Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedicaton
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Citations
- Chapter One Introduction: Donald Trump through Veblen's Looking Glass
- Chapter Two Evolution, Institutions and Barbarism
- Chapter Three The American Plan: Barbaric Liberalism
- Chapter Four Trumpian Ancestors, Exploitative Legacies
- Chapter Five Building for the Leisure Class
- Chapter Six “Picturesque Accompaniments”
- Chapter Seven Candidate Trump and the Politics of Popular Rage
- Chapter Eight Barbaric Governance
- Index
Chapter One - Introduction: Donald Trump through Veblen's Looking Glass
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 April 2019
- Frontmatter
- Dedicaton
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Citations
- Chapter One Introduction: Donald Trump through Veblen's Looking Glass
- Chapter Two Evolution, Institutions and Barbarism
- Chapter Three The American Plan: Barbaric Liberalism
- Chapter Four Trumpian Ancestors, Exploitative Legacies
- Chapter Five Building for the Leisure Class
- Chapter Six “Picturesque Accompaniments”
- Chapter Seven Candidate Trump and the Politics of Popular Rage
- Chapter Eight Barbaric Governance
- Index
Summary
In order to gain and hold the esteem of men it is not sufficient merely to possess wealth or power. The wealth or power must be put in evidence, for esteem is awarded only on evidence.
He boasted of sexual assault. His first wife charged that he raped her. More than a dozen women have come forward to complain that he forcibly kissed or groped them. A porn star claims that he paid her off to keep their extramarital affair secret. A Senate candidate accused of sexual involvements with high school girls won his eager support. He repeatedly threatened nuclear attack on North Korea, then warmly greeted its murderous leader and called him an “honorable man.” When a neo- Nazi and white supremacist march resulted in the death of a protester, he equivocated; there are “very fine people” on both sides, he said. After becoming president, he refused to divest his private holdings or to divulge his tax returns. He continues to profit from his private properties, including a hotel near the White House that regularly hosts gatherings of party officials, lobbyists and foreign diplomats. Members of his immediate family hold key positions in his government. His idea of “sacrifice” is to work hard on his own behalf. Promising to “Make America Great Again” for the nation's workers, he appointed the wealthiest and perhaps least competent cabinet in American history. And he accelerated redistribution of income upward through a massive business tax cut. He has repeatedly lied and dissembled, insulted and harangued, obliterating truth and fact with cavalier disdain. According to the fact- checking website, Politifact, he dissembles 75 percent of the time. Despite all evidence to the contrary, he claims that, but for massive fraud, he won the popular vote for president. He has declared the US media the “enemy of the people,” and its jounalism “fake news.” He has questioned the legitimacy of his predecessor's citizenship and urged the jailing of his campaign opponent. He has tried to ban Muslims from the United States, labeled Mexican immigrants rapists and African nations “shithole countries”; his immigration policy has torn children from their parents and would deny asylum to refugees. He has fractured US trade relations and political alliances, insulted allies, questioned the value of NATO and regularly sung the praises of tyrants, including Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, and the Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte.
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- Information
- Veblen's AmericaThe Conspicuous Case of Donald J. Trump, pp. 1 - 24Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2018