I diagree with You, Roger Trump is very worthy You ca nsee this fact on the bipartisan establishment opposition of his intention. And Russia is not a threat to the eastern EU countries, the EU commission is a stronger threat to us.
Listening to this in 2022, in the middle of a cost of living crisis. Meanwhile the US has announced a 40 BILLION dollar relief package to The Ukraine. The UK, similarly affected by inflation, has announced a 1.3 Billion pounds of aide to The Ukraine.
I've been following the work of Roger Scruton for a number of years; his views on the importance of home culture identity are partly why I voted for Trump. Unfortunately this may be the first time I must question what is being said here regarding RS's assertion that Trump is basically a sub-civil person and not fit for the presidency. This may have been true in days of old, but as a wise writer friend of mine notes, we are living in a "post-virtue" society. The virtue we do have is rotten posturing. If Trump was refined and presidental (a posture) I'm not sure he could have beaten the establishment--it truly was an incredible feat. So, I guess I'm parting with my beloved ROger on this account. Sometimes you need a gentleman and sometimes you need a street fighter.
Agreed! Love RS but he cannot see the age is past when a gentleman could fight these battles. Just look what happened to Enoch Powell as far back as 50 years ago. Trump despite his failings is an oikophile taking on the ruling oikophobe ideology in America, to use Roger's own excellent terms.
If this is a 'post-virtue' society, we must fight to regain virtue. If you cede virtue, what is the 'streetfighter' fighting for besides his own selfish ends?
You can always tell when a critic of Trump hasn't read the Art of the Deal, included in that is Garry Kasparov. 6 months before Trump even won the election, he got the NATO countries to sit up, take note and start pulling their weight more simply by Trump using his number one tactic, always make 'em think you'll walk away from the deal. He's doing the same thing now over Japan, S.Korea and the South China Sea. It must be embarrassing for people like Scruton, but I guess nobody's perfect...
Yeah, I still love Roger, but he is at heart a bit removed - he lives on a lovely farm in the English countryside. He is a reflective soul and we regard him for such - or at least I do. I'm still wrangling with what it means to have Trump as a president, I'm alert and paying more attention, as are many others. I feel his intelligence will be made manifest in ways not immediately identifiable to some. He's a mold breaker and that's traumatic in and of itself; it means we must see the world anew inside something broken, and emerging and wholly unfamiliar. Because he doesn't fit the mold we can't be lulled back to sleep, we can't forget about the state of the world as if it's all business as usual. Sometimes I think that's partially what everyone is so agitated about - no matter what side of the political divide you stand on - it's not so easy to remain unconscious anymore. I don't know if Sir Roger is embarrassed about his assessments - he seems beyond such emotions - I could be wrong. Won't be the first time.
Left wing, Right wing, they are both attached to the same bird. How long will it be until people wake up to this fact. The status quo is always maintained for the people that count.
@@tomasroque3338 Why should he? Russia isn't going to invade Europe - our country only takes what was ours all this time but got cut off unlawfully. We don't need Europe, especially seeing how rotten and unstable and corrupt and totalitarian is has become.
No, you are correct. The stickers have never indicated a candidate. Roger is straining to make his point (i.e., that no one was enthusiastic about their candidate), compounded by his lack of familiarity with American electoral practices.
I questioned this also; There's never been a sticker that said "I voted for -- ". He might have been thinking of the pre-election pins that have mottos like "I'm for - - -" . No election place has rolls of stickers for people to choose from after voting, they never have done that.
This most conservative Brit has long had a very high regard for all of Roger Scruton's work So this is the first time I have disagreed with him. Yes his analysis of the reasons that blue collar America voted for Trump are correct, very correct, but his understanding of who and what Trump is, is flawed. To an academic, used to living with polite, patient, middle class people Trump must seem to be a rude, aggressive, boastful man with no graces. But to understand Trump we must look beyond his surface presentations to see his genuine love for his country, his people and the values of the entire west, based as it is upon our shared Christian world-view and heritage. The left-liberal establishment are everywhere, and powerfully in control. So it takes a brash, overly-confident, courageous and even rude man to have the sheer guts and presence to even think about taking them all on, reversing the almost inexorable tide of 'progress' that has been set in motion by them, for now almost half a century. What Trump is engaged in is almost suicidal, mad, yet if anyone can halt and reverse the deliberate self-destruction of our civilisation that the left-liberal axis is hell bent upon, then that person is President Trump. Do I like him as a man ? No, not all all. But do I think he is doing the right things ? Yes he certainly is ! Will he succeed ? All of us who love our countries and the west, must hope and pray so. Thank you very much indeed Roger Scruton for your normally impeccably correct understandings and analysis. But God bless President Trump !
Trump has been proving people wrong from day one. He has surrounding himself with a variety of individuals. Some stay some did not. He's a businessman. If you do the job you stay, when you do not, you're gone.
2:00 It's actually a bit simpler than "sex", "family", etc. It's the simple fact that real wages froze in 1980 and haven't budged since. People who live near the poverty line simply have no time to engage in fine dissections about "values" - they need to eat and they need clean water.
