Remember how Ross Perot rose to presidential-candidate fame by badmouthing the politicals system and the ruliing class after amassing a fortune with lucrative government contracts? Well, deja vu all over again. Now we've got Donald Trump rising to presidential-candidate fame by badmouthing the political system and the ruling class after amassing a fortune by acquiring and developing property, often through the use of eminent-domain government bullying of the little people Trump now claims to champion:
On this issue, unlike many others, Trump has been consistent over time. When the Supreme Court narrowly upheld “economic development” takings that transfer property to private parties in the Kelo case, the ruling was widely denounced on both left and right. But Trump defended it, stating that “I happen to agree with it 100%. if you have a person living in an area that’s not even necessarily a good area, and … government wants to build a tremendous economic development, where a lot of people are going to be put to work and … create thousands upon thousands of jobs and beautification and lots of other things, I think it happens to be good." The feral cats who currently occupy the condemned land probably agree. Trump did not merely claim that the decision was legally correct; he argued that it was “good” to give government the power to forcibly displace homeowners and small businesses and transfer their property to influential developers on the theory that doing so might promote “economic development.”
I've posted frequently about Barack Obama's progressive authoritarian sins. He wasn't the first to commit any of them -- extensive use of executive power, ignoring Congress and the Constitution, treating Americans as subjects rather than citizens, etc. -- he just took them to breathtaking new levels. I think Donald Trump has the potential to out-Obama Obama, and that's saying something. Perhaps the federal government has become such a behemoth that a blustery circus barker is just what it needs. It is sometimes said we get the leaders we deserve. Perhaps it's just that we get the leaders the time is right for.
