Trump and Political Philosophy: Leadership, Statesmanship, and Tyranny

335 Pages·2018·2.8 MB·English

by  Angel Jaramillo Torres

TRUMP AND
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Leadership, Statesmanship,
and Tyranny
edited by
angel jaramillo torres ·marc benjamin sable
P T p p
raise for rump and oliTical hilosophy
“Bringing the wisdom contained within the history of political philosophy to bear
on the shocking events of the past few years, these essays give us what we need
most of all: illumination in place of obfuscation.”
—Damon Linker, Senior Correspondent, The Week
“Anyone who believes that philosophy has the ability and responsibility to reflect
upon the concerns of the present will find these volumes utterly compelling.”
—Jeffrey Bernstein, Professor, Philosophy, College of the Holy Cross, USA
“Certainly we have had a plethora of books speaking about the rise of Trump…
but there is nothing from this timeless perspective.”
—Bryan Paul-Frost, Associate Professor, Political Science,
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, USA
Angel Jaramillo Torres
Marc Benjamin Sable
Editors
Trump and Political
Philosophy
Leadership, Statesmanship, and Tyranny
Editors
Angel Jaramillo Torres Marc Benjamin Sable
National Autonomous University Universidad Iberoamericana
of Mexico Mexico City, Mexico
Mexico City, Mexico
ISBN 978-3-319-74444-5 ISBN 978-3-319-74445-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74445-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018940463
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To Leslie Rubin, a fine scholar and a good friend
P
reface
To edit a volume that is a compilation of essays on the hypothetical opin-
ions of classical and modern philosophers on the 45th Presidency of the
United States is undoubtedly a challenge.
The predicament is compounded by the inescapable fact that Donald
Trump is unlikely to be interested in philosophy. According to his own
public testimonies, Trump’s favorite books are the Bible and The Art of the
Deal—not necessarily in that order. Perhaps this book will find a place on
the bookshelves of citizens interested in the fate of American democracy,
and more generally the world they are living in as the twentieth-first cen-
tury approaches its third decade.
This volume is divided into three parts: Ancient and Medieval Political
Thought, Modern and Liberal Thought, and Continental Perspectives.1
The quarrel between ancient and moderns can help us to better under-
stand statesmanship, tyranny, and leadership—themes critical for the
America which has witnessed the rise of Trump. Political philosophy is,
among other things, a meditation about real and desired regimes.
It should be noted that this book has a companion volume, Trump and
Political Philosophy: Patriotism, Cosmopolitanism and Civic Virtue, and the
project was originally intended as a single volume. If the reader finds some
great thinker or political stance lacking here, we hope that they will look
in there for insights.
This collection is undoubtedly diverse, not only in terms of the thinkers
with whom our contributors engage, but also in their politics. We have
included authors who believe, explicitly or implicitly, that Donald Trump
lacks the moral, political, and technical capacities to govern the United
vii
viii PREFACE
States. We have decided to give voice as well to those who are optimistic
about Trump and believe that he deserves a chance to demonstrate that he
can deliver the goods.
Our decision is likely not to garner much assent from either side of the
political spectrum, but since this book is written from the point of view of
philosophy, we think that dogmatism is the most perfidious of intellectual
vices. All in all, we subscribe to the Socratic injunction that one is an edu-
cated person to the extent one knows one’s ignorance. Moreover, it is our
conviction that the strengthening of the public sphere needs an open and
non-dogmatic discussion of ideas about what Trump’s surprising electoral
victory means. If, as several of the contributors point out, the dangers of
the present political landscape stem from our inability to rationally discuss
the great issues of our time—that we are more comfortable arguing with
the like-minded—we hope that this book will foster a dialogue across
political divides that can improve the quality of American democracy.
Of course, this book cannot provide all the insights that the philoso-
phers might bring to bear on contemporary politics, or even just Trump,
even taken together with its companion volume. But like the proverbial
exiled poet, we have launched this book like a message in a bottle thrown
into the sea. We hope some fishermen in search of human messages will
find it and read it. Perhaps it can help them to get their bearings amidst a
troubled moment in the American political landscape.
Note
1. The term “liberal” is not used here in the typical contemporary American
political sense, i.e., in opposition to postwar conservatism. We use the term
“liberal” to refer to all those political philosophies and ideologies which
place an emphasis on formal, legal freedom, and the constitutional orders