Im a conservatie latino and want a return to something more conservative. I love sruton because he defends his conservatism with reason and rational. This is something that is no longer evident with majority of conservatives and definitely with postmodernist relativist liberals. My fear and frustration is that we all crave a return due to the deconstructionist and relativist nature of the left but offer no intellectual alternatives. Americans benefited and promoted being the world police for both moral reasons and economical reasons and now dont want to anything to do with the international order and globalization that they themsleves created. America went to war with other countries encouraging them to lean towards the right economically and stopping the domino effect fear of communism. Now that countries are leaning to the right which is what they wanted, americans are upset that jobs are leaving despite the fact americans became billionaires early on due to them aggresiviely and peacefully opening up markets. Americans and we conservatives in general crave some form of a religious return despite the fact that the average person cant balance faith and reason. im simply afraid that we conservatives have failed. WE want a return and rescuing of the past when majority of us dont have the educacation to properly do it. If the rights across the western world fail, which i thinkg they will, they will only empower the left more and all of this would have simply been coounter productive.
Interesting analysis, and worth listening to but I don't think we ever had "I voted for *N*" stickers. However, if I am wrong and you find an example, give me a link, please.
Correct me if im wrong but didnt Trump state that he feels the EU member states should pay their own dues instead of deppend on the USA, rather than leave NATO completely?
it would be as interesting to know what Sir Roger Scruton was saying on the same issue a year or two after. It is known that many have changed their mind once the inconsistent policies were in place.
Dear Rodger it brings me great pleasure to listen to somebody who is intellectually as agile and articulate as you. I was beginning to lose hope. Thinking seems to be a lost art. I'm not big on Harry Potter, I like Leonard Bernstein. Thank you.
American voting stickers never reported the chosen candidate. I believe you analyzed the force behind Trump's election perfectly. However, your other conclusions and predictions didn't move the needle much for me. Trump doesn't need dissident voices within his camp. The entire establishment is lined up against him. He needs people on board with his vision. And frankly, the Russian threat is just echoes of Hillary's nonsense. No one really buys it. And frankly, eastern Europe isn't really Americas problem anyways.
His"vision"? Do you mean Bannon's vision? You might want to reconsider that Russian option. We should take them very seriously, and never forget the lessons of history. Putin wants NATO weakened. He wants to see the US weakened. Do not underestimate the Russian threat.
Are you saying Trump cannot share a vision with an adviser? Or won't consult his massive intelligence community? Look at URL cabinet-members.insidegov.com
Good on you, Bitterman. You wrote your comment 2 years ago and today (23rd November 2018) I read that President Trump, at 48% popularity, is more popular than Merkel, May, Trudeau and Macron. He fights, and fights hard. He's an inspiration to many of us here in Australia where limp 'conservatism' will soon make way for a cynical left-wing government. The Cultural Left is rampant around the world, and, besides little Poland and Hungry, the USA is the only nation pushing back.
I do not agree that Trump is without character. I think you, like many, have underestimated this very thing. Watch closer, Roger. Watch very much closer. In the rest of this, I do agree, as always, sir.
I'd be interested in your view of Trump today eight months after securing office. I wouldn't have voted for Trump but at the very beginning thought he might get to achieve some important things on the anti establishment side. How has he done now in your view?
Shameful I must admit I first discovered RS several years ago while watching a documentary about the late Enoch Powell. Since I have read several of his books and articles and occasionally do a short 'marathon' of his recorded lectures. Saying that: its a shame such a person do not get wider exposure while the electronic media is overloaded with twitter type of comments and youtube comment makers that are not more than witty punch line cteators.
You're entitled to your shame if you really feel you deserve it, but I don't think watching documentaries on historical public figures, reviled or not, should occasion any. Would it not be salutary for any person to spend an evening finding out about Stalin, Mao, Lee Harvey Oswald, Kim Jong-un, Hugh Hefner, Madonna, etc.?
Scruton is one of my favorite living humans but he needs to do more research on Trump. Trump never said he wanted to leave NATO. Just doesn't want it to take advantage of the US. Also, listening to Larry Kudlow on Trump's economic plans would make any conservative happy. Kudlow is a Trump advisor.
There are TWO things (not one) which stop Russia from invading its Western border countries - NATO and COMMON SENSE rooted in good, old-fashioned, risk-benefit analysis.
The "I Voted!" stickers have always read simply "I Voted!" for as long as I remember. And in 2016 I saw plenty of campaign signs in people's yards too. Trump, Hillary, and Bernie. There was no shame or subdued participation that I could tell, quite the contrary.
Agree that withdrawal from NATO is a serious concern. But so is the fact that countries are not living up to their end of the contractual agreement and paying what they promised. As a Canadian, I really hope that this will incentive our government to build up our sorely underfunded army, in the way that taking away welfare dependence breeds incentive for more productive activity.
***** That does not seem like a radical proposal to me. As I mentioned, as a conservative Canadian, I am pleased to see pressure applied to our government to build up our badly underfunded military.
What I find strange is the blaming of President Trump for reconsidering the NATO agreement. America is buoying up the costs and yet fingers are not pointing at nations that are failing to meet their NATO commitments. As usual fault finding is prevalent when having to pay the bill, although having received the service are rescinding on the mutual agreement of payment.
