Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic, by Jonathan Frum

I looked to Jonathan Frum’s book Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic (2018) for an incisive and high-level analysis of Trump as a leader and of the form of government he is pursuing.  Frum’s book offers that, but it is not a scholarly book.  It discusses Trump in terms that any intelligent reader can digest.  It’s well written, thoughtful, and angry, not angry in the sense of Michael Woolf’s gossip-laden, tabloid-style Fire and Fury but rather angry in a sense based on logic, fact, research, and concern about the truth.  Frum is a conservative and an editor of Newsweek.  He’s a conservative in the traditional sense: a person who believes in a particular political philosophy of reduced government and austerity in economics.  He’s intelligent and highly educated. He cares about his country.  In Trump he finds a man who doesn’t study or understand American history or the U. S. Constitution, a man who doesn’t care about ethics or morality except when they serve his own ends, a man so mired in wealth (or the appearance of wealth) that he feels any ends which serve his own goals, including the acquisition of more wealth, is justified.

I was disappointed that, as intelligent and analytical as Trumpocracy is, it didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know.  I continue to study American history.  I read the newspapers and watch the television news.  I ignore fake news (which includes Fox News, but also the fake news that emanates from progressive media shills) and the dishonest and evil voices that purvey and encourage distrust of reason, knowledge, facts.  I make up my own mind. I care about the country, as Frum does.  And I see in Trump what Frum sees—a hate-filled and venal and profoundly ignorant man who is destroying American democracy, who doesn’t understand or care about our history and our Constitution, who is putting our country at risk in virtually every way one can imagine.