Bleeding Edge

It would seem the from the 1960s onwards there is a trend of augmenting the wealth and power of the super rich and diminishing all others and I would say that it started becoming increasingly clear that there was a price to be paid for all governments but especially for the leaders of the powerful Western societies adapting to this new economic model, and that price was sacrificing the American working class.

Yet nobody amongst the powerful politicians, and certainly not one amongst the political strategists and academics ever thought that the vast and imminent fallout of this undemocratic, fully intentional shift of wealth, and diminution of employment in our country and across the world — would hit the bedrock of American society that its middle class represents.

Yet, it is obvious now, that this newfangled economic and social model, not only weakened the bottom fringes of the blue collar economy, and the proletariat, but the whole of the American society, because it severely affected the Middle Class and our Democracy as well.

So the economic paradox in that, is that this is not the result of the failure of the globalized economic model but of its successes because in the intervening decades, the United States economy, much like the Chinese economy and even the stagnant European economies, have all continued to create wealth.

We are thus, on average, quite a bit richer, but certainly we are not wiser… because the problem is that at the same time unemployment, insecurity and poverty have also increased.

The central question, therefore, is not whether a globalised economy is efficient, but what to do with this model when it fails to create and nurture a coherent society?

In the US, as in all western countries, we have gone within a few decades from a system that economically, politically and culturally integrated the majority and provided the growth and aspirations of the American dream for all — into an unequal society that, by creating ever more wealth, benefits only the ones who are already wealthy.

The change is not down to a conspiracy, a wish to cast aside the poor, but to a model where employment is increasingly polarised. This comes with a new social geography: employment and wealth have become more and more concentrated in the big cities. The deindustrialised regions, rural areas, small and medium-size towns are less and less dynamic. But it is in these places – in peripheral America or peripheral Britain – that many working-class people live.

Thus, for the first time, “workers” no longer live in areas where employment is created, giving rise to a social and cultural shock.

It is also in these peripheral regions that the western populist wave has its source. Peripheral America brought Trump to the White House and it is this peripheral America, whose rural areas and her small northern industrial towns that are the source of its populist wave which has opened the world of the liberal elites. This protest movement and the demand for change is carried out by the proletariat and the economically deprived classes of people within our Society, who in days gone by, were once the key reference point for a political and intellectual world, that now seems to have totally forgotten them.

And thus the root cause of this rebellion is the anger that runs deep, amongst the disenfranchised, the deplorables, and the die-hards, who have been displaced and find themselves as insignificant spectators in their own lives, as the result of an economic and cultural reactionary progress that began in the 60s and focused on all things sexual, sensual and non essential — in their opinions.

At the same time, economic, social and wealth disparity stratified locations, housing enclaves and community logistics, have all militated against the poor and have also locked up the elite world in the largest zero sum game that our Democracies have ever faced, and this is classified as the beginning of their existential crises today and those to come in the future…

Because this intransigent confinement and the separation of the haves and the have nots — is not only geographical but also intellectual.

The globalised metropolises are the new citadels of the 21st century – rich and unequal, where even the former lower-middle class no longer has a place. Instead, large global cities work on a dual dynamic: gentrification and immigration.

This is the paradox: the open society results in a world increasingly closed to the majority of working people.

The economic divide between peripheral America and the metropolises illustrates the separation of an elite and its popular hinterland. Western elites have gradually forgotten all the other people that they no longer see, nor they care about those unheard dwellers of the city’s ghettos, fringes and solidly disenfranchised proletariat.

And in our Democracies the elites have usurped the vote through their many means of corralling and corrupting Democracy for their benefit.

Thus indeed, the impact of the proletariat’s support of populism is exhibited when public opinion polls, show that eight out of 10 American people approve of Trump’s actions when these actions are disassociated from his name and the Republican party and are labeled as simple matters of chance.

This revelation has amazed politicians, trade unions and academics, especially since 2016, and they all act in unison as surprised baboons yelling insults and throwing feces at the intruders… calling them awful names like deplorables and racists and worse. 

Yet, they miss the point of the Trump policies in America, which is to ensure this new proletariat is now again seen as a force to be reckoned with, and thus can become part of a visible majority, instead of a workforce put down and shoved forward to walk and work on the road to serfdom.

And nowhere was the battle more visible than in the highly contested 2020 elections, because whatever the outcome of this conflict, the American proletariat has won in terms of what really counts, in the war of cultural representation where working-class and lower middle-class people are visible again and, alongside them, the places where they live amidst a complete lack of gainful and prideful employment in forgotten towns all overt this country of ours…

And because the primary need of this new proletariat is to be respected, as they wish to no longer be thought of as “deplorable,” “despeakable” or racist all of which are terms used by Ms Hillary Clinton who was echoing the thinking of the many rich city folks and voicing her opinion about the New American proletariat. And this labeling clearly points out not only the inability of the elites to take the aspirations of the poorest of the poor seriously, but also the relevance of the privileged class’s ideas about the other people shaping and sharing America, and especially about the American Proletariat that is the backbone of this country.

A proletariat whose aspirations are mainly the preservation of their jobs, the recognition of their social and cultural capital and access to gainful employment in their communities.

Yet for this transition towards renewed relevance of the working poor, the middle class and the unemployed, to be successful, we must end the elite “secession” and adapt the political offers of left and right to the demands of this new “All American” proletariat.

