I don’t know whether this is generally known, but Trump, who inherited a lot of his money, is a fan of the writer Ayn Rand, the author of “Atlas Shrugged” and chief publicist of “objectivism” and libertarianism. He is surrounding himself with other admirers of the notion that there are makers and takers, and that the takers are parasites who get in the way of morally superior innovators. Worse than that, the latter actually have to pay tax to support the takers (horrors!). Rand’s attitude was that government is evil and deliberately puts obstacles in the way of those accumulating wealth. “Man exists for his own sake. The pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose, not of the happiness of anyone else. He shouldn’t make sacrifices for others”.
Trump, as is well known now, believes that “winning” is all and that the means justify the ends. The ends are wealth and power. Women are simply adornments; the poor are “losers”. ” Be a killer”, Fred Trump (father) reputedly told his son,”then you are a king”.
Among the disciples of this moral-free, inhuman and distasteful philosophy that treats people as commodities are Bannon, of course, Rex Tillerson, new Secretary of State, and Mike Pompeo, head of the CIA. There are others as well in the threatening new government. Andrew Pudzer, Secretary of Labor (who opposes the minimum wage and wants to automate fast food) was another admirer, now, blessedly, turned down by Congress.
Not only is libertarianism and objectivism anathema to normal decent people, but Ayn Rand claimed to have taken the bit about happiness being man’s highest moral purpose straight from the writings from Epicurus. She might well have, but she took it totally out of context. Epicurus would never have recognised this as a humane, thoughtful, approach to human relationships; on the contrary, his approach was that friendship and getting on well with people created happiness – unless you are autistic (which I agree you can’t help) you get no joy out of using and exploiting people and treating them like money machines. “Objectivism” and libertarianism have nothing to do with Epicureanism and never did. It’s all part of the “fake news” ethos of the alt-right.
As far as Rand’s belief in selfishness as a virtue is concerned, Trump is about as objectivist as you can get. He cares only about himself and the family fortune. He has given negligible sums of money to charity, he even lied about his intention to give money to veterans. His selfishness even undermines his self-professed patriotism, as shown by the fact that he chose not to serve his country in Vietnam, despite having the opportunity to do so.
Objectivism has to be one of the silliest philosophies around. Its definition of selfishness is completely different to how the term is commonly understood. What Rand meant by selfishness is really the pursuit of self interest. Of course its perfectly legitimate to act in one’s own self interest. But the idea that society is more moral if everyone prioritises their own self interest above the interests of others, is a perversion of common decency. In particular, politicians should put the common interest above their own, because they are in the unique position to use the state’s monopoly on violence for their personal benefit.
However, Trump hardly shares Rand’s belief in the free market. He’s called for state investments in education, infrastructure, healthcare and technology. During the election campaign, he promised that he would ‘take care of everybody’. He has never expressed a philosophy of what he believes the government’s proper role is, nor does he seem to believe that there are limits to government power. Unlike mainstream Republicans, he opposes entitlement reform and has criticised free trade.
Now none of this is to suggest that Democrats are wrong to oppose his economic policies. His budget plan would vastly increase the deficit, by increasing spending and cutting taxes dramatically. He knows little of the complexities of financial regulation, which is still in dire need of reform. Most worrisome of all, the policy area where he is most sceptical of government intervention is the environment, which actually needs more government intervention to reduce pollution and fight climate change. Having said all that, Democrats should not fall back on the usual criticisms of Republicans as being too fiscally conservative when talking about Trump generally. Rather, Trump’s problem is a combination of ignorance about economic issues, his lack of attention to detail, and his tendency to be too easily swayed by Republicans who are genuinely committed to objectivist economics like Paul Ryan. Most importantly, Trump seems to think that the unique power of his personality and intellect can fix complex issues that experts have been struggling with for decades. Such as on the question of healthcare reform, Trump promised ‘something terrific’ as a replacement for Obamacare, only to find that healthcare is a very complicated matter, despite the fact that everyone else already knew that.