The Race-baiter As Kindly Monarch: Trumpism in Puerto Rico
By Jonathan Chait
October 4, 2017
8:41 am
The aftermath of Hurricane Maria has inspired President Trump to say a number of weird, creepy, and resentful things. In this way, of course, it is not a completely unique event. But the particular creepiness of Trump’s utterances has revealed something more profound about his worldview than previous events have managed to draw out of him.
Trump’s view of the role of government has always diverged from standard-issue Republican dogma. (This is one of the reasons he defeated the 17 standard-issue Republicans who opposed him in the primary.) That dogma was recently articulated by Wisconsin Republican senator Ron Johnson, who recently told an audience he does not see access to medical care, or any material human need, as a basic right. “I think it’s probably more of a privilege,” Johnson said. “Do you consider food a right? Do you consider clothing a right? Do you consider shelter a right? What we have as rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We have the right to freedom. Past that point, everything else is a limited resource that we have to use our opportunities given to us so that we can afford those things.”
Food, shelter, and medical care are not “limited” in any inherent sense. (We have sufficient resources to supply them for every American.) But Johnson is invoking a vein of economic libertarianism which denies public responsibility to provide even the basics of survival. American conservatism (but not the forms of conservatism found in almost any other country) takes the principle of personal responsibility to to this extreme point. The role of the state is to provide open markets, and if you fail to earn enough for food, clothing, or a roof over your head, that is your own fault.
Trump has never articulated this form of libertarianism. Instead he has usually emphasized the sales pitch Republicans use to make their libertarianism acceptable to the public. He promised to repeal Obamacare and replace it with “something terrific” that would “take care of everybody” — a more blunt but essentially faithful translation of the Republican promise to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a plan that would feature lower premiums, deductibles, as well as access to care for people with expensive medical conditions.
Puerto Rico’s disaster has made Trump think about the role of the state in furnishing basic survival goods. He quickly adopted positions far to the right of even the most hardened libertarian ideologue. Trump assailed “ingrates” who “want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort.” How could people possibly take personal responsibility when they lack access to electricity, drinking water, and even their own money? He mused that Puerto Rico is “throwing our budget out of whack,” a strange complaint from a man who frequently calls for the “the biggest tax cut we’ve ever had.”
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