine betters keep writing articles that shows them to be smart and good and everybody else to be stupid, ignorant and full of hate.
They refuse to accept that that’s how we got Trump in the first place.
Trump’s 2020 re-election committee is hard and work and they’re the same people who gave him $billions in free advertising.
What Veeshir said.
“It’s between the pissed off and what pissed us off.”
Yes, it really is that simple.
Yeah, except now I’m pissed off again! This escalation of the Drug War shit is intolerable. It continues to be the most tyrannical aspect of the federal government, and Trump wants to ramp it up? This is a perfect example of why I cannot call myself a conservative (and why I will never forgive Ronald Reagan….)