Donald Trump killed the “libertarian moment” in politics, if it ever existed.
Instead, he’s ushered in an “authoritarian moment,” George Will argued during a discussion hosted by Reason at the International Students For Liberty Conference in late February.
“The leading indicator is, at the moment, the leading Republican candidate for president,” Will said, declining to say Trump’s name.
Will, in his columns for The Washington Post, has railed against Trump for months now.
“He’s like Voldemort,” Will said.
Nor did the Democratic candidates give him hope.
Trump has channeled the anger and alienation felt among many Republicans into an illiberal campaign. He has precious few answers and actual policy ideas on how to improve the lot of his supporters, but he’s connected with them in a way other candidates haven’t. Trump doesn’t have a platform, but he connects and empathizes with what people are feeling.
His rise is a threat to the Republican Party, and conservative leaders haven’t figured out how to circumvent his authoritarian streak.
If they don’t, the GOP will become a “husk” after Trump, Will said.
Bernie Sanders has tapped into similar anger on the left, but his illiberal “democratic socialism” has had trouble winning primaries in the last few weeks as Democratic voters prefer the technocracy advocated by Hillary Clinton.
Will’s disdain, however, isn’t nihilistic.
“There’s [a] kind of madness in the air. But I don’t think the American people are really swept up in it,” he said.
Matt Welch, Editor-in-Chief of Reason, agreed.
“Look, it’s super, super dark right now,” Welch said. America has been in similar straits before, however.
“Yet, if you look in the right places, you would notice that there were glimmers of hope happening,” even in the 1970s.
To stem the tide of authoritarian Trumpism, though, the GOP needs to act fast.
