We have to face it. Most of America are not FReepers, either in membership or thought. This isn't a, "people are stupid" remark but just the nature of civilization. Consider how many colonists supported the revolution. It wasn't even a majority.
Trump exhibits all the trademarks of someone who has an America first policy which resonates with most people, excluding, of course the multiculturalist left.
The political parties can't be considered fulfilling that role. The notion of politics ending at the water's edge is dead as far as they're concerned. Both from the Democrats and the Republicans. Corporations sure don't fill that role. Globalization has seen to that.
In terms of Trump's political philosophy it isn't exclusively right or left. If elected he's going to do things we love and things we hate. If I had to put a name to it I would consider it a sort of John Stuart Mill-inspired utilitarianism which essentially says, "if it works then it's right," or whatever does the most good for the most people. It is somewhat divorced from conservative or liberal political philosophy but is not libertarian either.
If you think that the next election can be considered, "2016 or Bust" for America then Trump makes all the sense in the world. An America first policy in all aspects of nation-statehood.
Well said.
Immigration and multi-culturalism have our country (and the first world, for that matter) at an existential crisis point. The Donald is far from perfect, but I think he is the right fit for this moment in history.
How does this compare with Jeremy Bentham who inspired John Stuart Mill. Here is the quote of his major philosophical/governing principle:
“This philosophy of utilitarianism took for its “fundamental axiom”, it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong”.[24] Bentham claimed to have borrowed this concept from the writings of Joseph Priestley,[25] although the closest that Priestley in fact came to expressing it was in the form “the good and happiness of the members, that is the majority of the members of any state, is the great standard by which every thing relating to that state must finally be determined”.[26]
The “greatest happiness principle”, or the principle of utility, forms the cornerstone of all Bentham’s thought. By “happiness”, he understood a predominance of “pleasure” over “pain”. He wrote in The Principles of Morals and Legislation:
Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think ...[27]”
This philosophy of utilitarianism took for its “fundamental axiom”, it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong”.[24] Bentham claimed to have borrowed this concept from the writings of Joseph Priestley,[25] although the closest that Priestley in fact came to expressing it was in the form “the good and happiness of the members, that is the majority of the members of any state, is the great standard by which every thing relating to that state must finally be determined”.[26]
The “greatest happiness principle”, or the principle of utility, forms the cornerstone of all Bentham’s thought. By “happiness”, he understood a predominance of “pleasure” over “pain”. He wrote in The Principles of Morals and Legislation:
Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think ...[27]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham