Gideon Rachman has written in the FT this morning that:
If Mrs Clinton makes it to the White House there will be relief across the west and a certain disappointment in Moscow and, perhaps, Beijing. But it will be very hard to erase the memory of this campaign. It has presented an image of a troubled, divided and deluded US to the rest of the world. As a result, it has already dealt a serious blow to the prestige and power of the west.
I have to say that whilst I share Rachman's concern for democracy the comment is trite. The real fact is that Trump is an embarrassment only insofar as he reflects the bankruptcy of American, and western, political thinking.
The actual lesson from democracy exposing all the weaknesses in western capitalism and all the struggles for power it has given rise to is that western capitalism is broken and that the power struggles are the act of the desperate who cannot and will not imagine a viable alternative to present to the electorate.
It is not democracy that is striking a blow at the prestige and power of the west; it is the failings of western capitalism that are doing that.
What we need is some serious alternative thinking. I recommend The Courageous State, but I may not be unbiased in doing so.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Agreed. Trunp, I would say, has been of ‘great value’ in exposing the sad and farcical nature of politics and what varoufakis has called ‘the demise of the political class. I say ‘useful’ in a very ironic way. Trump is not conscious of this, of course, and is, presumably , on an ego trip. But he has helped to expose, as you say, the lack of real thinking.
His anti col-war 2.0 rhetoric, though has been of some real value and struck a chord, however opportunistic it might be and with this, he has appealed to elements of the Left who are disgusted by the vileness of Clinton as well as the libertarians. Neither are fit for office but both are a reflection of a political system that has reached its sell-by date.
Maybe the problem is: where do we go next? In America there has been a call for greater representation of other parties (Green , Libertarian). We’ve had our UKIP moment which now looks like it is being absorbed by Tory xenophobic sops to a tired electorate. Labour are showing fragmentation with some wanting the Overton Window dance and some , like Corbyn, saying NO to xenophobia. A divided Labour will fail, unfortunately. A Courageous State seems a long way off still given the Tories’ assertion that ‘Government can do things’ was presented as if it were a novel idea (!) which is pathetic. In my view we need a Labour Party that:
1) Get’s a narrative out there that immigration is NOT the problem
2) gets unified around that
3) explains the economic history of the last 40 years clearly, showing:
a) how the housing bubbles developed and why it is crippling the economy and peoples’
futures.
b) How wages have stagnated for nigh on 40 years.
c) How bank credit has replaced those low wages and filled bank coffers.
d) How the IS a ‘magic money tree’ (despite Rachel Reeves talking nonsense that there
e) isn’t
Will Labour do this -I doubt it!
Alas, Richard, I fear that the Trumpistas and their anti-intellectual milieu are hardly up to the demanding task of reading a serious account such as is presented in “The Courageous State”.
Instead, they are still struggling with the intellectual equivalent of those cloth or cardboard pop-up books, such as “The Hungry Caterpillar”, that one gives to one’s 3-year old nephew or niece, but with this difference – at least children’s fairy tales contain real truth and poetry, where their “fairy tales” are built on shallowness, banality and sheer wrong-headedness in the face of the evidence contradicting their prejudices.
🙂
Talking of books, that malignant clown Trump has a new one coming out: ‘The Art of the Grope’
Sorry. 🙁
My only worry is that being an embarassment seems to be no bar to running for being the head of the United States Government. In fact it seems to be part of the job post Jimmy Carter.
I mean Ronald Reagan…..oh dear ( the infamous ‘Let’s bomb Russia’ broadcast).
George Bush Jnr (he apparently waved at Stevie Wonder at a social gathering) who said ‘More and more of our imports come from overseas’ and others now infamously funny that we can read online.
Then there is Clinton and the Lewinsky affair before Bush junior – ouch!
I can remember Bush Senior and his embarassing defence of some south american dictator the CIA were backing.
Bush junior was quite entertaining really, but when you look at what his nation did to Iraq (and the region) it looses its comedic value.
Trump however is just not funny at all. All I see is just a big kid who wants to be in charge of everything or he will take his ball home.
But with Goldman Sachs dug in like ticks in the US Government and with people like Larry Summers on hand for advice, you wouldn’t really want an intelligent person to be president would you?
It’s sad isn’t it. As I mentioned before I did the experimental part of my PhD in the US during the Carter administration. It was a disgrace that he didn’t serve for two terms but dark forces were at work and that fraud Regan got elected. Carter is still doing magnificent work and had his 92nd birthday recently.
Its a shame that Barack Obama who is the president I most admire since Carter has been nearly neutralised. I’m not a great Clinton fan – Bernie would have been my choice but Trump is so far away from being presidential he makes even W seem a good choice.
The really peculiar thing about Americans is that so many go to church or attend other religious institutions on a regular basis but seem not to understand morality in their selection of Clinton and Trump as presidential candidates. However, after Trump’s “sex tapes” his poll ratings have dramatically dropped suggesting there is in fact a strong sense of morality in the country.