To my knowledge, stickers at American polling places have always only indicated the citizen voted not whom she voted for. I think Scruton is wrong here.
I have voted in every presidential election for almost 40 years and most off-year elections, as well. I have cast votes in 5 different states during this time period. I have never once been offered a sticker by an election official that stated "I Voted for (candidate's name). I have never seen anyone wear such a sticker. Roger Scruton claims that these types of stickers were the rule in American elections prior to 2016. He claims that the absence of these types of stickers is evidence of a profound disturbance in the American psyche. Given that these stickers have never existed, at least in my experience, I'd have to wonder about the depth of his insights. Hearing that bit of fantasy was enough to dissuade me from hearing any more.
Yep, that was my main objection to what he said. I've never seen an "I Voted for ... " sticker in America. The rest of it, was, for the most part, pretty perceptive.
I am not and academic or a scholar. Mr. Scruton is obviously an intelligent, thoughtful and measured man but in light of Trump's performance to date, having just passed what most economists believe is a monumentally ill considered tax break for the wealthy, I think his concerns for the future America's engagement with the world beyond its borders are way off the mark.
His introductory observation is not true. The stickers given out always simply said, "I voted." But everything else he says is right. He's got the pattern.
Europe will always be of strategic importance to America vis-a-vis Russia because of geopolitics. One theory of geopolitics has Euro-Asia as the "World Island" and North and South America as an island off the coast of the World Island. If the Heartland of the World Island (namely Russia) ever gains control of the Rimland (Europe, the Middle East, India, the Orient, namely the temperate zones and year-round warm-water seaports) while also maintaining the Heartland of the World Island, or as it is sometimes called the "Inland Empire," then no American power can ever hope to defeat the power which exists on the World Island. Therefore, it is of vital strategic interest to the USA that Russia, nor any other central power of Asia ever gains strong control over much of the Rimland, or that a Rimland power ever gains control of the Heartland (say if China conquered Russia and the rest of the Orient) - either of these scenarios would put America at a severe geopolitical disadvantage. It is in America's interest that, as a whole, the Eurasian continent remain fractured into at least a half dozen or more competing, sovereign nations - for if two or three powers, or especially if a single massive power ever arose on the Eurasian continent, controlling most of that World Island, America would have no chance of defending against it, much less defeating it. This was the true threat of the Cold War - that as Communism spread across Eurasia, China and the USSR would unite into a single political/military entity - if this had happened America would have been in for a tough time. Every politician who has run for office of the Presidency has been aware of this, period. From Washington to Trump, liberal and conservative alike - it is a fact of geography not politics - political truths do have certain bounds, this being one of them.
While I sympathize with Roger and and the rest of what he says here ... in truth, in my voting lifetime the stickers have ALWAYS only said "I Voted", and not for whom. The idea is that voting is the most important thing ever, and you should do it, no matter what. I don't share this view, by the way. I think only the informed should vote. If you have no idea whom to vote for and need to be told by a TV ad, stay the hell home. In my humble opinion. I was not thrilled to vote for Trump, but I was absolutely not ashamed to vote against Hillary. Trump, I saw, as a bumbling used car salesman who was maybe slightly to the right of Hillary. Maybe. Literally the lesser of two evils. Turned out I was wrong about that last part (being only slightly to the right of Hillary). Turns out ... he was not nearly as bad a president as I thought he might be, regardless of how the leftist media spun every little thing he said or didn't say. He was actually, if you look at what he DID and not what the media told you ... pretty darned centrist. The demographic crises visited on Eastern Europe (and the rest of it) is a result of Europe embracing the "values" the American left champion, and the rest of the west will soon face that very same demographic crisis. Trump was right about NATO and the lack of balance in responsibility. The guy's an egotist, and he's bombastic, and often doesn't think before he speaks. These are all embarrassing things. But he doesn't hate the west, and those who have taken over the Democrat party and much of the governments of Europe ... have lost faith in the West. Many of them actively hate it, and many more are merely willing to virtue signal by pretending to agree. The vacuum of power this leaves behind if allowed to persist will only allow more backward worldviews from those who are much more certain of their worldviews, to fill it. And the human rights gains of the last couple of centuries will vanish into the black hole they THINK, and posit, the American right would lead them to. But most of the American Right is merely the remnant of the America that ended slavery, fought the Nazis and the Soviets, helped rebuild Japan and Europe after WWII, helped FOUND NATO and the UN before they became subverted, and sends, privately, billions of dollars overseas for charity (in addition to what goes through taxes ... or printed up dollars, as the case may be, through Government)
@1:38 In America, as in Britain, the indigenous working class has been put out of mind even overtly disparaged by the media and the political class. All attempts to give voice to their anxieties over immigration, over the impact of their lives of globalization and the spread of liberal conceptions of sex, marriage and the family have been dismissed or silenced... The working class have been castigated with gross and ill-considered abuse.
If Europeans do not consider themselves worth defending, why should Americans consider them worth defending? Is preserving the current political system, the one importing millions of Blacks and Muslims, really a good way to sustain Western Civilization? Personally, I think the current dispensation in Europe is worse than that in Russia. Europe is committing suicide. Russia is not.
