Trump and Winning as a Political Philosophy

By Gary Hancock

There have been countless articles, columns, and quips about what drives Donald Trump. Undoubtedly, countless more will appear before the end of his presidency.

One prevailing certainty is this: President Donald Trump has expressed a dedication to "winning." He said during his campaign that the U.S. does not win anymore and, by implication, he was the man who could reverse this iniquity upon our America. In fact, he said, he'll cause so much winning that we'll get tired of it. He wants the American people to win, and in his appeal, winning will make America "great again."

Will winning put America back on the ascent again and, more importantly, back on track to its foundational principles? We shall see. It depends on what President Trump perceives winning to be – which issues are to be taken on, how the winning takes place, and what is the measure of success.


The context and the philosophy behind each circumstance of a "win" are vitally important. The schoolyard bully "wins" when he takes lunch money from a weaker kid. The progressives and President Obama claimed a "win" with the passage of Obamacare. Both of these actions, however, are vile to individual liberty, one of America's most important core principles or philosophies.

Therefore, it must not be assumed that winning is necessarily constructive or moral, nor is it, in and of itself, a political philosophy to be blindly followed. By itself, the act of winning says nothing about the underlying methods used or the attributes, principles, or ethics of the actors involved regarding any particular issue. A CEO may be dedicated to winning for his company (winning in this case defined, say, as simply making more money), but the means of winning could fall anywhere on the spectrum from honesty to deceit and corruption.

Winning at any cost by utilizing deceit and corruption would not advance American culture – the culture upon which we were founded.
Complete article:    The American Thinker

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