What Erratic Policies Accomplish

Since January, Americans have been subjected to a constant stream of erratic policies from the Trump Administration. Most commentators focus on the latest outrage and point out the contradictions, evasions, or misrepresentations in those policies. Rather than try to understand the rationale, or lack thereof, behind these policies, we should ask what erratic policies accomplish. Tariffs provide an illuminating example.

On a seemingly daily basis, Trump announces new tariffs, the removal of tariffs, or new tariff levels. Nobody knows what he will do or when he will do it. And creating uncertainty is the purpose. As Ayn Rand wrote,

It is a grave error to suppose that a dictatorship rules a nation by means of strict, rigid laws which are obeyed and enforced with rigorous, military precision. Such a rule would be evil, but almost bearable; men could endure the harshest edicts, provided these edicts were known, specific and stable; it is not the known that breaks men’s spirits, but the unpredictable. A dictatorship has to be capricious; it has to rule by means of the unexpected, the incomprehensible, the wantonly irrational; it has to deal not in death, but in sudden death; a state of chronic uncertainty is what men are psychologically unable to bear.

Consider the actions of ICE as another example. Immigrants live in perpetual fear that they or their loved ones will suddenly be kidnapped by masked thugs, denied due process, and sent to a foreign prison. Immigrants may be the target today, but if due process can be denied to anyone, it can be denied to everyone.

The explanations offered by the Administration for these policies are merely a pretense. Reviving American industry or protecting us from immigrants is not the real purpose. Instilling uncertainty and fear is. We are being conditioned to accept uncertainty and fear as normal. And that is what erratic policies accomplish.