Western Civilization is not long for this world in my opinion. The East is is rapidly catching up and when it does the west will be the "deer in the headlights".
I disagree with what he says about charisma. I think Trump exudes charisma not that Obama lacked it but he relied on tricks of rhetoric and cadence which palled and became phony over time. I also disagree with his belief that Russia is a threat: the threat comes from globalists and Russia is defiantly anti globalist.
No country in Central and Eastern Europe would have been able to raise an army to efficiently oppose a Russian invasion even of their populations wouldn’t have been depleted by migration to the West. The EU and Nato are the only guarantees (yet not very reliable) against such an invasion.
Roger Scruton is the greatest philosopher of our days. It was in 1998 that I first read one of his books. I have never stopped reading his books. I am a graduate of Leiden University, and I now find myself being called extreme right, because I often defend Donald Trump, and because in my opinion Vladimir Putin has liberated the Crimea, and because I am a fan of Milo Yiannopoulos and because I support the state of Israel, that liberated Jerusalem from islam. If that makes me a deplorable and extreme right, then I take pride in the words: I am a deplorable and I am extreme right. Long live our King Willem Alexander, guardian of my beloved constitutional parlementary monarchy of the Netherlands and glory to the Queen of Heaven, consolatrix afflictorum.
Some disappointing Cold War nonsense here, which surprised me from Scruton. "There is nothing to stop Putin invading these states than...." - how about the fact that Putin and Russian society in general has ZERO desire to conquer Poland or Rumania? People who cannot see the difference between the actual ethnic sphere of Russia (which includes Belarus, the Ukraine and parts of Kazakhstan) and the rest of the form Warsaw Pact shouldn't really go around talking about "civilisation".
Well what people often fail to lament on was why he really won and how awful Hillary Clinton was comparatively not just because of her sleazy husband but her congressional testimony as Secretary of State too. Far too much virtue signalling and immorality in politics now.
RS is a true intellectual but does not understand the realities of his own beliefs : check out that book about ,"intellectuals" by that Oxford ge exercise ....professor.etc.Truth is - he despises common people.......and why not? Still excellent but refuses to accept his own fallibility so what sort of philosopher king can he really be??? Meanwhile ...look forward to reading his next great book !!!
Short. Very short scruton. Perhaps the snobbery can be tolerated if you sense how Brexiteers felt. But you don’t, you just undervalue them and their values like you do the patriotism of the American voter.
Interesting analysis. Thank heavens for independent thinkers like Roger Scruton.
"The real advisor is the one who disagrees and who gives you valid reasons for doing so"
Sir Roger nails it again. The best analysis of the election.
It has taken me far too long to find this guy. Every point he makes is graceful. I got a little learning to do.
Trump with his speech in Poland ,completely blows aways what Roger states here.
The crowds at all the Trump rallies did not reflect this view.
I diagree with You, Roger
Trump is very worthy
You ca nsee this fact on the bipartisan establishment opposition of his intention.
And Russia is not a threat to the eastern EU countries, the EU commission is a stronger threat to us.
Listening to this in 2022, in the middle of a cost of living crisis. Meanwhile the US has announced a 40 BILLION dollar relief package to The Ukraine. The UK, similarly affected by inflation, has announced a 1.3 Billion pounds of aide to The Ukraine.
There were plenty of Trump signs in southwestern Pennsylvania during the election.
I've been following the work of Roger Scruton for a number of years; his views on the importance of home culture identity are partly why I voted for Trump.
Unfortunately this may be the first time I must question what is being said here regarding RS's assertion that Trump is basically a sub-civil person and not fit for the presidency. This may have been true in days of old, but as a wise writer friend of mine notes, we are living in a "post-virtue" society. The virtue we do have is rotten posturing. If Trump was refined and presidental (a posture) I'm not sure he could have beaten the establishment--it truly was an incredible feat. So, I guess I'm parting with my beloved ROger on this account. Sometimes you need a gentleman and sometimes you need a street fighter.
Agreed! Love RS but he cannot see the age is past when a gentleman could fight these battles. Just look what happened to Enoch Powell as far back as 50 years ago. Trump despite his failings is an oikophile taking on the ruling oikophobe ideology in America, to use Roger's own excellent terms.
If this is a 'post-virtue' society, we must fight to regain virtue. If you cede virtue, what is the 'streetfighter' fighting for besides his own selfish ends?
Black Market Goodness He's like a TR who doesn't read and cant talk.
You can always tell when a critic of Trump hasn't read the Art of the Deal, included in that is Garry Kasparov. 6 months before Trump even won the election, he got the NATO countries to sit up, take note and start pulling their weight more simply by Trump using his number one tactic, always make 'em think you'll walk away from the deal. He's doing the same thing now over Japan, S.Korea and the South China Sea.
It must be embarrassing for people like Scruton, but I guess nobody's perfect...
