New Message from the Chair

The Vampire of Avarice

I’m completely for #GrabYourWallet.  Here’s why… and why we should take it even further.

I’m concerned that the countless aggressions and intolerance represented by Trump’s administrative appointments imply an underlying coherence that may not actually exist.  In no way am I walking back my stated position that Trump is committed to the abuse of power.  What I’m beginning to question, though, is what might be motivating that abuse of power.  More to the point, in spite of his unprecedented proposals and appointments, I’m not convinced that he sees anything in ideological terms at all.  Instead, I think he sees the privilege of his impending presidency as one he has obtained by having money and celebrity, and that he sees it as an opportunity to gain even more money and celebrity—and that that’s the totality of the coherence.  

I don’t think Trump is consciously making ideologically committed alliances with white supremacists or free-trade capitalists or climate-change deniers.  I think he is only making opportunistic alliances with them.  Trump is the vampire of avarice that has figured out how to live in the daylight.  And this, to me, is the even bigger picture that we need to confront with a Trump presidency.  Blatant corruption.

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