This cultural revolution is a democratic and societal imperative, because no system can remain standing for long if it does not integrate the majority of its poorest citizens.

And as in the past two years I have been traveling throughout America, talking to ordinary people, proletarians, as well as academic and non-academic audiences all across the noosphere and not just across the North American continent; I engaged people in my talks about Democracy, about authoritarianism and about democratic nationalism as well as the risible populism — people have been asking me the same question: “Why is it that Americans still support President Donald Trump?

After explaining that the vast majority of Americans who support Trump, are part of the New Proletariat and as their disfigurement continues in this electoral period — Trump will remain in office past the year 2020.

Of course, the main reason for Trump’s re-election, as well as his election, is the dysfunctional political practice and system of the United States. Like in other western democracies, the white majority is overrepresented because minorities vote at much lower levels. However, unlike in most other democracies, various types of old and new acts of voter suppression actively discourage the electoral participation of non-white minorities. On top of that, gerrymandering further strengthens the disproportionate power of the white electorate, particularly in the conservative rural areas of the individual states and the country as a whole.

But all of this does not explain why Trump is actually quite popular – and probably more popular than he was when he got elected. Today, Trump’s approval ratings are at 42%, which is a mere 3% lower than when he started. But more importantly, he is extremely popular among his core electorate, ie Republicans. A recent Gallup poll showed that, Trump was the second most popular US president among his own constituency (87% support), only topped by President George W Bush (96% support), who was at that time profiting from the rally around the flag response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks!

But how is this possible, I hear you think?

Has Trump not said that there were “very fine people” among the extreme-right demonstrators at the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia? Has he not consistently undermined the independent judiciary and media by attacking “so-called judges” and “the ‘Fakers’ at CNN, NBC, ABC & CBS”? Has he not systematically dehumanized immigrants and minorities, introduced nativist policies such as a (slightly watered-down) “Muslim ban”, and made the immigration services into an inhuman authoritarian apparatus that separates crying and screaming children from their parents?

Yes, he has.

But he has also give a significant tax cut which disproportionately benefits above-average-income Americans, the true core of the Republican, and therefore Trump, electorate, but that also benefited all other taxpayers as well…

And for many Republicans, if they get a tax break, you can do little to no wrong. Moreover, he is rapidly dismantling the state, by deregulating industries and defunding regulation agencies, which satisfies most of the usual Republican mega-donors – including former anti-Trumpists like the Koch brothers.

For the Christian right, he has appointed the staunchly anti-abortion Neil Gorsuch to the supreme court and moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

This more than compensates for all his scandals with porn stars and bragging about pussy-grabbing.

And given that he undoubtedly pleased them with his supreme court judge nominations — the Christian right will come out again en masse to support him as they did in the 2020 presidential elections, to solidify the conservative hold off the supreme court and ensure the overthrow, or irrelevance, of Roe v Wade amongst other important landmark cases heard by the Supreme Court Justices.

Finally, the hardcore Trump base, the stereotypical white working-class male nativist, has been more than satisfied.

Expecting little to nothing from politicians, Democratic or Republican, they see a president who tirelessly tries to ban non-white people (notably Central Americans and Muslims) from entering the country, introduces tariffs to allegedly protect US industries, and “owns the libs” at any occasions with “politically incorrect” and “taboo-breaking” speeches and tweets, that give significance to those forgotten Americans.

Trump opponents, inside and outside of the US, always bring up that many of his most blatant proposals have been struck down by the courts or watered down in Congress. But rather than weakening Trump, this only strengthens him. This proves to his supporters that the system is indeed broken, just as Trump says, and that the will of the people is thwarted by corrupt elites in politics and “the deep state” within the broader bureaucracy.

Hence, a second term is necessary to ensure that Trump can actually do what he has promised and tried to do.

There is a silver lining though, even if it is thin. The vast majority of Americans still oppose Trump, in terms of his personality, policies and rhetoric. So far, they have not found a national voice, however. While Democrats have picked up seats in many local and state elections, and progressives are beating liberals in more and more important races, the national Democratic party has gone awol since the shock 2016 defeat and thinks that a combination of identity politics, the President’s impeachment stemming from the fully debunked Russiagate, along with their promise of citizenship for dreamers, coupled with further empowerment of the privileged white WASPish female classic Democratic base, will do the trick…

Yet in reality this policy does not work, and it will certainly not do the trick either… 

But the 2020 presidential election is still contested and it will certainly get to be decided by the Supreme Court where the evidence of voter fraud is a serious matter, and since these things are already at play — we are still two months away from any transition, and that is light years away in politics, where this passage of time represents an eternity in the Trump era as defined by Trump’s loud proletariat, by the America First middle class and by the disenfranchised “deplorables” that the elites never hope to understand …. even when they find themselves roped inside the hay-cart on their way towards the guillotines as Marie Antoinette and the hapless Louis the Sun King of France, soon found out to their dismay and utter discomfort cheered on by the pitchfork wielding peasants.

An American revolution in the making will be far more bloody than that, and so would the Civil War 2.0 be.

Yours,

Dr Churchill

PS:

Please mark my words on this matter…

It snot just that Democracy is facing a crisis of confidence — but it rather that Democracy is slowly fading away everywhere, for very many reasons and in a series of setbacks is being strangled slowly across the world.