I suspect that the real issue is that politics is “tribalised” and “infantilised” by the mainstream media in both the USA and the UK to serve the purposes of an elite oligarchy. The mainstream media rely upon an income stream from advertising much of which is placed by large corporations who reserve the right to act solely in the interests of their share-holders and not a nation. This means that “upping sticks” to move your manufacturing plant or services offices to other countries where trading terms are more advantageous is regarded as a basic “freedom.” This in turn has a “knock-on effect” for the mainstream media namely a pressure not to have a moral compass.
I think that you are right Schofield.
Modern politicians (in Congresss and Parliament) increasingly remind me of the characters in a Punch and Judy show.
The puppeteers seem to be the top 1%.
Here are some exasperated lyrics from a song from the late Lou Reed’s 1988 ‘New York’ album called ‘I’m Sick of You’. I particualrly like the line about zoo keeping which could be applied to too many of today’s politicians.
“Sick Of You”
I was up in the morning with the TV blarin’
Brushing my teeth sittin’ watchin’ the news
All the beaches were closed the ocean was a Red Sea
But there was no one there to part in two
There was no fresh salad because there’s hypos in the cabbage
Staten Island disappeared at noon
And they say the midwest is in great distress
And NASA blew up the moon
The ozone layer has no ozone anymore
And you’re gonna leave me for the guy next door
I’m Sick of You
I’m Sick of You
They arrested the Mayor for an illegal favor
Sold the Empire State to Japan
And Oliver North married William Secord
And gave birth to a little Teheran
And the Ayatollah bought a nuclear warship
If he dies he wants to go out in style
And there’s nothing to eat that don’t carry the stink
Of some human waste dumped in the Nile
Well one thing is certainly true
No one here knows what to do
And I’m Sick of You
I’m Sick of You
The radio said there were 400 dead
In some small town in Arkansas
Some whacked out trucker drove into a nuclear reactor
And killed everybody he saw
Now he’s on Morton Downey and he’s glowing and shining
Doctors say this is a medical advance
They say the bad makes the good and there’s something to be learned
In every human experience
Well I know one thing that really is true
This here’s a zoo and the keeper ain’t you
And I’m sick of it
I’m Sick of you
They ordained the Trumps and then he got the mumps
And died being treated at Mt. Sinal
And my best friend Bill died from a poison pill
Some wired doctor prescribed for stress
My arms and legs are shrunk the food all has lumps
they discovered some animal no one’s ever seen
It was an inside trader eating a rubber tire
after running over Rudy Giuliani
They say the President’s dead but no one can find his head
it’s been missing now for weeks
But no one noticed it he had seemed so fit
and I’m Sick of it
I’m Sick of You
I’m so Sick of You, bye, bye, bye
Bye, bye, bye
An accurate article, Trump is, like the Tea Party, just one of the symptoms of the disease. Whether it’s in the US or Brexit here you don’t create those sorts of symptoms overnight. The levels of ignorance and distrust take decades to form and that has been the true ‘success’ of the neo-liberal, or capital/profit driven, movement.
The scariest part for me is that this is looking like giving Clinton a walk. I don’t deny that Trump wouldn’t be good for the US but I can’t ever see him getting the establishment support to do damage on the global stage. Whereas Clinton has form in this area and I think she could be more damaging globally.
Put more simply I see Trump as a symptom and Clinton as part of the disease itself.
I agree-who can trust Clinton, the person who went to Libya gloating about his death and saying ‘we came we, saw, he dies’ followed by inane laughter .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=UG&hl=en-GB&context=C4428177ADvjVQa1PpcFOoaMg1gweTN65p8nEjwPoCYJH-PU1q5KY%3D&v=Fgcd1ghag5Y
Utterly revolting and vile personage.
Yep that was one of the moments in my mind when I posted. But much as I despise the Clintons even they couldn’t achieve without establishment support. That’s my real worry, same as here, true change just isn’t possible.
Trump is,indeed, a valuable lesson.
He has proven that lying works; that the mass media do not work for the benefit of the masses, and are eager to be co-opted in to demagoguery; that nationalism, racism, and the threat of violence are effective political tactics; and that an ignorant public – and an educated middle class who should know better – can be be manipulated in their dissatisfaction and their anger with far better (but far from perfect) political leaders…
…Who seem eager to learn these easy lessons, and apply them, rather than apply themselves to being better leaders in building a better polity.
There’s an excellent series of three articles on the power of the presidency on the Lawfare blog by Benjamin Writes. Well worth a read.
https://www.lawfareblog.com/trump-and-powers-american-presidency-part-i
Larry Lessig’s recent talk at Dayton U is worthwhile on what’s driving Trump’s support (it isn’t simply stupidity; much of it derives from flaws in the US democratic process — not that the UK has much of a leg to stand on in that dept).