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writing for godot

Make America Great Again? More Like Make America Hate Again

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Written by David Starr   
Tuesday, 31 May 2016 02:50
The rise of Donald Trump has been emblematic of the rise in anger among the white, working class. The latter are threatened by cosmopolitanism, i.e., the changing demographics of U.S. society where the once, all-powerful white-dominated culture is in jeopardy.

Immigration has gone on since day one in the United States and will continue to do so. People of color are increasing in population, although the white population is still the majority.

Nevertheless, a section of the white population, males in particular, yearn for a time when white dominance was more overt. Donald Trump is a "Great White Hope" to champion a rollback to the "good old days." But as Bob Dylan once sang, "The times they are a changin'."

Trump's position on immigration shows a deranged individual trying to find a "final solution" to illegal immigrants: mass deportation. It doesn't matter how gradual it is. Kicking out illegal immigrants would be oppressive, chaotic and expensive. The American Action Forum published a research report by Ben Gitis and Jacqueline Varas asserting that the removal of all illegal immigrants would "cost between $400 billion to $600 billion and reduce gross domestic product (GDP) by over $1 trillion."

Plus, there is the scenario of police and/or even military forcing immigrants out of their homes and put into detention centers until they are cleared for deportation (or even ignoring detention centers and dumping them off into their own country or another one).

Building a "big wall" would also be a disaster. Writer Stephan Loiaconi reported on the Sinclair Broadcast Group (8/18/2015) that the total cost could be $25 billion. Maintenance of the big wall could cost $750 million a year.

Trump paints Mexico in particular as the villain when it comes to illegal immigration. "For many years, Mexico's leaders have been taking advantage of the United States by using illegal immigration to export crime and poverty in their own country." The rapists and murderers have broken through the red, white and blue gates and are going on a rampage. Above all, this is Trump's view of a poverty-stricken people desperate to escape into more stable conditions.

When it comes to the root of the problem, Trump simply doesn't get it (or doesn't want to). It is U.S./IMF/World Bank austerity measures that are increasing the poverty. This antagonizes violence in the form of drug cartels. But Trump, intoxicated by U.S. exceptionalism, fuels the hate among his supporters against those of their own class, regardless of country.

Trump's attitude toward Muslims has been just as worse. Besides a database system, Trump bragged about having "many systems" to track Muslims. The latter would just as soon wear crescent patches on their clothes. Similar to Mexicans, Trump has demonized Muslims generally. And those among his supporters feed on this to further their own hatred of those who are not "100% American." They lump individuals together into a confined category of "terrorist," "murderer" or "rapist." While it's true that terrorism exists (but that word can be interpreted in any number of ways, e.g., like whose terrorism we are talking about), many Muslims are not crashing planes into buildings and committing suicide bombings.

Trump also shows his disdain for the working class when it comes to healthcare. Trump claims that "the American people have had to suffer under the incredible economic burden of the Affordable Care Act- Obamacare. "[P]redictably [it has resulted] in runaway costs, greater rationing of care, high premiums, less competition and fewer choices." Trump favors "much-needed free market reforms to the healthcare industry."

"Free market" practices have been tried. Before Obamacare, "free market" handiwork has dominated healthcare. After Obamacare, it still does. That's the root cause of the healthcare system being broken; the economic extremes of the "free market." Healthcare is a right, not a commodity to rake in obscene profits. But Trump hates calling it a right. And he manipulates his supporters into hating it as a threat by "big gubberment," although they could benefit from it.

A similar disdain also applies to tax reform. Trump claims he has "four simple goals":

1) "Tax relief for middle class Americans."
2) "Simplify the tax code."
3) "Grow the American economy."
4) "Doesn't add to our debt and deficit."

Trump does have ideas to prevent the 1% from taking advantage of tax loopholes, offshore accounts, etc. But his tax plan is nothing new. An article published in Counterpunch entitled, "If Donald Dump Was President," (10/09/2015) by writer David Rosen, tells how the working class would get shafted again: "[T]he real plan is hidden in the fine print that effectively shifts the overall tax burden. Trump calls for (i) a corporate tax rate of zero (except for businesses that outsource jobs, which would have a 20% tax) (ii) a cut in the capital gains tax rate (iii) repeal the estate tax (iv) impose an import tax" on vehicles made elsewhere, that would be a "35% tax."

Rosen writes that "[a]s a true mouth piece for the traditional Republican Party, Trump has proposed a conventional conservative tax policy that favors the rich, modestly helps the very poor and the screws the middle classes." As a result, "he continues a quarter-century of economic realignment that has seen the tax burden shift to ordinary wage-earners."

But a lot of hate would be reserved for foreign policy. Trump has no problem trying to reassert the U.S. empire's imperialism. Diplomacy is a word that doesn't exist in Trump's vocabulary. Speaking about the Iran deal, Rosen quotes Trump as saying, "They [Iranians] are laughing at the stupidity of the deal we're making on nuclear. We should double-up and triple the sanctions and have them come to us."

Regarding his dealing with Mexico, Trump, rather than talk about illegal immigration, would put down aggressive conditions: Mexico will protest having to pay for the big wall. But "[Mexico receives] $24 billion a year in remittances from Mexican nationals working in the United States. The majority of that amount comes from illegal aliens. It serves as de facto welfare for poor families in Mexico. There is no significant social safety net provided by the state in Mexico." So, "Mexico needs access to our markets much more than the reverse, so we have all the leverage and will win the negotiation."

What negotiation? Trump is giving an ultimatum, not exercising diplomacy. And since Trump knows of the effects of poverty in Mexico-and with Mexico being a "Third World" nation dependent as a market satellite-Trump's "proposals" epitomize the cutthroat behavior of U.S. exceptionalism. As I said earlier, he doesn't get to the root of the problem: Mexico's status as a "Third World" nation having austerity measures imposed on it by the U.S./IMF/World Bank.

A preview of Trump's ruthlessness was his dealing with Scotland. Trump, with help from the Scottish government, used and abused his power in trying to build a golf course in "an ecologically valuable, majestic windswept sand dune," as reported by Tim Pelzer ("Lies, Money, Power, and the Vile Trump," 6/04/2013) in the People's World. Pelzer writes that scientists refer the it as the "Amazon rainforest of Scotland" because "of a variety of plant and animal species that it contains."

Trump denied that the golf course would threaten the ecosystem. And he claimed that the project had support from environmental groups. "[But] University of Glasgow scientist Dr. Jim Hansom and a local Green Party representative" refuted this claim. "Trump also falsely argues that the project has local support."

In a display of unparalleled arrogance, Trump, disregarding the needs of the local population, said that he wants to see the ocean instead of wind towers, and that the local residents' houses would have to go because they blemish the view. Pelzer quotes Trump as saying, "The houses have to go because I don't like them."

Rosen writes that Trump's foreign policy is one "that would make old-style hawks like Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz blush." Trump's assertions of torturing people for the sake of it and killing innocent civilians bears this out.

Rather than anti-establishment, Trump is part of the wealthy establishment. From his consistent contradictory stances on the issues to his deranged oratory, Trump is not a champion of the working class. But he uses them to espouse hate.

It's tragic that many Trump supporters are violating their own class interests so they can vent their anger at the wrong target, making scapegoats of those who haven't institutional or corporate power. Not only are they cutting their own throats. They may be dragging the rest of the us down with them.
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