Light On Dark Water

Scholars and Writers For Trump

This is the thing I mentioned in the comments on an earlier post: a list of 125 or so people, active in either academia or punditry, who support Trump. I recognize maybe a quarter of the names. Of those, a fair number are people I respect–R.R. Reno of First Things, for instance. And I'm a little shocked by their presence. Not because they say they will vote for Trump, but because the list, and the fact that it's on a web site called American Greatness, suggest something beyond the Hillary-must-be-stopped reasoning which I think is a perfectly legitimate reason for voting for Trump.

Here is a sort of symposium in which some of the signers explain their reasons for supporting Trump. Some are basically just Hillary-must-be-stopped, others express a degree of enthusiasm which I find hard to understand, especially if I start thinking about specific things Trump has said over the past few weeks, and indeed the past year.

And here is "Our Declaration of Independence from the Conservative Movement", a summary of the principles of the American Greatness project. It comes pretty close to the hope that politics can, as we were saying on that earlier post, "turn this thing around," i.e., save the country. I don't think restoring American greatness is the purpose toward which we should be working now. But it does make sense that people who think it is should be supporting the candidate who has made that his slogan.  

Maclin Horton

13 responses to “Scholars and Writers For Trump”

  1. Stu

    I also believe “Trump must be stopped” is a legitimate reason for voting for Hillary!
    While Hillary represents “more of the same”, Trump is such a nutcase that he might happily get us in wars due to his thin skin.
    Let us not forget that we have all deaths from Iraq and Afghanistan to thank the Republicans for (IMHO of course).
    I realize that we still have unemployed pastry chefs that won’t bake a cake for gay weddings as a tragedy without measure.

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  2. Art Deco

    I don’t have much time for RR Reno, but there are some engaging figures on the list. (Lino Graglia, Anne Henderschott).
    I’d be more at home with a different set of tropes. “Make America Great Again” is not one I’d choose. We’re in a world where we have to contrive strategies to cope with an ascendant China, and while that will require keeping your powder dry, it will also require cunning of the sort our government seldom displays.
    As is, I don’t think there are many people among our elites or key professional sectors who have a curatorial sense about the institutions they dominate. We are ruled by vandals. Our school administrators are vandals, the faculty are vandals, our lawyers and judges are vandals, and our politicians are self-seeking crudniks. It’s so wretched.

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  3. Mac

    “I also believe “Trump must be stopped” is a legitimate reason for voting for Hillary!”
    I won’t argue with that view either, although it’s not mine.
    “We are ruled by vandals.”
    Yep, that’s a good five-word summary of the situation.

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  4. Stu

    Do I count as a “school administrator”, Mac? I don’t know about faculty, many are simply teaching their discipline…but overall I find myself agreeing with Art’s post!! Although I am a little unsure what a crudnik is, and not sure about what a vandal is either.

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  5. Mac

    No, I don’t think you count in this context. You’re just following orders. 🙂
    “crudnik” seemed self-explanatory to me, although maybe it means something more specific. “Vandal” is appropriate for people who enjoy breaking stuff, which has been a pleasant pastime for many in academia, or rather in certain liberal arts and social science areas, for a long time now.

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  6. Craig

    The best response I’ve seen to these endorsements is Nathaniel Peters’: here.

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  7. Mac

    Oh yeah, I didn’t recognize the name at first but I had run across that a few days ago. It’s excellent.

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  8. Mac

    And here‘s a really fine piece on the same subject by Ross Douthat.

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  9. Marianne

    Both really good responses. Heartening to know that they’re written by two men who are still quite young.

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  10. Mac

    Yes, it is, especially as I run into a lot of young and youngish people who seem pretty clueless, though not really any more so than older people.

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  11. Grumpy

    I remember another thing about my political views in my 20s. I was deeply disappointed by Michael Novak’s The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism. All it seemed to me to do was show how Democratic Capitalism works. No Theory about Dem Cap, or how it connects with the Church’s social teaching. Just a mild mannered explanation of how Democratic Capitalism works and is a moral system. I just didn’t care how a political system works in practice. All I wanted to know was whether it works in theory 🙂
    My own view about why young Catholics are becoming Tradinistas and the Protestant versions of that is that Novak did not have an academic position, so he had no PHD students, and no one developed his views for the next generation and the next generation. Of course its possible that there’s no one in Political Science explaining to the kids why Democratic Capitalism is a good idea because it is not and because Novak is just wrong. But I also think its possible that Novak simply lacked disciples who could do what he did for the next generations.
    I can report that Rob Grano had lunch at my house today after attending some kind of Paleo conference at a Mid Western University and he ate pretty well.

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  12. Mac

    Way to go, Rob!
    I can’t speak to the question of Novak and academia, but apart from Novak’s case I imagine it’s true that d.c. doesn’t get a lot of favorable attention in political science departments. Also the whole neo-conservative defense of d.c. was all bound up with the Republican party and conservative social views, both of which tend to be disfavored by academics, both faculty and students.
    Not especially related, but just because you mentioned theory and practice: one of my favorite aphorisms is “In theory there’s no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is.”

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  13. Rob G

    I confirm Grumpy’s account, noting that the meal provided was marvelous, precluding any possibility of not eating well, and that in consequence I felt compelled to ask my hostess for the recipe for the main course.
    Of course, it goes without saying that it was a pleasure finally to meet in person one of the members of this august crew!

    Reply

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