The Foundation for Constitutional Government has released a new conversation with Harvey Mansfield, in which the Harvard professor discusses Donald Trump’s election and, in a way, how political philosophy can inform our understanding of Trump and what Trump’s victory reveals about American politics today. I’ve got to say that I learned as much from this conversation as any of the ones I’ve done. Mansfield penetrates way beyond the normal pro- and anti-Trump talking points to raise interesting and important questions about Trump’s success and how it fits into the present state of the American regime.
Here are just a couple of tidbits from Mansfield to whet your appetite:
“Now, a demagogue also has this characteristic which Trump has, for sure, in that he loves to be loved, and he doesn’t worry about the quality of the people who love him. He’s only worried about the quantity. He wants a lot of people to love him, so to speak, without discrimination. That bears a close resemblance to what we call a ‘celebrity’ in our democratic society now. A celebrity, I would say, is right next door to a demagogue. Trump qua celebrity had a good preparation in life for becoming in politics a demagogue. Not so worried about the quality as the quantity. That would imply that he has a kind of preference for what is directly popular and not so much for what some thinker or maker of doctrine works out.”
“[Trump] gives people the impression that he, as they say, ‘He tells it like it is.’ Meaning he goes beyond the barriers, or the boundaries of good taste and of good manners, of politeness, of gentlemanliness. But especially beyond the boundaries of political correctness, which are boundaries of our time, characteristic of our time. That makes people think that on this other side, beyond, he’s found something secret, or the hidden cause of things, and he brings that out in the people. He appeals to what is hidden in our thoughts. Really, [in] our feelings, and gives it formulation; brings it out, makes it public. He doesn’t exactly cause it in us, because it’s there already, but you might say a ‘precipitating cause.’ It’s a cause that makes the hidden cause – our dislike, our resentment, say, at political correctness – and brings it out.” I’m very confident you won’t regret taking 45 minutes to watch or listen.