Yeah, I still love Roger, but he is at heart a bit removed - he lives on a lovely farm in the English countryside. He is a reflective soul and we regard him for such - or at least I do. I'm still wrangling with what it means to have Trump as a president, I'm alert and paying more attention, as are many others. I feel his intelligence will be made manifest in ways not immediately identifiable to some. He's a mold breaker and that's traumatic in and of itself; it means we must see the world anew inside something broken, and emerging and wholly unfamiliar. Because he doesn't fit the mold we can't be lulled back to sleep, we can't forget about the state of the world as if it's all business as usual. Sometimes I think that's partially what everyone is so agitated about - no matter what side of the political divide you stand on - it's not so easy to remain unconscious anymore.
I don't know if Sir Roger is embarrassed about his assessments - he seems beyond such emotions - I could be wrong. Won't be the first time.
Not Scruton’s finest moment.
Amazing human being.
Left wing, Right wing, they are both attached to the same bird. How long will it be until people wake up to this fact. The status quo is always maintained for the people that count.
A very interesting commentary, even if I disagree with some of your points. Thank you for making it.
9:28
"America will continute to be on the side of civilization, even with a Presidente who doesn't yet know what civilization means."
Spot on! Clear, accurate, simple
Always interesting.
Bravo! Bravo!! Bravo!!!
Hard truths spoken here!
Always respect Scruton's opinions, but the idea that Russia is going to invade Northern and Eastern Europe is beyond ludicrous.
Have you now changed your mind?
@@tomasroque3338 Why should he? Russia isn't going to invade Europe - our country only takes what was ours all this time but got cut off unlawfully. We don't need Europe, especially seeing how rotten and unstable and corrupt and totalitarian is has become.
This aged well 😂
American voter here, in my mid-40s. I've never seen an "I voted for:' sticker, only the 'I voted' ones. Is this a per-state thing?
No, you are correct. The stickers have never indicated a candidate. Roger is straining to make his point (i.e., that no one was enthusiastic about their candidate), compounded by his lack of familiarity with American electoral practices.
I questioned this also; There's never been a sticker that said "I voted for -- ". He might have been thinking of the pre-election pins that have mottos like "I'm for - - -" . No election place has rolls of stickers for people to choose from after voting, they never have done that.
Wonderfully eloquent.
This most conservative Brit has long had a very high regard for all of Roger Scruton's work
So this is the first time I have disagreed with him.
Yes his analysis of the reasons that blue collar America voted for Trump are correct, very correct, but his understanding of who and what Trump is, is flawed. To an academic, used to living with polite, patient, middle class people Trump must seem to be a rude, aggressive, boastful man with no graces.
But to understand Trump we must look beyond his surface presentations to see his genuine love for his country, his people and the values of the entire west, based as it is upon our shared Christian world-view and heritage. The left-liberal establishment are everywhere, and powerfully in control. So it takes a brash, overly-confident, courageous and even rude man to have the sheer guts and presence to even think about taking them all on, reversing the almost inexorable tide of 'progress' that has been set in motion by them, for now almost half a century. What Trump is engaged in is almost suicidal, mad, yet if anyone can halt and reverse the deliberate self-destruction of our civilisation that the left-liberal axis is hell bent upon, then that person is President Trump.
Do I like him as a man ? No, not all all. But do I think he is doing the right things ? Yes he certainly is ! Will he succeed ? All of us who love our countries and the west, must hope and pray so. Thank you very much indeed Roger Scruton for your normally impeccably correct understandings and analysis. But God bless President Trump !
Scruton is, as so often, spot on.
Trump has been proving people wrong from day one. He has surrounding himself with a variety of individuals. Some stay some did not. He's a businessman. If you do the job you stay, when you do not, you're gone.
"If you agree with my way-to-do-things; you stay.... if you do not agree; you go"
Interesting comment 6 years later given that Trump did not do the job and did not “stay”. 😂
2:00 It's actually a bit simpler than "sex", "family", etc. It's the simple fact that real wages froze in 1980 and haven't budged since. People who live near the poverty line simply have no time to engage in fine dissections about "values" - they need to eat and they need clean water.
Spot on
Im a conservatie latino and want a return to something more conservative. I love sruton because he defends his conservatism with reason and rational. This is something that is no longer evident with majority of conservatives and definitely with postmodernist relativist liberals. My fear and frustration is that we all crave a return due to the deconstructionist and relativist nature of the left but offer no intellectual alternatives. Americans benefited and promoted being the world police for both moral reasons and economical reasons and now dont want to anything to do with the international order and globalization that they themsleves created. America went to war with other countries encouraging them to lean towards the right economically and stopping the domino effect fear of communism. Now that countries are leaning to the right which is what they wanted, americans are upset that jobs are leaving despite the fact americans became billionaires early on due to them aggresiviely and peacefully opening up markets. Americans and we conservatives in general crave some form of a religious return despite the fact that the average person cant balance faith and reason. im simply afraid that we conservatives have failed. WE want a return and rescuing of the past when majority of us dont have the educacation to properly do it. If the rights across the western world fail, which i thinkg they will, they will only empower the left more and all of this would have simply been coounter productive.
Underestimating Trump is a trait of, even conservative, academics.
@@AlbertZiegler069 Look up to, no. Use as a bulwark, yes.
It is well passed time for the European countries to start providing and paying for their own military defenses.
