As I write, the US presidential election has not been called, but it looks very like Trump has won.
What we do know is that the Republicans have won the Senate. The consequence of that is that even if Harris did win, almost everything that she might wish to do as president could be blocked by a Republican majority. That would virtually nullify the Harris gain even if it were to happen.
Quite what will happen next, with Trump in the White House, is very hard to predict. I said during the campaign that I thought he was a fascist, and everything he said about migrants, women, the use of the legal system to oppress his opponents, his lack of faith in the electoral system and his claimed willingness to deport millions from the US suggest that is the case. His economic policy is openly biased toward the wealthy.
I, as many readers of this blog will be, am shocked by what has happened.
I am this morning, most of all, profoundly worried for the safety and well-being of literally millions of Americans who must now face significantly enhanced risk and the possibility of major disruption, if not forced emigration and political exile, as a consequence of the Trump victory.
I really do not think that the world has prepared itself for the consequences of what might happen if Trump only keeps part of his promises. The practical consequences for the world of a USA that has turned its back on democracy might be hard to comprehend as yet but must be planned for immediately.
One consequence of immediate relevance to the UK that needs to be noted is that if Trump does impose the tariffs that he has suggested to be part of his economic plan, then there are likely to be economic consequences for the UK, including lower levels of trade and higher prices. This might be bad news for Labour, although in the context of the shock of fascism, that appears almost insignificant.
Beyond our shores, we can expect Netanyahu to be emboldened by this win. Trump has made clear his support for his genocide.
Simultaneously, the likelihood that US support for Ukraine will decline is very high, making it very likely that Putin's Russia will secure permanent territorial gains as a consequence of the war in that place because Europe is unlikely to find the means to prevent that.
The question to ask, then, is why is this happening? Why has the USA voted for a man so obviously too old to hold office, too deranged for office, too obscenely offensive for office, and who has proposed a programme so obviously intended to intimidate so many?
I only have one obvious answer. I reserve the right to change my mind on this and to revisit the issue, but my immediate feeling is that there is one point of common ground between those who have voted for Trump and those who read this blog, and that is that they have rejected neoliberalism.
Biden's economic boost after Covid was not felt by most Americans. The growth went to the already rich.
Most Americans do not want to preserve an economic system that very clearly does not reward them and has no intention of doing so.
Many Americans already feel alienated within their own country.
The Biden support for Netanyahu's tyranny in Gaza made many feel that the Democrats had already embraced fascism, so what would the difference be if they did so with Trump?
And, I have no doubt many Americans have good reason to fear the consequences of neoliberalism that it pretends do not exist, but which are readily apparent, from massively divided societies to fears of climate change, to constant reminders of inequality, to the loss of hope and the denial of opportunity as a consequence of ever-growing divides in a society when neoliberal politicians long ago ceased to tell the truth. In that situation, Trump might look mad and a terrible choice, except for the fact that neoliberalism and its perpetuation look to be even worse because there is a guarantee of failure to come in it, whereas Trump only offered the possibility of something that might be terrible.
I am genuinely frightened about what Trump might do now.
Simultaneously, what we have to notice is that the game pursued by neoliberal politicians, dedicated to financialisation, the destruction of genuine public-focused service, the denial of climate change, and the perpetuation of power structures that deny opportunity to the majority whilst leaving far too many close to penury, is now over. Harris was its last gasp.
With luck, Trump might not be able to find military and law enforcement officers willing to support the more extreme of his goals.
It might even be the case that the Supreme Court, packed as it is with his supporters, might not let him do all that he wishes and that some vestiges of democracy might survive him.
In practice, the people of the USA might revolt against him trying to expel 11 million undocumented people in the country, with massive consequences for their own well-being as a result of the enormous economic disruption that this will create.
There is a chance that abortion bans will create stress so great that backlash might happen.
But what no ordinary American will call for will be a restoration of the neoliberal status quo.
Neoliberalism has failed the USA. Yesterday, the people of that country voted for Trump to send that message. They have taken the most almighty risk by doing so. We have no idea how this will pan out. But what we do know is that the neoliberal order is dead in the USA. It needs to be everywhere. What we need now is a non-fascist alternative to it.
That is the best I can offer right now.
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I agree with your analysis. Many people in the US and UK are to say the least disenchanted with parties that espouse neoliberal politics and economics and will therefore vote for an alternative, however unpalatable that might be. I also think the Brexit vote was part of the same disenchantment – people saw jobs and earnings decline while the advantages of the EU mainly went to the affluent. Talk of how terrible it was that young people would not be able to travel freely to the EU did not go down well for those working in low paid jobs, in the ‘gig’ economy who regarded such a right as only for the well off in secure jobs.
