from my blog:
The specialistgeneralist.net
Trump: the international realist
Or
How to get ahead and alienate people.
Things seem to settle down somewhat in the White House for
the last 5 days or so. I wonder if they have a board up in the White house
staff break room that reads,
‘Days since we had a
total whirlwind of controversy’
So I thought I would have a little look and consideration of
what Mr Trump’s fall back catch phrase of ‘make America great again’ means.
Mr Trump appears to be an international realist. Very much a
fan of the state, The sovereignty of US territory. This must be the case
because so much of what he has said, and unconstitutionally tried to do,
reinforces a nationalist ideal. To be an international realist you must
consider the power of your state on the world stage and in relation to the
other states around you as primary. You must believe that all states exist in a
balance of power and that winning this anarchy of power balance is to be the
strongest player. To the victor the rewards, even if the reward appear to be
playing the same game of power balance for ever.
To feed this ‘make America great again’ habit and reassert
Americas position as number one, Mr Trump feels it is very important to, repel
boarders-or let’s have a travel ban.
Remind the geographers and international partners that
America has a non-porous border that is a fixed boundary and definable- or
let’s build a wall.
Next Mr Trump turned his attention to the Liberal economic
concerns of the interconnectedness of economic globalisation, again as an
international realist, Mr trump will naturally resent the very transnational
economic model of development. So playing his trump card (my apologies, but
that cannot get old) he lays out his ‘art of the deal’ slick and pressures
manufactures and companies into refocusing production on U.S soil. He also
pulled the classic nationalist trick of going for government funded
infrastructure development to fuel wages and living standards.
So far so good (if you’re an international realist) or not
so good if you are of a collectivist persuasion.
If you are a collectivist, they you are going to consider
that globalisation is inevitable, and the merging of cultural bonds progresses
that process. Now it might get interesting. Is Mr Trumps persona, his public face,
pre-planned to try and halt cultural collectivism? All of his tirades about the
fake news, the unfair media, his opponents being evil, serve to alienate people
outside of his core support. Are they aimed at a higher goal? Now if Mr Trump
is planning his persona to offset and repulse global collectivism, then it is
surely working. He is playing a role, after all politicians are ‘actors’ on a
stage. Is he being deliberately outrageous, miss-leading, belligerent and vile
to further his own agenda of international realism?
That would be fun, as long as he does not go so far that it
threatens his position, then he will always use this tool of being unlikeable
to repress the collectivist agenda towards globalisation. This is even more
fun, because the media, Stephen Colbert on the late show, John Oliver, Trevor
Noah and all the other liberal collectivist stars are helping Trump achieve his
ultimate goal of steering the US into a more realist international position.
The more they complain, the more people protest, the stronger Trump’s steer
becomes. This is even more ironic when you consider the protests have popped up
all over the world, we even had anti-trump protests here in Portsmouth, UK.
They might all be playing even further into his hands, making the globalist
trait of cultural interconnectedness even harder to achieve and providing Trump
with internationalist realist fuel to thrown onto the fire.
There is a fly in the ointment of Trumps 110% commitment
(it’s going to be great, let me tell you) to international realism. If you
believe in the International realist perspective of international anarchy, then
a mistrust of large states is a major part of your position. So you have
threats to your states number one status. This makes Trump’s love in with the
Russians and Putin a little harder to understand. Although the idea that Putin
and Russia are really not fans of globalisation is easy to believe, so Russia
herself is an international realist, then if you are in that game of
one-up-man-ship, then you need a big heavy hitter to go up against. Since the
cold war went the way of the neo-liberal globalist, Russia has been at a bit of
a loose end, she could not win because she was playing a different game to
everyone else. Rather like taking a cricket bat to a tennis match, you might
get a game, but you will lose to the person with the racquet. So is the new
Trump-Putin love in an attempt by the Russians to help Trump get his realist
way with America, so that the newly wedded realists can have a good old game of
superpowers?
Globalisation does raise many heckles, in fact it was the
main bug bear of the Occupy movement, so does that mean for his very
denouement, will Mr trump re-position America as a 100 % international realist
state, destroy global collectivism with his own unique public persona, restore
a nationalist economic agenda to American workers and then take up residence in
a tent outside the Wall street to protest the remaining liberal economic
elements of globalisation? Now that would really get the liberal media going,
Stephen Colbert’s head might explode with the joy of that situation.
Who knows, here in the UK we voted to Brexit after all, so
we clearly have eyes on a westphalian shift away from transnational
organisations. The thing that interests me is the American belief that they are
the best. They are god’s chosen country, the free country, the home of the
brave individual. That mantra really supports an international realist
perspective, right up to the point when things start to not go your way. America
is the spiritual home of the liberal individualist, with their distain of big
government and mistrust of governmental interference, lovers of their rights
and freedoms.
So will Trump be able to roll back the clock, roll back
globalisation and position America in a 100% international realist perspective,
all in 4 years, whilst building a wall, rebuilding roads and bridges, making
people happy with extra dollars in their pockets and being as vile as possible
to the media? Well he got himself into the White House, so these things might
well come to pass…. And if it all does not go his way, he can always go to his
fall back position of ‘billionaire former president of the united states’
Mike Gumbrell
thespecialistgeneralist
