It’s easy to find irony in comparing Donald Trump to the villain in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. First, the fact that Orwell was a socialist might make the comparison something of a compliment in the eyes of Trump supporters who either haven’t read it or are unfamiliar with its meaning. Second, the villain, a pig named Napoleon, represents Joseph Stalin, one of the early leaders of the Soviet Union.
The biggest irony, though, is that Trump would likely consider it endearing in some way. He would respect Stalin’s absolute authoritarian power over the land and while he would condemn Stalin’s actions against his own people, there would be a hint of longing to be like him in other ways.
If you haven’t read the book, do so before reading this article if you ever plan on reading it at all. There are spoilers coming. It’s still taught in most public schools, so we’ll assume that most have read it.
The story follows Napoleon who, after the farm animals vanquished their human masters, shared a leadership role with Snowball. Through cunning and manipulation, Napoleon forced Snowball from the farm as well, leaving the fate of the animals on the farm in his own hands. He went on to convince the animals that his actions, while seemingly contrary to the precepts they’d established from the start, were actually in their own best interests. Some of the animals questioned his intentions mildly, but they all eventually went along with it.
Over time, his shifts away from the independence and beneficial living circumstances that they fought for initially led to harsh realities facing the animals. They thought they remembered that things were different in their initial thinking, but they trusted Napoleon, his fellow pigs, and the harsh dogs who accompanied them everywhere. In the end, they came to understand that the pig they’d followed to keep away from the evils of men was actually working towards becoming one of the enemies himself.
Donald Trump is Napoleon to the Republican party. He’s slowly shifting the conservative principles of the party out the door and replacing them with the same sort of populist views that helped to build the modern Democratic party. Some Republicans are noticing the shifts and crying foul, but most are accepting him just as the farm animals accepted Napoleon. “He’s not perfect, but at least he’s not a Democrat.”
If Trump wins (and I believe that he will), we will see through his first and only term that he’s a big government, big-spending Democrat who has used immigration as a way to demonstrate his conservative credibility. I don’t doubt that he’ll build his wall, though not necessarily for security. There are better ways to secure the border that won’t cost $70 billion and that won’t require the use of eminent domain to lurch the lands by the border away from Americans who own them. In fact, a drone-based electronic border would be exponentially more effective because it would allow us to actually monitor the entirety of the border and to catch those who try to cross it. The wall will bring us a false sense of security as we’ll hope that there are no 31-foot ladders to scale a 30-foot wall or as we pray that there aren’t a ton of tunnels that the wall would not be able to detect. or prevent.
A virtual wall would be practically impenetrable, but one would have to understand Trump’s motives for building a wall in order to understand why he won’t go with the better, cheaper virtual wall. He wants a monument. He wants The Great Wall of Trump to rival The Great Wall of China in a thousand years. It’s his windmill from Animal Farm.
If Trump is Napoleon, then his fellow pigs are Chris Christie, Ben Carson, Rick Perry, and the various Republican officials who have stood by his side. That would mean that Trump’s variation of Napoleon’s dogs would be Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and Rush Limbaugh, protecting him from insult and attacking those who would question their top pig.
When the dust settles, we’ll have a wall and a bunch of liberal policies that would be very similar to the ones we would get with a President Clinton. The real difference is that with Clinton, we can oppose her in unison just as the animals opposed humans together… and won. Trump will deliver us to the humans (liberals) and it will be too late for opposition when it’s revealed.
This isn’t a call to vote for Clinton. She’s just as bad and I would never ask anyone to vote against their conscience. However, a vote for Trump is just as bad because he’s the enemy within rather than the enemy we can all unite against. 2016 is a sad year for conservatives, but at least it gives us the ability to start fresh with a new party separate from the GOP or the Democrats.
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