Reblogged:What Does ‘Make America Great Again’ Mean?

[Michael J. Hurd Ph.D.]

When Donald Trump says, “make America great again,” the proof of that will be to observe his upcoming presidency and evaluate it for yourself.

Some people claim, with little or no evidence, that Trump will be a dictator. Well, let’s look a little closer: He has stated verbally that he wants to preserve 2nd Amendment rights, cut taxes and cut down on regulations that cripple businesses and make it harder for them to employ workers. He wants to lower ridiculous insurance premiums by repealing the failed Obamacare. He wants to roll back the federal role in public education. He wants to wage a smarter war against Islamic terrorism, starting with calling Islamic terrorists by their proper name: Terrorists. He wants better trade deals with countries like China and Mexico, and he wants immigration laws that have been ignored by Obama, enforced.

These proposals do not sound like dictatorship to me.

Others, particularly on the Democratic left, claim that America is already great. They actually believe Obama’s policies of increased taxes, increased regulation, economic stagnation and general appeasement toward Islamic terrorism have made America better. There’s no point arguing with people who think this way, because whatever is important to them has little to do with freedom. Others, like the current president’s wife, for example, claim America never was great, but never really say why. All we know is they seem to despise freedom. At heart, they’re Communists, fascists or something of that nature, and even Obama was not enough for them. Their objection to Trump is NOT that they think he will be a dictator; just that he won’t be THEIR kind of dictator.

There’s only one way to make America greater: Through the restoration and expansion of freedom and individual rights. It’s as simple as that. The freer we become, the better off we’ll be. Freedom necessarily includes economic freedom. People who claim you’re not free if you don’t have guaranteed food, health care, income, education and all the rest are simply wrong. Freedom does not mean the right to force others to take care of you. Freedom does not mean a government law promising charity as a legal entitlement, simply because guaranteeing such a “right” violates the rights of others. In the process, incentives are destroyed, and economic growth is hampered or eliminated. You know: Kind of like what we see today.

More than that, the government responsible for taking care of your physical needs will, sooner or later, take charge of your intellectual needs as well. We already see it with education. Government priorities determine the way children are taught to think. If left-wing political correctness takes over the government, then all children are taught this way. If another ideology took over the government — Nazi, Islamofascist, anything else — then the government would impose those views. Government should be out of the education business, first and foremost. At the very least, government should push these priorities back to state and local governments; far from perfect but at least less control from the top than we have now.

As government takes over health care, general welfare and education, social conditions get worse. Crime goes up and we’re more vulnerable to attacks from terrorists, foreign armies or homegrown criminals. Instead of making people more free, government will naturally try to restrict our guns. From there, it goes to restrictions on what we read, say and think. Look past the hysterical crybaby media – it’s happening already.

If America ends up in a dictatorship, it will not be due to Donald Trump. Donald Trump cannot make people who don’t wish to be free become free. At the core, we have to WANT freedom. And the best way to prove we want freedom is to demand that government get out of health, education, welfare, the environment, big business, small business, and all the other areas where it does not belong.

To make America great again, we have to make ourselves great again. Individualism and freedom are the only answers.

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[Repairman]

I see a number of problems with Dr Hurd's argument. For starts, Trump claimed we could have all of the benefits of the social welfare state, including a revised national healthcare program. Of course, it is all speculation at this point. But Trump's promises to have all of the entitlements of SSI, education, and tax-cuts all at the same time is pie in the sky. If Obamacare is repealed, good riddance. But the problem of paying for everyone's medical expenses will still fall mostly onto wage earning Americans. Or we could always expand the national debt once again, throwing many more future generations under the proverbial bus. Trump made it all sound as if we could all have our cake and eat it too.

I would agree with Dr Hurd's assessment that the number one priority of national leadership should be the protection of rights and the empowerment of the individual. I heard nothing even close to that in Trump's rhetoric; it was largely claims that he was the indispensable man of our times, the ubermensch. 

The threat of a Trump dictatorship may be overstated, as it seems I've heard that accusation against nearly every US president since Richard Nixon. The threat is not with the celebrity/imperial president, but with a desperate citizenry unable to understand the value of their own personal liberty, and their demand for demagogues.

[dream_weaver]

Trump's call for "make America great again" is very much like Obama's campaign for "change". The people vote for what their conception of what the slogan means in their minds.

Trump campaigns to cut taxes, to build a wall, repeal Obamacare, come up with healthcare reform, etc.

Dr. Hurd is countermanding the claim that Trump will be a dictator by selecting the proposals that do not sound like a dictator. This is cherry picking, and both candidates offered plenty to cherry pick from.

 

In the end Dr. Hurd says to make America great again, we have to make ourselves great again. Donald Trump is not going to do it for us. The value of freedom is one to be gained or kept. It was gained at the zenith of the enlightenment. Ben Franklin alluded to virtue when asked about the type of government that had been formed. A Republic, he had said, if you can keep it.

14 hours ago, Michael J. Hurd Ph.D. said:

More than that, the government responsible for taking care of your physical needs will, sooner or later, take charge of your intellectual needs as well. We already see it with education.

He has this backwards.

Compulsory education has been shaping the intellect for over a century. Early intervention into health care started with local licensing of doctors. These were challenged in the court system and found to encroach on the freedom to pursue a profession, as well as the freedom to choose a care provider. It was only later and thru a back door—a voluntary medical association was created—that mandatory state licensing was reintroduced. (Lin Zinser: Intellectual Activism: A Case Study in Health-Care Activism)

 

[Nicky]

The ultimate political goal of an Objectivist is a country of individual rights. The ultimate political goal of a collectivist, any kind of collectivist, is a country without individual rights. Collectivists see individuality as weakness, and consider the masses the only possible source of strength. 

Their political slogan, however vague, is a representation of their ultimate goal. That's what a collectivist considers great: the collective, in this case lead by a "charismatic" strongman, rising up, and taking away power from the diverse, often conflicting interests of individuals and groups formed voluntarily by individuals, and solidifying that power in the hands of one, single willed, "great" nation, in which everyone is forced to fall in line towards a common goal.

And whatever concrete measures a collectivist may propose, they are meant to serve that ultimate goal. Just because Trump realizes that prosperity is a pre-condition of his goals, and that lower taxes and less welfare strengthen a nation, it doesn't make him pro-capitalism. His platform is the farthest from individualism this country has ever voted for, and his slogan is a vague representation of that platform. My only hope is that his slogan and platform were both a lie, and that he's actually just a regular, moderate pragmatist who supports a mixed economy and the usual liberal ideas about the altruist, but pragmatic role of government, and couldn't care less about "making America great again". Because if he meant that, the world is in trouble.