Interesting analysis, and worth listening to but I don't think we ever had "I voted for *N*" stickers. However, if I am wrong and you find an example, give me a link, please.
Correct me if im wrong but didnt Trump state that he feels the EU member states should pay their own dues instead of deppend on the USA, rather than leave NATO completely?
Trump was the only one who could have knocked off Clinton.
How I wish you were still here, wise and beautiful soul, my you rest in eternal peace and light. Surely you are in the arms of the Angels.
Sir Roger..RIP...DUBLIN
"I voted" stickers were in use long before 2016, no?
It's sad that the UK's greatest conservative thinker didn't think to check.
it would be as interesting to know what Sir Roger Scruton was saying on the same issue a year or two after. It is known that many have changed their mind once the inconsistent policies were in place.
Dear Rodger it brings me great pleasure to listen to somebody who is intellectually as agile and articulate as you. I was beginning to lose hope. Thinking seems to be a lost art. I'm not big on Harry Potter, I like Leonard Bernstein. Thank you.
American voting stickers never reported the chosen candidate. I believe you analyzed the force behind Trump's election perfectly. However, your other conclusions and predictions didn't move the needle much for me. Trump doesn't need dissident voices within his camp. The entire establishment is lined up against him. He needs people on board with his vision. And frankly, the Russian threat is just echoes of Hillary's nonsense. No one really buys it. And frankly, eastern Europe isn't really Americas problem anyways.
His"vision"? Do you mean Bannon's vision?
You might want to reconsider that Russian option. We should take them very seriously, and never forget the lessons of history. Putin wants NATO weakened. He wants to see the US weakened.
Do not underestimate the Russian threat.
Are you saying Trump cannot share a vision with an adviser? Or won't consult his massive intelligence community?
Look at URL cabinet-members.insidegov.com
I've also never seen such stickers, only "I voted."
Good on you, Bitterman. You wrote your comment 2 years ago and today (23rd November 2018) I read that President Trump, at 48% popularity, is more popular than Merkel, May, Trudeau and Macron. He fights, and fights hard. He's an inspiration to many of us here in Australia where limp 'conservatism' will soon make way for a cynical left-wing government. The Cultural Left is rampant around the world, and, besides little Poland and Hungry, the USA is the only nation pushing back.
RIP Sir S.
Sir R. Had he been ennobled, it would be Lord S.
Roger does have his blind spots. Trump possesses a much keener understanding of things than Roger seems willing to admit.
Scruton for once was wrong. But this was over two years ago., maybe he has changed his view since then.
"that they're being used." Sorry. I make mistakes when I write on CZcams for some reason
Total absence of posters or placards? That's not what my friends tell me THEY saw, mate.
I do not agree that Trump is without character. I think you, like many, have underestimated this very thing. Watch closer, Roger. Watch very much closer. In the rest of this, I do agree, as always, sir.
I've watched a number of old interviews and he does have values beyond monetary ones and desptie the brattish exterior does have character.
Trump is a big mistake. He is as crude a character as he appears to be. He is a dangerous demagogue, a bully, and a boor.
I'd be interested in your view of Trump today eight months after securing office. I wouldn't have voted for Trump but at the very beginning thought he might get to achieve some important things on the anti establishment side. How has he done now in your view?
Chump is not without character it is just that his character is bad - pussy grabbing, tax dodging, draft dodger, liar - and they are his good points.
Hold on, he is one hell of a liar though, you'll have to admit.
Some of this is a bit off or speculative (regarding Trump), but I have to agree with most of it.
There went another opportunity squandered. I'm sad Prof. Scruton was so hawkish. Perhaps he was simply aware Machiavellians loomed.
The stickers NEVER said "I voted for X". Never.
Shameful I must admit I first discovered RS several years ago while watching a documentary about the late Enoch Powell. Since I have read several of his books and articles and occasionally do a short 'marathon' of his recorded lectures.
Saying that: its a shame such a person do not get wider exposure while the electronic media is overloaded with twitter type of comments and youtube comment makers that are not more than witty punch line cteators.
You're entitled to your shame if you really feel you deserve it, but I don't think watching documentaries on historical public figures, reviled or not, should occasion any. Would it not be salutary for any person to spend an evening finding out about Stalin, Mao, Lee Harvey Oswald, Kim Jong-un, Hugh Hefner, Madonna, etc.?
Scruton is one of my favorite living humans but he needs to do more research on Trump. Trump never said he wanted to leave NATO. Just doesn't want it to take advantage of the US. Also, listening to Larry Kudlow on Trump's economic plans would make any conservative happy. Kudlow is a Trump advisor.
I love Scruton also but you are right this commentary of his is riddled with misconceptions and errors.
For once , Roger has called this one wrong
There are TWO things (not one) which stop Russia from invading its Western border countries - NATO and COMMON SENSE rooted in good, old-fashioned, risk-benefit analysis.
i was on board until the Putin thing, he ain't going to attack no-one.
its Mar 28, 2017 - nothing more on Trump? What's the matter, Cat got your tongue?
