How America Changes If Trump Wins Today, following both Vance’s and Trump’s speeches at the RNC, the future trajectory of America if they’re elected is pretty clear. First, it’s important to acknowledge that this is no longer your (or my) father’s GOP. Vance is the pre-packaged, well-massaged “product” of a group of Silicon Valley billionaires who are enamored of the writings of Ayn Rand and David Koch’s Libertarian movement. Trump has made it clear he’s happy to go along with the Galt’s Gulch crowd, particularly if it makes him more money. These men (they’re nearly all men) are revolutionaries with little regard for political history or norms. Think Mao, Lenin, Pol Pot, or Mussolini. They don’t want to tweak government; they want to burn it down and start it over from scratch. Rebuild it as a completely different system of governance. They’re convinced that the post-1933 New Deal America is a mistake and, along with their allies on the Supreme Court, are dedicated to “deconstructing the administrative state” that came out of FDR’s reforms and the 20th century reinvention of the American system. And they have a couple of models they seem committed to following. Viktor Orbán’s Hungary is probably the most prominent; he’s already done pretty much everything on the list below, and what he hasn’t done he’s openly considered or will do to hang onto power. If you’re not familiar with Orbán and how he’s transformed his nation into what he calls an “illiberal democracy,” I’ve written extensively about him here and here and here. And Trump rambled at length about him last night. Here is their plan, based in large part on Orbán’s model: Read More