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ย Iโm reflecting upon the heated little donnybrook that erupted yesterday under a post I shared (it was a list of documented offenses committed by Trump, with the suggestion that anyone who supports him must be โstupidโ). Two questions that have immediately emerged from my thoughts: 1) Are presidential elections, nowadays, largely a choice between two morally despicable sleazeballs or villainsโwhere the voter is obliged to pick the ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ก๐ค๐ ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ ? 2) Since presidential candidates, if elected, are generally regarded as representatives of their nation, should or should not their ๐๐๐๐๐ characters be a critical factor in the voterโs decision?
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What I noticed yesterday was that some of the commentators (I include myself among this group) implicitly regard the moral character of the leader to be of crucial importanceโboth as a reflection of the nation they are to represent and as a compass that informs and guides their actions, policies, and decisions. On the other hand, there were some whose support for Trumpโdespite his admitted moral vices, legal-political crimes, and personal-social failingsโimplicitly ignored or dismissed the importance of these factors. Some of these apologists for Trump went so far as to say that, because his political and foreign policy aims are so vastly superior to the Democratsโ that they are happy to overlook his moral and personal flaws.ย ย
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Interestingly, one can see in this dichotomy between apologists for Trump and his equally impassioned critics and detractors an echo or epigone of the old feud between ancient-medieval-classical political ideals (which insist upon the ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ of the ethical and the political) and modern ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐ (Machiavellian emphasis upon sheer ๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐ฃ๐๐๐๐ ๐ , regardless of the ethical implications of the political machinations). In pre-modern (Platonic-Aristotelian-Thomistic) political philosophy, the chief aim of political (and cultural) life was the cultivation of ๐ฃ๐๐๐ก๐ข๐. In modern political science, following Machiavelliโs lead, โthe end justifies the means,โ but the ends are not the cultivation of virtue, but the consolidation and enhancement of ๐๐๐ค๐๐.ย ย
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Some persons praised Trump for being a self-confessed, unapologetic or ๐ก๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ก scoundrel, while the Democratsโwho are purportedly just as corrupt and self-servingโare cowardly hypocrites who hide behind sanctimonious posturing and artful disguises. Trumpโs naked and uncensored will to power is seen by such persons as refreshing in its honesty, while the fraudulent opposition is every bit as self-serving and power-hungry, only theyโre ‘prudently’ dishonest about it.ย
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What all this suggests, from a certain angle, is that a broad swath of the voters have figured outโand accepted the factโthat politics is a dirty business and that politicians have to be Machiavellian not only to succeed in the shark-infested waters of politics, but merely to survive. Because of this โrealisticโ understanding of politics, political leaders are regarded by such voters as akin to warlords and robber barons whose ambitious and acquisitive natures are exactly the โvirtuesโ that are needed in order to contend on the global stage. No pussies or goody-goodies allowed.ย
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When Shakespeare wrote ๐พ๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐, he may have felt a bit of nostalgia for the ancestral-classical โdivine right of kingsโ scheme of things that was being challenged and violently overturned by Edmund, Goneril, Regan, and Cornwall, but I suspect he โknew a hawk from a handsawโ and could clearly see which way the wind was now blowing. At the end of the play, Edgarโa kind of relic from the pre-modern, โGreat Chain of Beingโ worldview that is being replaced by the modern โmatter in motionโ worldview of modern science and power politicsโsays โThe weight of this sad time we must obey,/Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.โ Perhaps this plea for โ๐๐๐๐ ๐ก๐ฆ (about how things โworkโ in the โno-nonsense,โ modern world) is one of the things that we might all take to heart, regardless of which side of the political spectrum we identify with. But before we can begin to understand how things actually work in the modern world of political and economic realities, we must all find a way to break the stranglehold that truth-deforming propaganda exercises over our media-glutted brains.
