Neoliberals have always bemoaned big government, and the neoliberal promise has been that governments would shrink and markets would rule. But under Donald Trump we have seen the most sweeping expansion of federal power since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Trump's regime may well be marked by populist language of freedom and small government but has actually involved an unapologetic use of state authority. The president has sent federal soldiers into cities over their objections. The regime has bullied universities, intimidated television news outlets, and turned law firms into instruments of political intimidation. Above all, it has asserted claims of the state in the private sphere — aggressively taking a stake in the semiconductor company Intel, to cite one example.
The irony is of course that the same conservatives who had long threatened "intrusive control" from Washington now occupy the wheel of control. The modern right is now using state intervention not to expand welfare or equality, but to police culture, punish heresy, and direct economic power towards nationalist ends.
A New Form of Authoritarian Intervention
This right-wing statism isn’t about helping the poor or redistributing wealth. It’s about reshaping society in the image of a particular ideology — using the levers of the state to reward allies, punish enemies, and enforce loyalty.
The Thatcher-Reagan "small state" ideal is gone. In its place is a government that aims to expand intervention. This is statecraft that appropriates the tools of the left and turns them upside down....
It almost makes me RESPECT Thatcher!
These aren’t conservatives in any sense that Reagan-era conservatives would understand. We still call it the Republican Party, but it’s morphed into a cult.
I don't think it's an accurate characterization. Trump has greatly reduced the federal workforce. And during the government shutdown, he has been cutting the workforce even more.
Yes, there has been increased law enforcement, but this has mostly been done without massive hiring. In part, it has been done by mobilizing state national guard troops to assist. Overall, the State has been shrinking during this Trump term.
The conservative view of law enforcement seems contradictory on the surface. I am referring to American conservatives, mostly. Yes, we want less government interference. But we don't want less law enforcement. These might seem at odds. But there is a subtlety to it. We expect people to follow the law. And those who break the law should suffer the consequences. But this doesn't just apply to citizens. We also have that expectation of government. Once government starts crossing the line, conservatives are intolerant of that too.
How do we know when government is crossing the line? We have the US Constitution, which partly describes what the government is allowed to do, and also describes what the government is prohibited from doing. We have absolutes by which we can measure what government does. So far, Trump has been coloring inside the lines. The minute he starts to move outside his bounds, he loses our support. So far, he has been winning by using the laws that are in place, some of which have not been used in some time. And when challenged in court, which has been frequent, he has won.
its a joke that tells itself