Jonathan Hoenig: “Why Hillary Has My Vote”

Jonathan Hoenig at Capitalist Pig writes an argument how a free market capitalist can support Hillary over Trump:

I start with the premise that the only thing that can save the country is capitalism.

Yet sixty-three percent of Democrats and 49 percent of Republicans view Wall Street as detrimental to the economy, as reported by Daily Wire. Barely half view global free trade positively, according to Pew. The majority of young people now reject capitalism outright.

Reversing the trend will require decades of education. For Americans, capitalism remains the unknown ideal.
In this context, Donald Trump’s business credentials are exactly what makes him so dangerous. In the minds of voters, Trump represents capitalism. But as was pointed out in this space five years ago, Donald Trump is explicitly anti-capitalist on issues ranging from taxes to anti-trust to trade.

Consider that the most catastrophic financial collapse in U.S. history came under President Herbert Hoover, the Republican businessman who enacted trade restrictions to “bring back jobs.”

What followed wasn’t just economic misery, but the subsequent election of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the institutionalized welfare that hasn’t stopped metastasizing since.

In effect, what worries me most isn’t Trump, but what comes after Trump. “We tried free markets under Donald Trump,” they’ll say. “Look how it failed!”

I respect Jonathan Hoenig and his steadfast free market positions. He’s on FoxBusiness frequently and he always takes positions that align almost perfectly with Revo editorial positions on economics. And while I personally think that my arm would self-amputate before it would allow me to pull the handle for Hillary, his broad point about how Clinton really could be better for this country’s future than Trump, is not crazy talk.

Hillary is not friendly to capitalism. This must be made clear. But that’s precisely the point. She is not a capitalist figurehead. Whatever bullshit she might do in her 4-8 years, she won’t be seen as a capitalist representative, and capitalism won’t be seen to have failed as much as it is Hillary and her policies failing.

On the surface, Trump is “A Capitalist Tycoon.” He is the Monopoly Guy. He owns a show where he hires people on the basis of business acumen and talent, and brutally fires people that don’t make the cut, to the delight of the crowd. He makes no apologies for being rich from his business dealings, and in fact revels in it. He should be, by all rights, the poster boy for Capitalism. And he will be.

But make no mistake that this is all a thin veneer over Trump’s actual instincts. He is wearing Capitalism like a skin-suit.

Trump carries with him a host of positions–both current and past–that praise economic protectionism, high tariffs, economic isolationism, utilizing lawfare rather than voluntary financial persuasion, etc. And the fear is that despite his outward appearance of a capitalist, he would actually implement many non-capitalist policies that would be harmful. And when those policies bring the pain, people will look for a scapegoat.

That scapegoat will almost certainly be Capitalism (and those out there that the public views as Capitalists). This is despite the fact that the things that brought ruin weren’t capitalist policies or capitalists in the first place. But in the heat of the moment, the public won’t care about such details. They’re not going to wonk out to analyze the details. They’re going to use their reptilian brain and not much more.

Ultimately, I cannot vote for Hillary because she’s an abominable human, and I cannot place my stamp of approval upon a person I believe to be so. If only for my own conscience. But I believe it is important to see the non-crazy argument for a capitalist to support Hillary over Trump.