The "I Voted!" stickers have always read simply "I Voted!" for as long as I remember. And in 2016 I saw plenty of campaign signs in people's yards too. Trump, Hillary, and Bernie. There was no shame or subdued participation that I could tell, quite the contrary.
Agree that withdrawal from NATO is a serious concern. But so is the fact that countries are not living up to their end of the contractual agreement and paying what they promised. As a Canadian, I really hope that this will incentive our government to build up our sorely underfunded army, in the way that taking away welfare dependence breeds incentive for more productive activity.
Interesting, I obviously need to do more research on the subject. Thanks!
***** That does not seem like a radical proposal to me. As I mentioned, as a conservative Canadian, I am pleased to see pressure applied to our government to build up our badly underfunded military.
What I find strange is the blaming of President Trump for reconsidering the NATO agreement.
America is buoying up the costs and yet fingers are not pointing at nations that are failing to meet their NATO commitments.
As usual fault finding is prevalent when having to pay the bill, although having received the service are rescinding on the mutual agreement of payment.
I meant nadgers ffs!
To my knowledge, stickers at American polling places have always only indicated the citizen voted not whom she voted for. I think Scruton is wrong here.
Enquanto isso, no subsolo da América o povo brinca de gato e rato.
I have voted in every presidential election for almost 40 years and most off-year elections, as well. I have cast votes in 5 different states during this time period. I have never once been offered a sticker by an election official that stated "I Voted for (candidate's name). I have never seen anyone wear such a sticker.
Roger Scruton claims that these types of stickers were the rule in American elections prior to 2016. He claims that the absence of these types of stickers is evidence of a profound disturbance in the American psyche. Given that these stickers have never existed, at least in my experience, I'd have to wonder about the depth of his insights.
Hearing that bit of fantasy was enough to dissuade me from hearing any more.
Yep, that was my main objection to what he said. I've never seen an "I Voted for ... " sticker in America. The rest of it, was, for the most part, pretty perceptive.
Scruton speaks a lotta truth about working class resentments. but let's not pretend that racism had nuthin' to do with it.
I am not and academic or a scholar. Mr. Scruton is obviously an intelligent, thoughtful and measured man but in light of Trump's performance to date, having just passed what most economists believe is a monumentally ill considered tax break for the wealthy, I think his concerns for the future America's engagement with the world beyond its borders are way off the mark.
Economists are a herd of independent minds whose macro predictions are often way wide of the mark.
His introductory observation is not true. The stickers given out always simply said, "I voted." But everything else he says is right. He's got the pattern.
Every people deserve the gv they won't ..
Great man. Immense intellect. Totally wrong on this issue.
Europe will always be of strategic importance to America vis-a-vis Russia because of geopolitics. One theory of geopolitics has Euro-Asia as the "World Island" and North and South America as an island off the coast of the World Island. If the Heartland of the World Island (namely Russia) ever gains control of the Rimland (Europe, the Middle East, India, the Orient, namely the temperate zones and year-round warm-water seaports) while also maintaining the Heartland of the World Island, or as it is sometimes called the "Inland Empire," then no American power can ever hope to defeat the power which exists on the World Island. Therefore, it is of vital strategic interest to the USA that Russia, nor any other central power of Asia ever gains strong control over much of the Rimland, or that a Rimland power ever gains control of the Heartland (say if China conquered Russia and the rest of the Orient) - either of these scenarios would put America at a severe geopolitical disadvantage. It is in America's interest that, as a whole, the Eurasian continent remain fractured into at least a half dozen or more competing, sovereign nations - for if two or three powers, or especially if a single massive power ever arose on the Eurasian continent, controlling most of that World Island, America would have no chance of defending against it, much less defeating it. This was the true threat of the Cold War - that as Communism spread across Eurasia, China and the USSR would unite into a single political/military entity - if this had happened America would have been in for a tough time.
Every politician who has run for office of the Presidency has been aware of this, period. From Washington to Trump, liberal and conservative alike - it is a fact of geography not politics - political truths do have certain bounds, this being one of them.
7:20 hmmmmmmmmm
While I sympathize with Roger and and the rest of what he says here ... in truth, in my voting lifetime the stickers have ALWAYS only said "I Voted", and not for whom. The idea is that voting is the most important thing ever, and you should do it, no matter what. I don't share this view, by the way. I think only the informed should vote. If you have no idea whom to vote for and need to be told by a TV ad, stay the hell home. In my humble opinion.
I was not thrilled to vote for Trump, but I was absolutely not ashamed to vote against Hillary. Trump, I saw, as a bumbling used car salesman who was maybe slightly to the right of Hillary. Maybe. Literally the lesser of two evils.
Turned out I was wrong about that last part (being only slightly to the right of Hillary). Turns out ... he was not nearly as bad a president as I thought he might be, regardless of how the leftist media spun every little thing he said or didn't say. He was actually, if you look at what he DID and not what the media told you ... pretty darned centrist.
The demographic crises visited on Eastern Europe (and the rest of it) is a result of Europe embracing the "values" the American left champion, and the rest of the west will soon face that very same demographic crisis. Trump was right about NATO and the lack of balance in responsibility.
The guy's an egotist, and he's bombastic, and often doesn't think before he speaks. These are all embarrassing things.