which support it. Our use of the term does not entail any particular stance
as to the proper role of government in regulation of business, about which
our contributors disagree, i.e., some of them are liberal, some conservative,
and some radical in the conventional terminology of American politics.
Depending on context, “neoliberal” might refer to a general acceptance of
free markets, which has dominated thinking worldwide since the 1980s, or
it might refer to the specific position represented by the Clintons’ reformist
politics within the broad parameters of contemporary corporate capitalism.
a
ckNowledgmeNts
A project like this—which we count as including its sister volume, Trump
and Political Philosophy: Patriotism, Cosmopolitanism and Civic Virtue—
necessarily generates different sorts of debts than a work consisting of a
single argument authored by a single scholar. These are the debts of
friendship, in the broad sense of the Greek word philia. We are indebted
in three ways: institutionally, professionally, and personally.
First, we thank the organizations which facilitated this project: The
Northeastern Political Science Association (NPSA), where we organized the
first “Trump in the Face of Political Philosophy” panels that took place three
days after the 2016 presidential election. We thank the NPSA also for the two
roundtables based on essays in this book, one year later, and, more generally,
as a forum where we met many of the contributors. The Association for Core
Texts and Courses was also an excellent venue, where in the spring of 2017 we
met a number of the contributors to this volume and quickly become friends.
In addition, Angel Jaramillo was able to work on this project thanks to
a postdoctoral fellowship provided by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y
Tecnología (CONACYT, Mexico’s equivalent of the National Science
Foundation). He was able to work on this project as part of a postdoctoral
position at the Coordinación de Estudios de Posgrado at Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). He wishes thus to thank the
coordinator in the area of philosophy at that time, Leticia Flores Farfán.
He acknowledges the support of the philosopher Josu Landa too.
Second, there are also numerous individuals who facilitated this proj-
ect, by helping to foster the conversation that we hope these two books
constitute. We owe particular thanks to Nathan Tarcov of the University
ix
x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
of Chicago, Richard Velkley of Tulane University, Joshua Parens of the
University of Dallas, William Kristol of The Weekly Standard, and Jeffrey
Bernstein of the College of the Holy Cross. Although none contributed
essays, each made suggestions for inclusions in the volume and generously
put us in contact with scholars who did participate. Three others who did
contribute essays—Susan Shell, Gladden Pappin and Catherine Zuckert—
also helped us to identify scholars whose essays likewise grace this
volume.
Above all, this project would have been impossible without the scholars
who wrote essays for this book, and its sister volume. We believe their
essays exhibit not only a very high quality of scholarship but also a serious-
ness about politics. More prosaically, they were patient with two editors
who learned “on the job” how to manage an intellectual project with
37 contributors. Moreover, they were fine colleagues, responding to com-
ments on drafts and providing materials in a prompt fashion. We thank
them all.
We are of course grateful to the staff at Palgrave Macmillan, especially
Michelle Chen and John Stegner who helped these novice co-editors
through the process of turning a collection of essays into a finished manu-
script. We are also highly appreciative of Palgrave’s design for the striking
cover designs. A thank-you is also due to Chris Robinson, no longer at
Palgrave, who first suggested that we turn two academic conference panels
into a book-length project.
Finally, we wish to thank our teachers. In the case of Marc Sable, these
include, especially, Amy Kass, David Greenstone, Susanne Rudolph, David
Smigelskis, and William Sewell, Jr. In the case of Angel Jaramillo, these
include, particularly, Rafael Segovia, James Miller, Heinrich Meier, and
Christopher Hitchens. Like the vast majority of human beings, our first
teachers were our parents. We thank them, for helping us to become the
people we are, and for their support, both emotional and material, which
has enabled us both to become scholars and to bring this project to
completion.
c
oNteNts
1 Leadership, Statesmanship and Tyranny: The Character
and Rhetoric of Trump 1
Angel Jaramillo Torres and Marc Benjamin Sable
Part I Ancient and Medieval Political Thought 15
2 Truth, Trump, Tyranny: Plato and the Sophists in an Era
of ‘Alternative Facts’ 17
Patrick Lee Miller
3 Portraits of Ignobility: The Political Thought
of Xenophon, and Donald Trump 33
Ashok Karra
4 Demagogy and the Decline of Middle-Class Republicanism:
Aristotle on the Trump Phenomenon 51
Leslie G. Rubin
5 Democracy, Demagogues, and Political Wisdom:
Understanding Trump in the Wake
of Thucydides’ History 75
Bernard J. Dobski
xi