There is no Trumpism. There is only Trump.

[DonViejo]

Opinion by Megan McArdle
Columnist

Feb. 16, 2021 at 6:28 p.m. EST

There’s a certain irony in the votes cast Saturday in fomer president Donald Trump’s impeachment trial by Republican Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Ted Cruz (Tex.). By voting to acquit him, they made it much more likely that Trump himself will block their own presidential ambitions in 2024. A Politico/Morning Consult poll finds that more than three-quarters of Republicans rate Trump favorably, almost 60 percent want him to play a major role in the party going forward, and more than half say they’d vote for Trump if the primary were held today.

One can understand why Hawley and Cruz gambled — at least in a strictly political sense. But for their gamble to pay off, there has to be a concrete legacy that Trump can pass on to heirs, a Trumpism that extends beyond the man himself. Trump clearly believes this legend — see Tuesday’s threat to assist primary challenges to Republicans who voted against him. It’s far from clear, however, that such a thing exists.

Many people think they see some larger movement, but often what they see seems suspiciously close to what they themselves are most interested in. The liberal Democrats who think the Republican Party is animated by little besides hatred of racial and sexual minorities saw voters flocking to a candidate brazen enough to ditch the code words and say the awful stuff straight out. For heterodox conservative policy wonks thwarted by their own coalition, Trump demonstrated that their flavor of populism was key to the party’s future. Republicans who were mainly incensed at perceived disrespect from liberal institutions tended to locate Trump’s appeal in his belligerent refusal to mouth liberal pieties. But what if those millions of supporters were thinking about something else entirely?

For example, it’s clear that many people liked the idea that Trump was a rich businessman. They assumed that he must be very smart and competent to have made so much money. Others liked his policy stances, but which ones? Immigration and trade got most of the attention, but Trump said a whole lot of things on a whole lot of topics.

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