Trump or The Conservative Revolution
By Francisco Almagro Domínguez
The idea that revolutions happen because of historical or economic needs could be debatable because it is a light-hearted generalization. Revolution is a profound, radical change in the structures of power. It may be that this power generates a state of social dissatisfaction based, paradoxically, on the desire for greater prosperity within the same power. A part of society – usually the middle and upper classes – would see greater aspirations curbed. The blood of the usual ones would be the revolutionary fuels; Those who decide when and how the revolutionary steamroller is activated are also the same: a fraction of the unsatisfied power.
From this systemic perspective, revolutions would not happen from the bottom up, as Marxists and non-Marxists claim, due to objective conditions such as misery and economic bankruptcy, or subjective conditions such as the awareness of change. Revolutions would begin with the split within power itself. They would use the "masses" as a shock army to achieve the overthrow of governance. That would explain why tyrannies jealously guard the "unity" of power. The dictatorial house is broken by the roof, not by the foundations.
Neither the American independence revolution was a rebellion of the poorest colonists, nor the Mexican agrarian revolution led by dissatisfied peasants. The French Revolution, a model of modern rebellion, emerged when monarchical power stalled the development of the capitalist potential that was taking steps in the rest of Europe. Anyone who claims that the Cuba of 1958 was an uneducated and miserable country in need of a fundamental change is lying out of misinformation or bad intentions. We owe a good part of the so-called Cuban revolution to those "living classes" who contributed with leaders, money, and cabals to the overthrow of the previous dictatorship.
When analyzing Trumpism as a new political current – because there is nothing like it in the history of the United States – we ignore that the precedent was several years of Democratic liberalism, and before that a Republican government entangled in wars and conflicts that finally brought one of the greatest crises of confidence in the all-powerful American banks. The well-known Tea Movement or Party emerged, precisely, at the end of Bush Jr.'s term as a conservative response to what was felt in the upper and middle classes as a decline of the founding values of the United States.
Donald Trump knew how to read dissatisfaction. A shrewd and undoubtedly intelligent man, he generalized a feeling of nationalist frustration toward the "masses". The brand Make America Great Again should be considered one of the greatest propaganda successes in political campaigns; Never have four letters pushed a presidential candidate so upwards. A portion of the powerful elite that did not see itself represented in Washington gave it political and moral support – the financier has never needed it.
With Donald Trump in the first presidency, the greatest conservative revolution after Ronald Reagan in the 80s became a reality. But his cunning was not enough to confront the liberal counterrevolution, partly because the Republican Party was divided after having "fought" with the Busch Clan and other historical leaders. In part because he accepted that the coreligionists placed in key positions generals and doctors dedicated to torpedoing any presidential ordinance with or without reason.
Four years of Democratic government have served as a social vaccine. Not even the all-powerful press, the fourth estate, has managed to sink the repeat candidate, not even with the help of prosecutors, judges, and juries who promised to lock him up in jail before the elections. The effect has been counterproductive. And that should also count for history: he is the only presidential candidate whose successful campaign has been developed from the courts of justice.
Even many Democratic strategists and, of course, tyrants around the world do not read that Trumpism is a mass phenomenon, a split from real power, a movement that is beyond Donald Trump or his tenacious followers. It is a conservative revolution in a country that is conservative in terms of family, religious, and political values. Any opposition to this "revolt" in its second season must have the awareness that it will face a phenomenon rarely seen in the history of 250 years of democracy: rich, very rich, and poor, very poor, have voted for radical change in the United States.
How will this "uprising" influence the rest of America? It is a topic for another article. For now, it has the name of the Secretary of State: Marco Rubio.
Comments