In The Trump Revolution: The Donald’s Creative Destruction Deconstructed, veteran paleo-libertarian Ilana Mercer—a Jewish immigrant to America and an unabashed critic of “Demopublican diktats, past and present” (Republicans and Democrats alike)—underscores her subject matter’s uniqueness.
Unequivocally conceding that Trump is no libertarian, i.e. that he is far from her ideal candidate, she praises, not his “policies,” but “the Trump Process,” the process of “creative destruction,” of “tossing and goring” all of “the well-oiled elements that sustain and make the American political system cohere [.]”
Mercer recognizes that Trump appears to be the only person on the contemporary scene with “the moxie to blast away at an overweening political system,” a vast “government-media complex” to which Trump is taking a “wrecking ball.” Not only is Trump already doing “a laudable job of fumigating some serious snake pits,” he is as well razing “barriers erected by cultural Marxists,” impediments to “open, honest discussion on the issues of the day,” such “vexations like immigration, Islam, and, yes, the legitimacy of the Republican National Committee.”
Though the astute reader can’t miss the skepticism in Mercer’s writing, she is cautiously hopeful that “Trump might just help loosen the chains that bind the individual to central government, national and transnational.”
Trump isn’t just destructive, however, but “has been creating a new reality on the ground.” Mercer refers to him as a “political Samson” who is “bringing a den of iniquity crashing down around him.”
For obvious reasons, this libertarian defense of the Trump process—the first of its kind—couldn’t be timelier. There is, however, another reason as to why it’s so critically important to read this book.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, Bernie Sanders is not the Democrats’ counterpart to Trump. This is among the many points that Mercer makes in her fine work. Consider the following:
First, as I write this review, leaked DNC emails reveal the extent which his own party has conspired to prevent Sanders from securing its presidential nomination. For as much as I loathe it, the DNC is hardly unique insofar as corruption is concerned. The RNC is no better. The difference, though, is that Trump has exposed—and defeated—this corruption.
Sanders, in glaring contrast, has acquiesced in it, for he is now urging his supporters—who, by the sounds of it, are much more principled than he—into voting for Hillary Clinton.
Secondly, Sanders hardly accomplished what Trump has accomplished—and what Trump continues to accomplish. Sanders won 22 states in his contest against Clinton. But it was only a two person race, he had been a politician in the Senate for nearly a quarter of a century, had virtually nothing but good press, and his rallies weren’t repeatedly disrupted by violent thugs.
Trump, on the other hand, a business mogul and “reality TV star,” came out of nowhere. Derided and marginalized by “the experts,” this “clown” and “buffoon,” a million-to-one-shot underdog, slayed 16 of the GOP’s best and brightest, including some of its most popular senators and governors. These were the party’s rock stars—and Trump relegated them to the ranks of the Has Beens one after the other.
Thirdly, all the while, Trump—and make no mistakes, it is Trump who deserves all of the credit—increased the participation rate among Republican primary voters from four years ago by a whopping 60 percent. The Democrats, on the other hand—even with Sanders—lost nearly one voter for every five that they had in 2012. And when Sanders was winning his 22 states against his sole opponent, Trump was busy winning 37 states—and more primary votes, some 14 million, than any Republican in the history of his party.
Fourthly, as Trump has been taking the nation by storm, he has simultaneously had to battle enemies from all quarters. It isn’t just a merciless Democratic Party and its propagandist media wing with which Trump has had to contend. He has as well had to reckon with the same forces in his own party. The NeverTrumpers—the “RATS”—in particular have been obsessive in their quest to destroy the object of their contempt.
Only it is they who, in addition to appearing at once pathetic and comedic, have been destroyed by their nemesis.
Fifthly, Trump’s achievement is seen as being that much more unique, and uniquely remarkable, when it is considered that he has single-handedly shattered many (though, admittedly, not enough) of the Politically Correct taboos of the day. For these brave stances, Trump—a celebrity who has been about as open a book for decades as any public figure—has had to endure a relentless barrage of the most poisonous insults, precisely just those vitriolic accusations—“racist,” “sexist,” “fascist,” etc.—from which most white folks, and all politicians, recoil in horror.
But Trump just triples down. And he grows stronger.
Sixthly, to this Catholic’s chagrin, Pope Francis is among those who had joined the chorus of Trump critics for the GOP nominee’s impolitic, but eminently sensible, remarks on the need for a border wall. So too did Mexico’s notorious drug dealer and murderer, El Chapo, get in on the action with the latter going so far as to issue a threat against Trump’s life for his stance on this same issue.
Trump was undeterred. Against both foes, he dug in more deeply—and prevailed.
Finally, masses of the most uncivil, aggressive, indeed, violent “protesters,” many of whom have been organized and funded by such super-wealthy, super powerful billionaires as George Soros, repeatedly crashed Trump’s rallies around the country. One thug stormed a stage to visit bodily harm upon Trump, and another attempted to assassinate him.
Yet Trump continues barreling full-steam ahead.
Bernie Sanders has had nothing like the bumpy road that Trump has had to travel. Ilana Mercer compares the two in her own inimical way: Sanders is “a mouse of a man” compared to the “masculine force at full tilt” that is Trump.
Before Election Day—and, for that matter, well after it—The Trump Revolution: The Donald’s Creative Destruction Deconstructed promises to be rewarding reading.