I’m assuming you’ve heard, but Donald John Trump was just elected to be the forty-fifth president of the United States. I remain, as I have ever been, hugely skeptical of president Trump; I steadfastly refused to sign on to Walter Block’s "Libertarians for Trump," preferring instead to claim membership in Robert Wenzel’s competing group, "Libertarians Against Trump, Clinton, Johnson, and Stein." Still and all, there is the potential for some good to come from a Trump administration, which statement I would be unable to make about Hillary Clinton. To get a sense of what I’m talking about, consider the few moments of Trump’s victory speech in which he says substantive things rather than merely thanking his staff and supporters:
Yes, the look on Barron’s face is consistently amazing the whole way through the video. Never mind that, though — that’s not what we’re here to talk about. In particular, I’d like to call attention to the following words that may have dropped under the radar, since they came after a few moments of Henry Clay-esque American System infrastructure hogwash:
[W]e will get along with all other nations willing to get along with us. We will be. We will have great relationships. We expect to have great, great relationships…
I want to tell the world community that while we will always put America’s interests first, we will deal fairly with everyone, with everyone. All people and all other nations.
We will seek common ground, not hostility; partnership, not conflict.
This is the real shining kernel of hope in the Trump presidency. The United States is the world’s most hostile, belligerent nation, and that most Americans are so accustomed to it they don’t even realize it is downright bizarre. I’ve written before, and it hasn’t become any less true, that the last American president who did not preside over any foreign military adventurism was Herbert Hoover. Herbert Hoover left office in 1933. For the past eighty years, the United States has interfered with, manipulated, and outright slaughtered the citizens of countless other countries, often for no better reason than the pursuit of some cynical global social project. Under a Hillary Clinton administration, there would be no hope of breaking this trend. Donald Trump offers some hope — perhaps slim, but non-zero — that the United States may once again become a peaceful nation, going not abroad in search of monsters to destroy, as some irresponsible hippie pinko once said. "She might become the dictatress of the world" indeed.
Most importantly, of course, is the utter repudiation of Clinton’s insane drive to war with Russia. One needn’t be an agent of the Kremlin to want to avoid the nuclear obliteration of the entire world, after all! When Trump delivers his lines above, his audience cheers; clearly, peace is what these people want. The American people are tired of endless, useless wars. Though I fully expect to be disappointed, for the time being I will hold out hope that president Trump will heed the people and put an end to it.
The other interesting thing the Trump crowd cheered for was his mention of Hillary Clinton. They actually cheered. Now, I get that the people who come to a presidential victory speech are pretty delirious and likely to cheer for unusual things, but it’s still nice to see that, after such an abnormally vicious election cycle, America’s deplorables still have the class to cheer, and not boo or hiss, when the winner congratulates his opponent on a hard-fought campaign and many years of "service." I’m certain it’s too much to expect that the present astonishing level of incivility might actually recede a bit — just as a hint, it isn’t coming from the sort of people who attend Trump victory speeches — but it’s a nice throwback to days long past.
President Trump is poised to be surrounded by a wall of quite frankly terrifying advisors and hangers-on. There will be immense pressure on him from day one to turn his back on peace and partnership, and return to the same-old same-old of crony arms deals and undeclared foreign wars. I do believe the man is sincere in his desire to get along with the rest of the world, but I am not convinced he can withstand the horrible advice he’ll be receiving.
So there is some small reason for hope in a Trump administration. Failing that, at least there will be entertainment; at the conclusion of his victory speech, Trump seriously processed off the stage to the tune of the Rolling Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want. At least in one respect, Donald Trump, you are the goods.