Discourse around statism almost always attributes the desire for a parental state to a leftist mindset. Yet, the right has always had its own deep brand of statist thinking. This was made especially clear in the U.S. by the triumph of Donald Trump, but it has also been a feature of the European right for a long time.
Trump has been the center of the American right’s new love affair with big government; but, the kind of big government Trump represents is very different from that of the left. Using the analogy of the state as a parent, it might be helpful to think of “Trumpian statism” as a father and the left’s “progressive statism” as a mother. Both infantilize individuals and deny them the freedom that would allow them to thrive on their own.
A Tale of Two Archetypes
The state as archetypal father and mother figures can go a long way toward explaining how the two strands of statism can both hate liberty-minded individuals and each other.
The social democratic leftist “state-as-mother” promises goodies like welfare; it coddles citizens with benefits and shields them from pain – especially the pain of their own poor choices. The “state-as-mother” wants its children to be happy and believes it knows what will make them happy. It doesn’t matter what the children want, mother knows best. Feelings are overridingly important to the “state-as-mother.” Safe spaces and microaggressions are things to be taken seriously, lest the state’s precious children find their feelings hurt by mean things like facts and reality. The warm cocoon of positive affirmation and participation trophies keeps the “state-as-mother” strong and the individual stunted.
The stifling hug of the mommy state has resulted in a reaction of the opposite order. Some liberty-minded activists and voters thought that the swing would be away from statism as a whole, but alas this was not the case. Instead, we have found ourselves confronted with a different kind of statism.
Milo Yiannopoulos, the right-wing provocateur and gadfly extraordinaire, has long enjoyed referring to Trump as “Daddy”. And while Milo is probably just doing his puckish shtick with that sort of line, it reflects the sort of statism Trump fundamentally represents.
Trump is an American embodiment of the “state-as-father.” This kind of state is no less authoritarian than the “state-as-mother”, but its aims and attitudes are very different. While the mommy state is concerned with feelings and inclusivity, the daddy state wants its children to be obedient and virtuous – where virtue is determined by the masculine attitudes the father personally prioritizes. The “state-as-father” wants citizens who aren’t pansies, yet are obedient to the authority of the father. Citizens should toughen up, but still be subservient. The daddy state has no time for feelings, but it still expects the same obedience as mommy.
Blinkered by the Left
When Donald Trump won the presidency, there was a sudden shift on the right. All of a sudden, people who had been calling Obama’s government overweening and had spent eight years calling for more limited government were happy to get behind a new administration that promised authoritarian measures, just of another stripe.
Were these turncoats against liberty suddenly changed? Or were they always authoritarians in libertarian clothing? The latter answer, alas, is probably the truth. It is easy to rail against the state and its excesses when it isn’t “your guys” in charge. But now that Trump and his cronies rule the roost in the White House, many voters are happy to accept their authoritarian. That is a worrying sign for the liberty movement as a whole. Many people we thought we could count as allies were only ever allies of convenience.
Worse still are those genuinely pro-liberty people who do not distinguish between the two types of statism, thinking that a vote against the left must be a vote in favor of the individual. But a look at places like France should prove the lie of that sentiment. Marine Le Pen won moral support from numerous self-described libertarians in the United States, yet she had every bit the same desire to dominate the domestic, social and economic lives of French citizens as the socialists of the far-left.
The Challenge for Freedom
As we think about bringing real freedom to the world, freedom that is not subordinated to the will of a father or mother figure, we need to come to terms with the fact that we are a minority. The warm embrace of the parental state is a siren song many people find hard to resist.
Emerging from the adolescence of our civilization will mean shuffling off the chains of statism. The fight to achieve that aim will be a long one.
John Engle
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