July 16, 2018

In my last post, I identified the two problems with “I love Trump because he says what he thinks.” The other common defense of his supporters is that he does what he promised.

As with the former, there are two problems with this defense. First, he hasn’t delivered on a good many of the promises he made. Here is a partial list of promises not fulfilled:

• Health care
• Bringing back manufacturing
• Infrastructure
• Solving our immigration problems
• Building a wall and making Mexico pay for it
• Expanding national right to carry concealed weapons
• Eliminating wasteful spending in government
• Bringing back waterboarding (or “a helluva a lot worse”)

What he has done is cast blame for these failures on Democrats and fake media. This, coming from a President who campaigned on being the best deal maker and the best negotiator–ever. Having his party controlling both chambers of Congress, he is nevertheless in need of scapegoats. It seems his deal making skills are insufficient, even with all this power at his fingertips. Of course, there are millions of us who hope he will never succeed with some of his promises, e.g., the wall, waterboarding, etc.

The second problem is even more negative in consequence. For the promises he has kept or in the process of trying to keep, many of those are highly detrimental to the US:

• The tax cut
• Tariffs on imports
• Suspending immigration from certain countries
• Increasing military spending
• Moving the Embassy to Jerusalem
• Pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal
• Temporary ban on new regulations
• Defunding Planned Parenthood
• Nominating Supreme Court Justices

The promise to cut taxes was received by economists as something not needed, because the economy was already strong on his arrival to the Oval Office. Furthermore, it was taken by the citizenry to portend big benefits for the working man. He refused to structure it such as to primarily benefit workers, financed by higher taxes on wealthy and corporations. Instead, what he delivered went 80% to the wealthy (his donors) and to corporations, with only a little trickle down to the middle class. He financed it by adding more than $1 Trillion to the national debt.

The trade war he has ignited by raising tariffs on imports is now threatening the global recovery, and is already costing US manufacturer and consumers in higher prices.

The increase in military spending for a country already spending more than the next seven nations combined is not something supported, except by conservative hawks. Why not, instead, spend more on education and infrastructure?

And on, and on. So, many of the promises kept are harmful in the opinion of many of us, and among the unfulfilled are many we hope will never be fulfilled.

It is hard for Liberals to find anything undertaken by this administration as positive. But even in the destruction of a wrecking ball, there seems to accidentally result a few positives. The attempt to reduce regulations is commendable, were it not for the choices of regulations, including severe damage to our environment, as an example. His attempt this week to use Executive order to demand job training of major corporate employers is positive–depending on how it is executed.

In school, a failing grade was anything below 70. Many of us feel the grade for this administration is between zero and maybe 20, stretching to be generous. The problem is that the  whole philosophy or strategy (if there is one) seems to be selfish (“America First”), economically oriented toward the wealthy, and stoking fear of immigrants and foreigners to build military at the expense of much greater needs.

The great unanswered question of this period is how, why, do his supporters fail to see the Emperor has no clothes. His economic policies are seen by economists as detrimental to those who voted for him. Yet, their blind devotion to him seem unfailing. No doubt, this phenomenon will be the subject of a vast psychological, sociological, and political literature in the aftermath of this administration.

Let’s just hope the the first (“destructive”) phase of this Populist era ends soon, and is followed by a positive second phase–a reconstruction of a better America, one dedicated to shared prosperity for all, to peace, and generosity toward the rest of the world, which is almost all poorer and in greater need than are we.

July 15, 2018

This is what one of President Trump’s supporters said of his recent trip to London. To be sure, a group of thousands protested him there. The media made much of how he failed to respect protocol with the Queen, and how he insulted Prime Minister May in his comments to the Sun, a respected British newspaper. Those comments were recorded and played back verbatim, making senseless his later denials that he said those things.

Yet, saying what he thinks is often a defense among Trump supporters. For those of us trying to be reasonable about a President who is highly objectionable, this kind of defense is exasperating. We hunger for something like this from his supporters: “I like his policy of America first because… {explaining how this will benefit us, addressing its negative consequences, such as trade wars, and explaining why it doesn’t matter if it hurts others in a needy world}. But, no. Often this is all we get: “We love him because he says what he thinks.”

There are two problems with his saying what he thinks: The lesser one is that what he thinks one minute can be totally inconsistent with what he thinks the next–as when he roundly criticized the British PM, and then later praised her the next day–over the same issues–trade. He has no stable set of principles or strategy. It seems that whatever  comes into his head at the moment is what we (and his staff) are left to try to sort out. In a world struggling for direction and predictability, this from the “leader of the free world” is far from comforting.

The second issue with saying what he thinks is that whenever he finally lands on a position, the opinion of millions of us is that what he thinks is not good for America or the world. Here’s a partial list of my own problems with what he thinks:

• Focus on our trade deficit, when our savings rate is the real issue, and thus dragging us into trade wars destined to raise costs to Americans.
• Moving our Embassy to Jerusalem without resolving issues with neighbors.
• Backing out of the Iran Nuclear Deal, when other nations feel it is a good deal and is working.
• Withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord.
• Focusing on “bringing manufacturing back,” when the future of US work is in the knowledge economy.
• Promising a “tax cut,” and then delivering benefit mostly to the wealthy, financed with debt.
• Again, this is only a partial list.

He is rapidly losing any foreign support as the “leader of the free world.” That is being surrendered to Macron, Xi, Merkel, Putin and others, with some of whom he shares and admires strong man or dictatorial ambitions.

But, saying what one thinks apparently has appeal to millions. After all, this is a world where politicians and institutions have failed in many countries–failed to deliver prosperity for all, justice, fairness, and even safety, as some see it. This is a world where blunt criticism of the status quo is widely admired.

That’s all fine in the first stage of populism, which is where we are in the US and in Russia, Hungary, and many other nations, with many more moving dangerously in that direction–nationalism, objection to immigrants, and a desire to tear down existing institutions and dismiss the politicians who supported those institutions. So that is what Trump and others are doing–tearing down. Some periodic tearing down is good, as with eliminating regulations that are outdated or where benefits are outweighed by costs.  But Trump’s tearing down lacks an overall plan which does that.

Thankfully, second stage of populism is the critical part–after flawed institutions have been torn down. In this stage, the key is what replaces them, and what kind of leadership is chosen to take us into a future which can deliver shared prosperity and all the above–or at least an improvement over what caused all the discontent in the past.

This is not a role Donald Tump can play. He lacks a vision of the future which will make America or the world a better place. He’s just into indiscriminate tearing down.

PS. This writer is primarily concerned with the growth of inequality in the US and the world. I am driven to write about politics because what is happening, particularly in my country, is terribly troubling.  Understandable discontent is being stoked to anger against those not responsible and no plans for a better future are evident, two years into this administration. At the root of the discontent and the rise of populism, I argue, is inequality. If we had good jobs, rising wages, and reducing inequality, there would be less discontent, less populism, and less room for this kind of highly flawed leadership.