Back to the Future

In the past, it was reflected in the mass deportation of Chinese people and, in at least in two major instances, the expulsion of Mexicans (during the Great Depression and in the early 1950s).

While charting a course for the United States to return to a mythical era of self-sufficient welfare and traditional society, the administration of President Donald Trump seems to be proposing a return to less laudable American traditions, but also to a concentration of power unprecedented in the history of that country.

At least for now, these intentions seem to be reflected in more or less symbolic persecutions and demolitions, the apparently profound reform of government, and the unprecedented concentration of power in the executive branch.

For some, the current attempt is to reduce government and its footprint in American society, a long-held aspiration of conservatives. Reflecting the right’s dream come true, it seeks out people considered untrustworthy, in this case, people who do not support Trump, and scours the ranks of the bureaucracy, motivated by ideology, race and sexual preference. This effort evokes the hunt for communists and homosexuals after World War II and during McCarthyism.

After all, don’t forget that Roy Cohn, Trump’s lawyer and mentor when he arrived in “aristocratic” Manhattan from the middle-class neighborhood of Queens, served as the legal adviser to the House Un-American Activities Committee — the “communist hunters” — led by Richard Nixon in the House of Representatives and Joseph McCarthy in the Senate in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Cohn later served as consiglieri to New York Mafia families. And to Trump.

Whatever Trump’s ideas, the reality is that Trump has long been charged with authoritarian leanings and with benefiting from the global resurgence of populism, especially on the right, fueled by unfulfilled expectations, unkept promises, stagnant economies, xenophobia and racism.

It is also part of a cultural war, reflected in attitudes against abortion, women’s liberation, the rights of sexual minorities and extreme nationalism.

Many Trump supporters are right-wing Christian nationalists with an ultraconservative view of society. In Europe, Muslim and African immigrants are the targets of racist and xenophobic attitudes, while in the U.S., the focus is on Muslims and Latinos — especially Mexicans because of their numbers.

In the past, this view was reflected in the mass deportation of Chinese people and, in at least in two major instances, the expulsion of Mexicans (during the Great Depression and in the early 1950s).

Another facet of that ideology appears in an effort to control as well as expand borders physically or in effect, another old aspiration of the normally conservative and frequently right-wing national security apparatus.

And this administration has only been in office for three weeks.