Fear and Longing: Donald Trump and Conservative Ideology

Donald Trump has made a discovery that many in the mainstream political and media establishment appear to find surprising. Conservatives and reactionary forces in the US have no real political ideology.

It has long been an accepted notion that Republicans have a firm commitment to conservative principles -- limited government, low taxes, economic freedom for businesses owners, and traditional family values. For decades the mass media has granted conservatives a certain benefit of the doubt. Although we may sometimes find the conclusions to which their ideology leads them to be contradictory, antiquated, and even backwards, their motivations at least seemed pure.

The 2016 Presidential Race has shown that notion to be hollow and lacking foundation in reality. Donald Trump has struck a nerve with American conservatives that has nothing to do with policy positions, tax rates, or legislative strategies. To be sure, when it comes to social welfare programs, at least relative to many traditional conservatives, Trump teeters on the edge of centrism. Trump has vocally supported some form of universal healthcare; opposed cuts to Social Security and Medicaid, been comparatively soft on his opposition to Planned Parenthood; proposed heavily taxing and penalizing American businesses who outsource jobs; and strongly denounced the war in Iraq for its destructive impact on both American soldiers and Iraqi civilians.

For the past eight years the conservative populace has been screaming for a candidate who would stand up for true conservative principles, how can they now be swarming to support a man who takes positions they've spent decades claiming to oppose? This is where Donald Trump has discovered the core of conservative ideology.

Trump’s seemingly insufficient commitment to what we've been told are "The Principles of Conservatism" are more than made up for by his commitment to the real foundation of conservatism -- fear of the other, false radicalism and a desire to return to nebulous glory days that never actually existed. American conservatism’s reality has nothing to do with government or law-making; it is a reactionary fear-based belief system that tells us that we are under attack by external forces. Mexicans are streaming across the border in droves to steal our jobs and rape our women, Muslims are sneaking into the country to murder us, and liberal politicians are fraudulently usurping the United States government in order to take your paycheck and line their own pockets.

Walls need to be built, borders patrolled by men with guns, and those whose way of life looks different than our own need to be kept in check. The bogeyman might change from day to day but the message is always the same: We are under attack by the outside world and must protect ourselves. This has been the root of right wing manipulation of the working classes throughout the last century. Specific policies have been little more than window dressing for this singular belief, so virtually any political position can be tolerated as long as it incorporates this narrative of fear of the outsider. Trump's entire campaign has been centered around a longing to "Make America Great Again," to return to some poorly defined bygone era when we were safe and secure. Which time period he hopes to return us to is irrelevant; what matters is that we are uncomfortable in the modern age; we feel lost, disoriented, and insecure.

That the political positions of the right are abhorrent isn't generally up for debate in progressive circles. What goes unmentioned and unexplored all too often are the actual mechanisms of reactionary ideology. To say that the mainstream political establishment, both progressive and conservative, was unprepared for the onslaught of Trumpism is an understatement. Both sides spent the lion's share of the run up to the presidential primaries rolling their eyes at the prospect of a Donald Trump presidential campaign and they did so because they failed to understand the primary motivator of reactionary movements throughout history.

Trump might be anti-intellectual but he is far from stupid: he correctly identifies the true roots of conservatism, even boasting about this in his campaign events, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody. And I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" And as long as the person he shot was someone unfamiliar and frightening, he's absolutely right.

This is the true danger of right wing ideology; this is what needs to be opposed. Laws can be changed, politicians come and go, but this mentality of fear and longing has been arguably the most destructive force in human history. Donald Trump is showing us all the underlying belief systems of the right. We'd be fools not to pay attention.

Justin Hughes is a freelance writer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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