Personally I thought we should have reformed the EU rather than left but I don’t think the EU was prepared to accept that it had any flaws.
What another terrible day. Let’s hope the Americans can keep the republic through the next four years.
If Trump (with congressional support) does a small selection of his extreme policies – detains and deports millions, imposes large tariffs, continues to extract and burn oil at scale and slows the switch to renewables, stops support for Ukraine (and Taiwan?), withdraws from NATO, takes revenge against his political opponents, withdraws broadcast licences from most of the US networks, changes the political system to favour his sort of Republicans in perpetuity – the US and great of the world will very quickly regret this period.
Can the Democrats regroup for the midterms and 2028? Who might Trump’s successor be? What will Labour do? (Lammy, for example.). Will they wait until 2029 for the UK election?
Why Lammy?
I have no hope in him.
Lammy called Trump a “neo-nazi sociopath” and a “tyrant in a toupee” in a 2018 OpEd:
https://time.com/5333087/david-lammy-trump-uk-visit/
He has backtracked recently, describing Trump as “misunderstood”.
I don’t have a lot of faith in Lammy
(Sorry, hope it is obvious I meant “rest of the world” not “great of the world”)
Lammy because of his strong words about Trump and his position as foreign secretary. He will have to trim radically to make any headway with a Trump administration.
What happens to the criminal prosecutions? Might Trump be sent to jail in a few weeks? I suppose he might pardon himself once he becomes president again (which is likely to lead to another Supreme Court case) but I wonder if Biden might do it to try to heal divisions (like Ford and Nixon).
I think he has already trimmed, by far too much
See Colonel Smithers comment
Thank you, both.
Lammy and Kinnock were in the US before the election. They were hosted by the Koch brothers and Heritage Foundation in NYC and Washington. Lammy said there was common ground with Trump and, when he thought cameras were not rolling, praised Trump.
It’s not just Trump that Lammy has made comments about. His remarks have caused officials concern.
@Andrew
“I suppose he might pardon himself once he becomes president again”
He can only pardon himself from Federal cases. he can NOT pardon himself from State or Local cases.
“but I wonder if Biden might do it to try to heal divisions (like Ford and Nixon).”
WILL! NOT! HAPPEN!
At the very end of the day you are right about Neo-liberalism – but just as much ‘Blackpool’ runs through a piece of its rock, Neo-liberal malpractice runs through how this election was fought – and it it includes a lot of money-power being available and a lot of shoddy rule breaking to enable it to happen.
Therefore my conclusion is that Neo-liberalism will endure no matter what chaos and suffering ensues, and that is what Neo-liberalism is about – the self-survival of the rich come what may.
And that is really bad news.
The US Democrats and their supporters are learning the hard way that neoliberalism enables and gives way to fascism. I suspect the only politicians in the UK who won’t be taking that message to heart – either with glee or with dread – will be those who make up the Labour government. As a result, within 10 years the we may see a similar unfolding in the UK.
The Democrats needed to be more radical.
Trump’s backers are neo-liberals abd they might see his presidency differently if he tries tries to change too much.
The Chinese ‘may you live in interesting times’ is not a wish for a comfortable ride. It is wish for another’s discomfort.
We are in for ‘interesting times’.
You are right; we are.
I was always worried that Harris could not win but when she raised a billion $USD in 8 weeks I had hope.
Biden is viewed as a “Laborite” Democrat and Harris is viewed as a “Limousine Liberal” Democrat.
This is just a view but I think this view carried many swing voters.
The Republican women I personally know who voted for Harris were one issue voters this time around: The Abortion Rights issue and are heavily Pro-Choice.
The one consolation is that Trump has Robert F. Kennedy who has promised to stop Big Pharma and Big Food. Now we just have to wait and see.
I cannot can find anything positive about someone who doesn’t believe in vaccinations and will no doubt be doing his best to close down public health measures and who would have ensured that Covid was even more rampant with an even higher death toll.
Someone who also believes in conspiracy theories- the last sort of person you need anywhere need a health agenda.
Indeed, it’s the one positive aspect of the whole affair. Let’s hope Trump doesn’t side-line him.
Can you please explain how you think he will be positive.
It isn’t just that he has won, it looks like an easy win.
How a man like Trump can even run for office is beyond belief.
Tens of millions voted, maybe even for dictatorship. Is that what they really want, to never have another vote?
Then there is the elephant in the room – racism. I’m sure that played a big part. Many Americans showed their true colours. They would rather have the orange one in the “White” House.
I personally do not believe that racism was a major factor in this election.
More Trump MAGAts view Harris as Communist than view her as a person of color.
