I am astonished that Eric Metaxis, author of Bonhoeffer and heir to Chuck Colson’s Breakpoint, is actively promoting Donald Trump (see this and this). Metaxis is an expert on analysing underlying worldviews. After the jump, a discussion of Trump’s worldview.
From Michel Gerson, The GOP is learning the hard way that character matters – The Washington Post:
. . .It is Trump’s moral worldview that results in terrible policy and promises worse to come. He believes that events always vindicate his instincts, which involve racial, religious and ethnic prejudice. He believes that any political tactic — including accusing your opponents of being enemy agents (as Joe McCarthy did) — is justified to further his interests. And he holds a Putin-like conception of how a great power should behave.
Trump’s worldview offers no limiting principles when it comes to the use and abuse of power. He is not an institutionalist — the kind of politician who venerates our constitutional system and its balances. He is not a tea party constitutionalist — the kind of politician who holds an ideological commitment to limited government and is suspicious of executive power. He is not a civil libertarian — the kind of politician concerned about the rights of individuals and groups.
The presumptive Republican nominee has already proposed the largest police operation (by far) in American history — the rounding up of more than 11 million people and forcing them across the border. What limiting principle would prevent a roundup of all Muslims? Trump has already proposed the murder of terrorists’ families. What is the limiting principle that would prevent his use of nuclear weapons against the Islamic State capital of Raqqa? Trump has already raised the possibility that Obama is a Kenyan and a jihadist and that Hillary Clinton was involved in Vince Foster’s murder. What limiting principle would prevent President Trump from targeting congressional opponents with innuendo that they are traitors or murderers, or any other accusation that Alex Jones puts on the Web? Trump has already proposed changing libel laws in order to restrict media criticism against him. What limiting principle would prevent him from, well, changing libel laws to restrict media criticism against him?
None of this is reductio ad absurdum. These are the natural implications of a worldview. Under the stress of events, it is clear that Trump’s organizing commitments are ethnic nationalism and a belief that the American government is too weak — too constrained by political correctness — in dealing with threats to American identity. He is riding the line between clownishness and fascism.
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