Trump is or is becoming the Leviathan

And it's really not good

I would like to make an argument that Trump is taking a "great man" approach to the presidency. What does that mean? I'm afraid that it is not good.

First, Hegel: “The great men in history are those whose own particular aims contain the substantial will that is the will of the World Spirit. They can be called heroes, because they have drawn their aim and their vocation not merely from the calm and orderly system that is the sanctified course of things, but rather from a source whose content is hidden and has not yet matured into present existence...Thus, these men seem to create from within themselves, and their actions have produced a set of conditions and worldly relations which seem to be only their interest, and their work.”

To my mind world history is a struggle between egalitarian democracy and elitism (in all of its many forms). If there is a Hegelian thesis > antithesis > synthesis process it is a push for more equality > a push back to restrain equality > a brief equilibrium/stasis before a new push.

Liberalism, in political theory, is a rights-based theory of government. Liberalism, in history, is a progressive view of more rights accruing to more people over time.

Liberalism was the professed goal of America (thesis); fascism is the antithesis of liberalism (this was made explicit in Mussolini and others who argued against liberalism and equality and democracy). It's also a big part of the MAGA right.

Obama was perhaps a "world-historical" push for more equality.

Trump is perhaps a "world-historical" push for less equality.

We haven't achieved a synthesis--we're in the flux period of liminality/state of exception.

According to Hegel, the hero will arrive who will push us in one direction or another, achieving synthesis.

Trump desperately wants to be that hero, someone history can never forget. He's currently remembered as a failure president, our very worst. He's twice impeached. He's a convicted felon. But he wants to be a great man, a hero. He wants to be the Great Man of American history, never forgotten.

What is he doing to be remembered as a Great Man whose flows of power make him unforgettable?

1. National Expansion (Canada, Greenland, Panama, space). Leaders who expand national boundaries are Great Men, triumphant heroic leaders. Trump's power flows to expand national power & nation itself.

2. Destroy the Federal Government. Republicans for 50 years have wanted to end the "evil" of the federal government, but have failed. Trump is unleashing his flows of power to eliminate the evil, showing that he is a powerful triumphant hero, the only one powerful enough to do what ought to be done.

3. Ruling by Executive Order. Trump has orchestrated a near-daily spectacle of his magnificent flows of power by sitting at the desk of power and signing large pieces of paper, which are not law, but are to be treated as law. He shows us his flows of power cannot be constrained by law or Constitution.

4. Demands for "Unification." Trump has used intimidation, lawsuits, personal attacks & other strategies to force the opposition to capitulate to him. He calls that capitulation "unification." His legacy will be that his great power flows will unify the nation (a criteria of presidential greatness).

5. Erasing the past to control history and the future. Trump is using his power flows to erase all information about anything that contradicts his power. He will remake the nation in his own image, with his preferred view of reality. Inconvenient truths and perspectives will be erased.

6. Punishing domestic enemies. Trump is using his power flows to crush his and his followers’ enemies, delivering satisfying retribution for his supporters. Trump’s sadism is heroic, not evil.

7. Militarizing the nation. Trump is using his power flows to create domestic emergencies so that he can pretend to be a “strong man” by suppressing them. “Strong men” leaders are heroes, so Trump needs an emergency to create the illusion of “heroic times.” Not only is Trump using the military to create domestic “emergencies,” but he has used the US military against others (so far Yeman and Iran), which allows him to claim a “state of exception” for wartime powers.

Taken together, Trump’s seven power flows: expansion, destruction, rule by Executive Order, unification as forced capitulation, erasing inconvenient truths, retribution, and militarization are an authoritarian consolidation of power in the person of Donald Trump. He has become, or is becoming, the Leviathan.

Non est potestas Super Terram quae Comparetur ei Iob (There is no power on earth to be compared to him).

Use this frame to think about and predict Trump's actions. He wants to replace Lincoln on the National Mall. He wants his face on Mt. Rushmore. He wants to be a Great Man, worshipped and obeyed.