An unremitting Jacksonian Democrat.

Following a reference in a comment to a post, I end up at a blog, USS Clueless, run by Steven Dean Beste. The Post is from August 11th 2002 and it is on Jacksonian Foreign Policy. It in turn is in part prompted by an essay by Walter Russell Meade in 1999, The Jacksonian Tradition.

From Beste's post.

Jacksonians do not think that international frameworks and international cooperation are impossible or unnecessary. But Jacksonians believe that such frameworks should be limited, concentrated, and closely monitored. Cooperation is possible without trust if it is backed with vigilance and the will to retaliate for cheating. (Retaliation can take many forms, of course; it's not exclusively military.)

And to Jacksonians, trust is foolhardy. There are a lot of good people out there, but there are also a lot of bastards, and if you turn your back someone will stab you in it. "Trust, but verify" is a purely Jacksonian watchword. Those who act honorably will be treated honorably, but those who cheat will be crushed.

This is, however, totally opposite to the more utopian vision of Wilsonians and some Europeans, of a new international order based not on vigilance and retaliation but rather on good will and cooperation and friendship. Were that possible, the result would be wonderful. But Jacksonians think such ideas are delusional; there are just too many people out there waiting for an opportunity to cheat.

In fact, trust does work in some cases. There are people out there who are honorable. But it's better not to depend on it, and Jacksonians don't think that it's necessary to do so. Jacksonians are always prepared for betrayal, because it will happen, somewhere, by someone, eventually.

The structures we require to maintain international trade can be sustained without trust or any kind of world government. Such international frameworks work quite well as long as they are limited, monitored and enforced by a threat of war or other retaliation. What won't work is any kind of utopian world government where the people of the world band together in peace, harmony and brotherhood, and cooperate with each other just because they're such nice folks and all. They ain't. Probably a lot of them are, but there are always going to be bad apples, and there will always be some who will cheat if they think they can get away with it. Such people will react to scolding and other toothless diplomatic reactions to their cheating with contempt; the only solution for them is to nail them to the wall.

The rule of law works within our nation because it is enforced by police and the courts. The rule of international law works because we're willing to fight when others ignore it if we think the issues involved are sufficiently important.

By Jacksonian lights, no rule of law works without the threat of force, and if the threat of force is removed then lawbreakers will come out of the woodwork. And sometimes they'll appear anyway, which is why war will always be with us and why good Jacksonians make sure that their nation always remains militarily strong.

Having police and courts doesn't prevent crime, but it does give us the ability to deal with it. By the same token having a strong military doesn't prevent the need for war, but it does give us a better chance of winning when the time comes. Nobody wants a war, but if you have to fight one it's much better to win it than to lose it.

And the police do deter some crime, and having a strong military does prevent some threats of war. Jacksonians are deeply practical; perfect solutions aren't possible and this one is the best available to us.

While it's true that some degree of international regulation is required in order for trade and other international dealings to take place, Jacksonians are always suspicious of such regulations because they want to make sure that the regulators don't have an ulterior motive, and to make sure that everyone is playing by the same rules. The situation works because it is subject to constant scrutiny and because we don't go overboard relying on it.

Basically, Jacksonians believe that others will play fair, but some of them will only do so as long as they know they're being watched.

In its distrust/rejection of international government the Jacksonian party hurts itself. Jacksonian traditions and goals of free enterprise and self-reliance can spread globally via Global Free Trade, without it, their capacity to prosper within the US itself is constrained and ultimately doomed.

Jacksonians don't have any interest in spreading their philosophy around the world. It isn't evangelistic; indeed, the entire concept of trying to actively spread that or any other philosophy around the world is deeply repugnant to pure Jacksonians. Jacksonians are anti-imperialistic.

The whole point of Jacksonianism is "You leave me alone and I'll leave you alone. You play fair with me and I'll play fair with you. But if you fuck with me, I'll kill you."

I had not thought of Trump as a Jacksonian Democrat masquerading as a Republican. At least on twitter, and against the Mandarin Class, the shoe seems to fit.

The whole point of Jacksonianism is "You leave me alone and I'll leave you alone. You play fair with me and I'll play fair with you. But if you fuck with me, I'll kill you."

For those of us who think that on his core policies, he is headed 80% in the right direction, the distraction of his sometimes seemingly childish jibes, japes, and jabs can seem irritatingly pointless and distracting.

But he is a Jacksonian Democrat. If you ask him gotcha questions, he'll taunt and mock. If you lead with ungrounded priors, he'll insult and reframe. If you attempt to pass an opinion as a fact, he'll insult you with Fake News.

Sometime in the first 18 months of his administration, I commented that there are three things about this pattern. 1) He reliably does it, 2) the MSM reliably makes a fool of itself reacting to it, and 3) the distractions usually end up harming his opponents more than himself. My question was, why does the MSM and Mandarin Class keep, like Charlie Brown, charging to kick the football when they know exactly what is going to happen to them?

I had no explanation then and I have no explanation now. Much as I dislike some of the Trumpian Twitter storms, on balance they seem frequently effective and almost always more damaging to his opponents than to him. A Jacksonian Democrat to the core.