James Burnham was right: Liberalism (now called progressivism) is the “ideology of Western suicide,” but now it has a partner in Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), which is an ideology (or psychosis) that affects more than those in the progressive camp. TDS runs rampant among establishment Republicans and “conservatives” who snub their noses at populist conservatives — the George Will types who cling to the Beltway establishment despite its progressive leanings because they cannot stomach Trump. The TDS community includes many retired generals and admirals (and undoubtedly many current ones), many current and former intelligence officers, virtually everybody in the legacy media, most university professors, and many members of the federal judiciary. Today, progressivism and TDS are the twin ideologies of Western suicide.
Back when he wrote Suicide of the West (1964), Burnham did not directly blame liberalism for the decline of the West, but he did note that liberalism reconciled the people of the West to its decline, rationalized the decline, and explained why that decline was good. To liberals, Western civilization wasn’t worth saving because of its inherent racism, religious bigotry, economic inequalities, colonial mindset, global injustices, and many other flaws. Progressives still think that way and they currently have a stranglehold over the “deep state,” which is another name for the administrative state. Trump is the first president to confront the administrative state which was formed during the New Deal and has grown exponentially since then, and he is the first president to challenge the administrative state’s prerogatives and powers.
The TDS camp, including the Republicans in that camp, is already reconciled to the permanency of the administrative state. Indeed, many of them feed off it, which is why Trump is meeting such fierce resistance from the federal bureaucracy and from the courts. Ruling classes, as Burnham frequently noted, rarely surrender power and privileges willingly. Burnham learned this at the intellectual feet of Gaetano Mosca, Vilfredo Pareto, Robert Michels, and Niccolo Machiavelli. If you want to fundamentally understand the opposition to Trump just read Burnham’s 1943 classic The Machiavellians.
The ruling class initially struck back after the 2016 election, using the Russia hoax and impeachments to attempt to drive Trump from office. As Geoff Shepard has noted, it was the same playbook used to remove Richard Nixon from office. It didn’t work but only because Trump had the personal resources to fight back and the help of an alternative media to counter the narrative created by the ruling class and echoed by its compliant media. Nixon had neither. When that playbook failed and after Trump’s defeat in a controversial presidential election in 2020, the ruling class used the powers of the administrative state to prosecute Trump. When those efforts failed, the ruling class and its media accomplices portrayed Trump as Hitler — a dictator in waiting — only to have that portrayal rejected by the American voters. And even after Trump was shot by a would-be assassin during the 2024 campaign, after a brief respite the Hitler-autocrat-dictator rhetoric continued but to no avail.
Trump’s aggressive use of his Article II powers to close the southern border, ramp up deportations of illegal aliens, curb crime in major American cities, investigate transnational gangs like Antifa, withhold federal funds from universities that pander to antisemitic groups and promote DEI policies at odds with federal policies, attack narco-terrorists to prevent deadly drugs from reaching our shores, and eliminate wasteful and unnecessary bureaucratic agencies has driven progressives and some in the TDS camp to expose themselves as supporters of illegal aliens, opponents of anti-crime measures, fierce critics of law enforcement, and proponents of wasteful government spending.
The progressives are driven by their liberalism. The TDS camp is driven by their hatred of Trump. Trump’s policies are intended to “make America great again” as the leader of Western civilization. But the progressives disdain Western civilization while the TDS camp opposes anything Trump does even if it would help preserve that civilization. As Burnham, noted, the West will be saved when its leaders reacquire:
the pre-liberal conviction that Western civilization…is both different from and superior in quality to other civilizations and non-civilizations…. And there would have to be a renewed willingness, legitimized by that conviction, to use superior power and the threat of power to defend the West against all challenges and challengers. Unless Western civilization is superior to other civilizations and societies, it is not worth defending; unless Westerners are willing to use their power, the West cannot be defended. But by its own principles, liberalism is not allowed to entertain that conviction or to make frank, unashamed and therefore effective use of that power.
Donald Trump has that “pre-liberal conviction” that Burnham wrote about. Progressive leaders do not. And the TDS crowd simply opposes Trump.