The seventeenth century was one of the most turbulent periods in English history, socially, culturally, and for the monarchy. Traditions and norms were turned upside down as the pendulum swung back and forth between periods of war and peace, austerity and exuberance, and religious tolerance and prejudice. The political landscape changed dramatically during the 17th Century. For example, whilst some European superpowers, such as France, witnessed the nearly autocratic rule that was King Louis XIV’s, there were dramatic changes in England. Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) and his generation changed the course of the British Empire for all time through their religious, political and scholarly thought as well as the actions they took. The century began with the idea of divine right to rule led to Charles’s beheading, followed by a disastrous socio-political experiment, led to William and Mary’s reign (1689-1702), a constitutional monarchy with a parliament that had a greater say than ever before.
Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism argues that the purpose of life is the pursuit of happiness, and that the purpose of government is to aid that pursuit. Laissez-faire capitalism, she argues, is the only system that truly protects individual rights. Rand believed: “It took centuries of intellectual, philosophical development to achieve political freedom. It was a long struggle, stretching from Aristotle to John Locke to the Founding Fathers. The system they established was not based on unlimited majority rule, but on its opposite: on individual rights, which were not to be alienated by majority vote or minority plotting.” The core of Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism, is that unfettered self-interest is good and altruism is destructive. Ayn Rand was defined by her rage, not her advocacy of a fantasy version of capitalism. Her message of creative aspiration is laced with anger and cruelty, and endowed with idealized and moralized selfishness and greed.
Alan Greenspan became one of the members of Rand’s inner circle, the Ayn Rand Collective, who read Atlas Shrugged while it was being written. During the 1950s and 1960s Greenspan was a proponent of Objectivism, writing articles for Objectivist newsletters. Greenspan was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve for an unprecedented fifth term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. He was previously appointed to the post by Presidents Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. In 2000, Greenspan raised interest rates several times; these actions were believed by many to have caused the bursting of the dot-com bubble. In October 2008, Greenspan belatedly hinted that he may have finally seen the dark side of Rand. In a speech to Congress, he said he had found a “flaw” in his “ideology” of how the free market worked. He had always hewed to the Randian belief that companies left to their own devices would work in their best long-term interests.
The real-estate bubble demonstrated that many companies had actually favored massive short-term profits over long-term sustainability. In the process, they laid the groundwork for the biggest recession in sixty years. Public policy analyst Robert Reich argues that “the theme that united all of Trump’s [budget] initiatives so far is their unnecessary cruelty.” The culture of cruelty has become a primary register of the loss of democracy in the United States. Vast numbers of individuals are now considered disposable and are relegated to zones of social and moral abandonment. A culture of cruelty highlights both how systemic injustices are lived and experienced, and how iniquitous relations of power turn the “American dream” into a dystopian nightmare in which millions of individuals and families are struggling to merely survive. Neoliberalism is an anxious form of crisis management attempting to cover over the clash with neoliberal interpretation of freedom and responsibilities, on the balance between personal freedom and the common good.
In the aftermath of a potentially demoralizing 2008 electoral defeat, when the Republican Party seemed widely discredited, the emergence of the Tea Party provided conservative activists with a new identity funded by Republican business elites and reinforced by a network of conservative media sources. According to publicly available IRS records, the five essential pillars of just such a Tea Party movement network were all funded and in place by that spring of 2009 – the Sam Adams Alliance to direct grassroots efforts; the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity to direct propaganda efforts in state capitals across the United States; the State Policy Network (SPN funded by dark money) to coordinate funding and free-market policies at state-based think tanks. This included hundreds of grants from the Koch foundations to American universities that were linked in through SPN and, of course, CSE’s (Citizens for a Sound Economy founded by Koch, but later funded by companies like Exxon and Microsoft) its successor, Americans for Prosperity, built to coordinate the effort nationally. By 2010 the Tea Party became a very influential movement in American politics.
In 2016 Donald Trump campaigned as an economic nationalist but surrounded himself with a transnational corporate transition team that supports policies of neoliberal capitalism. These include tax breaks for the rich and for corporations, further privatization of public services, deregulation and the reduction of the social safety net. Trump used the rhetoric of an “anti-politician” to conceal his real policy agenda, and appealed directly to sections of the white working class that rejected Hillary Clinton’s corporate centrism. For 2025 Trump and his backers aim to strengthen the power of the White House and limit the independence of federal agencies. The plan includes altering the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him.
The basis on which populist parties rally electoral support, while multi-faceted, is often deeply emotional, playing on feelings of anger, resentment or nostalgia that reflect alienation from conventional politics. Donald Trump stunned the political world in 2016 when he became the first person without government or military experience ever to be elected president of the United States. Trump’s policy record included major changes at home and abroad. He achieved a string of long-sought conservative victories domestically, including the biggest corporate tax cuts on record, the elimination of scores of environmental regulations and a reshaping of the federal judiciary. For 2025 Trump intends to bring independent agencies – like the Federal Communications Commission, which makes and enforces rules for television and internet companies, and the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces various antitrust and other consumer protection rules against businesses – under direct presidential control.
Populism is a phenomenon which can emerge in all forms of a democratic system. Political theorist Cas Mudde, defines populists as sharing three key characteristics. They are anti-establishment, having faith in “plain talkers” and “ordinary people” as opposed to the “corrupt establishment” of business, government, academia, and media. They are authoritarian, favoring strong leaders over democratic institutions and traditions. They are nativist, putting their nation first. The most exposed to its influence are political systems which experience an institutional transition. Populism is a political discourse that imagines a struggle between a good and virtuous “people” and a nefarious establishment. In advanced democracies a more relevant, negative aspect of populism is that it undermines the civility of the relations among citizens. What can be done to improve representation and accountability to keep voters engaged within the party system, and what can be done once a sizeable share of the electorate is so alienated from political parties that it elects a populist government?
