I sold my S&P 500 ETF’s back in 2016 after the election. I honestly thought the US economy was no longer a good long-term investment (I guess here 10 years later I was objectively wrong), but mostly because I didn’t like the direction the country was heading. Most people here saw his first term as a kind of satirical buffonery, kind of like a circus animal, that papers covered the same way you’d cover a kooky reality TV show. Everyone would kind of tune in (Or try to tune out), to find out what he’d do next.

I don’t know if I fully realized it at the time, but clearly he was surrounded by “handlers” during that first term, a few buffers here and there to prevent the ship from going completely off the rails. I remember many said at the time, coming up on Biden’s election, that we’d finally have an adult back in the white house and everything would go back to normal. This, I didn’t believe. To me, Trump is a symptom more than the disease itself, which lies with a subset of people (Not only americans I might add), who have a very particular view of the world.

There are many Trumps out there, and we see people like him come to power in many places. I’m reminded of Europe a hundred years ago, where people struggled. Nations with huge debts, political leaders who seemed to accomplish nothing, and pointless in-fighting between congressional members while the real people - workers - struggled with inflation, fear, and economic and cultural divide. It seems like a certain political environment starts brewing in these circumstances: People look back to how great they used to be.

And Germany, for instance, was an absolute powerhouse during the 17-1800’s, completely dominating all culture, science, and military in Europe. Even today we talk of Bach and Beethoven, we read Nietzsche and Kant, and so on. It’s not particularly odd that Germany wanted to return to such a time after the shadow of the first war, and practically felt cheated out of it since Hegel had all but promised that it was Germany’s time on the global stage. “Make Germany Great Again”.

And in Italy the sentiment mirrored it, as were true across the world, where select people found themselves sympathizing with the same sentiments. It is not a uniquely German, Italian, or American phenomenon - it seems to be rooted in the psychological makeup of human beings. When we struggle, and when times are hard, we become desperate. Political opinions drift toward these extremes, because the more desperate you are, the more change you want. And few people are more desperate than the young, already ideologically inclined, who walk the streets unable to find jobs due to economy, while forced to take care of family.

They start to rightly observe that their votes don’t seem to make much of a difference, that no matter what political message they send - nothing seems to change. The elite seems to laugh at them from tall buildings, regarding them as lazy, poor, and unintelligent. And therefore their votes and views grows more extreme, as the only people who seem to hear them, are the types who are mostly demagogues. I think all people who vote for demagogues have one thing in common: They are completely disillusioned with the existing system, and want someone to throw a wrench in it. It is no coincidence that Trump’s grassroots campaign picked up momentum on 4chan.

I’m not a conservative myself. But when I read Edmund Burke’s critique of the french revolution, I think he has a point in his critique of revolutions. Not only are governing bodies organically evolved and difficult to artificially devise in a power vacuum, when they are toppled everything also becomes extremely unpredictable. You may topple the tyrant king, but soon you have an even worse evil conqueror on your hands, because the underlying forces establishing the hierarchy are still in place.

I suppose the more marginalized, pressured, and disfranchised you are - the more absurd a reformist position is. “Do we really hope to change this heap of shit from the inside? Slowly? Are you kidding?”. But whatever is needed, does need to come at least somewhat organically because the underlying forces are still there. So if Trump is the symptom, then what is the disease?