Prof. Paul Eidelberg

Consider Donald Trump vis-à-vis these extracts from my book American Exceptionalism:

• The Father of America, George Washington, envisioned in this nation the growth of a great commercial Republic. He understood that a commercial Republic will inevitably foster, along with competition and self-interest, the passions of ambition and avarice, which would augment dissension and litigation. However, he agreed with his great Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, that under the rule of law and well-designed institutions, “ambition will check ambition,” and that avarice, rightly directed, “may serve the public as well as the private good.”

• Hamilton also discerned that commercial republicanism can foster rationality, creativity, co-operation, as well as thrift, frugality, and even civic virtue.

• The philosopher-scientist Alfred North Whitehead observed that “Commerce is the great example of intercourse by way of persuasion.” It transforms self-interest into “enlightened self-interest.” Thus modified, self-interest will produce public benefits, while public benefits will enable a larger number of citizens to prosper and contribute to the common good.

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Strange as it may seem, Donald Trump has been more or less influenced by the teaching of the above paragraphs. His pompous boast “to make America great again,” his enormous avarice primed by vulgar egoism, should be viewed with the above paragraphs in mind, to justly evaluate the man who may become the next President of the United States.