Trump won the 2016 nomination as the candidate who lied the most, won the presidency as someone known to lie; has an unshakable base despite ongoing lies. Underlying social issues made this possible. His base is concerned about their place in the world, not about economic hardship. Rather it is about dominant groups that felt threatened by change, and a candidate who took advantage of that trend. Faced with the fact that non-white groups would soon outnumber them revved up their support for Trump, their desire for anti-immigrant policies, and opposition to political correctness. While social networking has long been recognized for its ability to catalyze and organize collective social change campaigns, it was a profound surprise to many political observers that the platform could be used so effectively to connect with politically- and civically-alienated voters, those who President Trump declares as his base, “the forgotten men and women of this country.”
Trump is a narcissist, and narcissists are liars. Narcissism is a disorder of the self – a self based on opportunism instead of values. For them life is a game and they play to win, and the lie becomes necessary for their own survival. When narcissistic leaders undermine collaboration, they by definition reduce the effectiveness of an organization. It’s about the leader creating a culture that induces people to act less ethically and less collaboratively than they would otherwise, whether they’re narcissists or not. Many Republicans may not like or trust Trump, they just hate the alternative more. When you’re involved with a narcissist, cognitive dissonance is a psychological state that keeps many clinging to a narcissistic person like Trump, who has succeeded in creating two camps. Narcissists view themselves as being perfect, so there is no reason for them to change.
The English Civil War divided the country, with people and families split between their values and opinions on power, human suffrage and political freedom. Emerging out of the violence, turbulence and chaos were the Levellers, a political movement which preached ideas of equality, religious tolerance, suffrage and sovereignty. In many ways, the Levellers embodied a populist movement and exercised further control and influence through a well-thought-out propaganda mechanism which involved pamphlets, petitions and speeches, all of which connected the group with the general public and conveyed their message. Many crucial and fundamental principles and concepts were debated. The political movement advocated such an idea based on its Christian origins and the belief that everyone has the ability to use reasoning to make informed decisions for themselves. Their appeal to reason against arguments drawn from precedent or biblical authority marks a milestone in political thought.
Charles, King And Martyr, is a title of Charles I who was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1625 until his execution on 30 January 1649. The title is used by high church Anglicans who regard Charles’s execution as a martyrdom. His feast day in the Anglican calendar of saints is 30 January, the anniversary of his execution in 1649. The cult of Charles the Martyr was historically popular with Tories. The observance was one of several “state services” removed in 1859 from the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England and the Church of Ireland. Today the trials are the message. They are the drama around which Trump plays his role as the unjustly accused victim, whose rights are trampled and who is the martyr for his oppressed “deplorables”. He is taking the slings and arrows for them. The narcissist is the self-sacrificing saint. The criminal is the angel. The liar is the truth-teller. If any Republican lapses in faithfulness, they are more than a mere doubter or skeptic, but a betrayer and traitor.
Nothing on earth consumes a man more quickly than the passion of resentment, observes Friedrich Nietzsche. Resentment as a cultural response to economic struggle has political consequences. More than half of US workers are unhappy with their jobs. The frustration you experience by not living the life you imagined is created by the resentment that the outcome of an event is less than you imagined it would be. A narcissist like Trump is operating from a place of defense all the time. The lie is more of a PR stunt, a marketing ploy rather than a cohesive integrated set of values. The narcissistic personality is more of a store front designed to hide that there isn’t any there, there. Narcissism and resentment go together. The usual explanation is that narcissists are resentful because the world doesn’t recognize their brilliance or meet their demands for special privileges. Trump appeals to resentment that ultimately rests on economic failure: working-class whites angry and disillusioned left behind by soaring inequality. Research argues feelings of disillusionment prompt people to take more extreme positions.
Claiming to be the victim of the political establishment has been key to Trump’s political persona and the basis of Trumpism. Donald Trump harnessed the resentment and sense of victimhood of the Republican Party. Trump came across unceasingly pained, injured and aggrieved: the primaries were unfair, the debates were unfair, the general election was unfair. He gave a voice to that part of America that also feels aggrieved. Trump claims there is a conspiracy against him supported by ‘fake’ news. Some suggested that generations of creeping economic insecurity have inspired deep anger, compelling many voters in the white middle and working classes to embrace Trump, flaws and all, because he challenges the American status quo. Trump claims: ‘I’m the turnaround guy. I’m going to drain the swamp. I’m going to blow Washington up.’ And so, anyone who was disaffected about government, which turns out to been a lot of people, likes this narrative.
Former president Donald Trump faces a total of 91 charges across four criminal cases. They include 44 federal charges and 47 state charges, all of them felonies. Trump has denied wrongdoing in each case. Trump is committed to being the victim. In contemporary usage, “populism” is generally understood to mean political movements and individuals who channel widespread alienation and frustration by claiming to speak for “the people” against forces that are said to be destroying cherished ways of life. Trump claims, “I was indicted for you.” Why? As a narcissist he only cares about himself. If the MAGA voters leave him behind, he is history. Most skeptics believe that by continuously questioning our knowledge, the source thereof, and what is held as “truth,” we can greatly reduce the risk of being deceived. The goal of such a process is not any specific measure of economic freedom, rather it is the potential to reduce the level of alienation in America.