But he doesn't hate the west, and those who have taken over the Democrat party and much of the governments of Europe ... have lost faith in the West. Many of them actively hate it, and many more are merely willing to virtue signal by pretending to agree.
The vacuum of power this leaves behind if allowed to persist will only allow more backward worldviews from those who are much more certain of their worldviews, to fill it. And the human rights gains of the last couple of centuries will vanish into the black hole they THINK, and posit, the American right would lead them to.
But most of the American Right is merely the remnant of the America that ended slavery, fought the Nazis and the Soviets, helped rebuild Japan and Europe after WWII, helped FOUND NATO and the UN before they became subverted, and sends, privately, billions of dollars overseas for charity (in addition to what goes through taxes ... or printed up dollars, as the case may be, through Government)
Shame to hear him so on point with his criticisms from 3:50, then implicitly commit the same folly at 4:35.
I dont think the eu is the right government for the continent and I would like to see it rattled
Soooo...the Europeans are not will to defend Europe?
If all of these people still reside in the EU then they can still be recruited to defend the EU
"the people revealed its shared sense of shame"? No, Roger, they revealed their fear of condemnation and actual violence.
6:58 on Putin
America wasn’t supposed to be a “caste” system in the first place... classes used.to be temporary
@1:38 In America, as in Britain, the indigenous working class has been put out of mind even overtly disparaged by the media and the political class. All attempts to give voice to their anxieties over immigration, over the impact of their lives of globalization and the spread of liberal conceptions of sex, marriage and the family have been dismissed or silenced... The working class have been castigated with gross and ill-considered abuse.
Um Russia is not the enemy......
Have they ever been our friends?
John Bercow Well Trump seems pretty chummy with them
You mean white when you say "indigenous". How did that happen? What makes you indigenous?
@@chrismelnyk5131 What qualifies them to be "indigenous"? Is a Russian indigenous to France cause he/she is white?
If Europeans do not consider themselves worth defending, why should Americans consider them worth defending? Is preserving the current political system, the one importing millions of Blacks and Muslims, really a good way to sustain Western Civilization? Personally, I think the current dispensation in Europe is worse than that in Russia. Europe is committing suicide. Russia is not.
spot on. Speaking as a European.
Western Civilization is not long for this world in my opinion. The East is is rapidly catching up and when it does the west will be the "deer in the headlights".
I disagree with what he says about charisma. I think Trump exudes charisma not that Obama lacked it but he relied on tricks of rhetoric and cadence which palled and became phony over time. I also disagree with his belief that Russia is a threat: the threat comes from globalists and Russia is defiantly anti globalist.
No country in Central and Eastern Europe would have been able to raise an army to efficiently oppose a Russian invasion even of their populations wouldn’t have been depleted by migration to the West. The EU and Nato are the only guarantees (yet not very reliable) against such an invasion.
Roger Scruton is the greatest philosopher of our days. It was in 1998 that I first read one of his books. I have never stopped reading his books. I am a graduate of Leiden University, and I now find myself being called extreme right, because I often defend Donald Trump, and because in my opinion Vladimir Putin has liberated the Crimea, and because I am a fan of Milo Yiannopoulos and because I support the state of Israel, that liberated Jerusalem from islam. If that makes me a deplorable and extreme right, then I take pride in the words: I am a deplorable and I am extreme right. Long live our King Willem Alexander, guardian of my beloved constitutional parlementary monarchy of the Netherlands and glory to the Queen of Heaven, consolatrix afflictorum.
Some disappointing Cold War nonsense here, which surprised me from Scruton. "There is nothing to stop Putin invading these states than...." - how about the fact that Putin and Russian society in general has ZERO desire to conquer Poland or Rumania? People who cannot see the difference between the actual ethnic sphere of Russia (which includes Belarus, the Ukraine and parts of Kazakhstan) and the rest of the form Warsaw Pact shouldn't really go around talking about "civilisation".
People didn't ware such stickers because it was so contentious. And Trump supporter have been cancelled.
Wrong on this one Roger, dead wrong.
Well what people often fail to lament on was why he really won and how awful Hillary Clinton was comparatively not just because of her sleazy husband but her congressional testimony as Secretary of State too. Far too much virtue signalling and immorality in politics now.
These poor racists being discriminated for their opinions...
Best Common on Trump ever though slightly overstating the mmenace represented by Russia
RS is a true intellectual but does not understand the realities of his own beliefs : check out that book about ,"intellectuals" by that Oxford ge exercise ....professor.etc.Truth is - he despises common people.......and why not? Still excellent but refuses to accept his own fallibility so what sort of philosopher king can he really be??? Meanwhile ...look forward to reading his next great book !!!
Sir Roger sounds a little bit like an establishment Republican.
Poppycock
Donate to patreon to fund a hair brush.
I know Trump got something magic in him. Sir Roger Scruton laid it out here.
Condescending and ill-informed.
And how wrong he was. We all were.
This man is a horror.
Short. Very short scruton. Perhaps the snobbery can be tolerated if you sense how Brexiteers felt. But you don’t, you just undervalue them and their values like you do the patriotism of the American voter.