But wasn’t racism an issue on migration?
The person of colour in this election is probably broadly considered to have been the orange one.
Despite the fact that Neo-liberalism has actually been a root cause in all of this (agreed above BTW) – judging by your post later on yesterday, I’m not sure that we have just seen is a democratic process.
The amount of money involved is truly amazing and troubling and where that money has come from, more so. And that has been enabled by the Citizens United voting amendment of 2010 (quite unpopular among ordinary Americans from what I gather) and Musk’s $1 million a day giveaway.
So to me, what I have seen is nothing short of a travesty – not an election.
So perversely, Neo-liberalism has America in a very firm grip. It produces the discontent that results in charlatans and fascists getting a foothold in government whilst promising to sort those issues out. But instead, it’s huge funding is used to change laws that enable it to entrench its position and lock itself in and maintain a status quo, creating enemies and finding new victims and causes to blame.
There is one good thing though about America. All of this is done in plain sight.
In our country, most of this will be done behind locked doors, Downing Street sofas and gentleman’s clubs over drinkies.
Oh well……………….
Majoritarianism is not democracy.
The USA is a republic but more a plutocracy given who controls both major parties and that it is $1= one vote.
Thankfully Musk was born in South Africa.
Some Americans have started saying ‘we are a republic, not a democracy.’
It is nonsense. Whatever the cautious approach of the Founding Fathers, today the US is a -very flawed-democracy.
I think it is trotted out by the Right wing to justify undemocratic features and practices such as States writing their own voting rules and gerrymandering, the Electoral College, the political selection of judges for the Supreme Court and the over-representation of small rural states in the Senate.
Musk was born in South Africa so cannot stand for President. True. But rules can (and many will) be changed.
Is a Trump. regime going to do anything positive for the poor? I don’t think so. What it does look likely to do is reinforce the growing misogyny and racism, and end the rule of law in favour of Musk and disinformation and lies. Is that the end of neo liberalism? really?
That is not neoliberalism.
That is fascism.
What, as I said, we need is a better alternative.
which may work by distracting the population from the economic issues. At some point it may not work and the population will turn against them.
You can’t fool all the people for all of the time as Lincoln said.
“Roll up that map; it will not be wanted these ten years” (Wiiliam Pitt, after Austerlitz, 1805). If he actually said this, it was prescient.
And Musk is going to dismantle the State, firing thousands of Federal workers in a drive for “efficiency”. He has also been colluding with Putin according to the Wall Street Journal and an article in Byline Times.
https://bylinetimes.com/2024/10/25/elon-musk-vladimir-putin-x/
Trump may not last his entire term. His health may fail completely, he could be removed for mental health reasons, and I would not rule out an assassination at this point either given the polarisation of political thought in the USA. Then Vance would take over. Judging by Vance’s positions on various topics, he would be even worse.
We all hope we are wrong, but we fear a dark future.
Martin, I agree entirely. Either Trump will agree to ‘retire on health grounds’, cede the Reins to Vance, retire to the Florida golf course, whilst enjoying a god-like deification; or some ‘psychopathic immigrant Marxist terrorist will bump him off’.
I believe that Trump’s supporters voted for Trump because politics no longer makes sense to them. Trump is their ticket to bring a wrecking ball to a regime that they believe is illegitimate.
They don’t think of politics as a game between opponents. They see it as good vs evil. They see politics through a lens of a particular type of hyper moralistic chrsitianity. They believe that they are the victims of oppression.
Trump’s election shows that US democracy is still wobbling as much as it was in 2016 and 2020. It could will continue like this for the next 20 years. Perhaps not 40.
I’m going to disagree. Trump’s win is a capstone achievement of the coalition that bankrolled neoliberalism. The short form: in the 70s, a great deal of American wealth and corporations were quite upset at changes wrought by the 60s and 70s. They decided to undertake a collaborative effort to stop what they considered to be the destruction of civilization. They undertook it as a long-term indefinite effort. They have spent hundreds of millions dollars a year collectively for half century pursuing it. If you want to know about figurehead for this effort, look to Charles Koch.
The very earliest examples of their efforts were Reagan and Thatcher. But it must be understood that their efforts largely focused on creating institutions to produce ideology theory and policy to serve their intent.. institutions with names like Cato, Heritage Foundation, ALEC, the Federalist Society, the American Enterprise Institute and many more. And they pushed through specific changes, Citizen United as one example, the Bork doctrine as another, to tip power into their favor.
Because wealth has become so concentrated and because billionaire interests are transnational, there is also a transnational society of plutocrats. This is why you see Elon Musk, Ellison, KSA, Putin, etc. collaborating. They get together and they discuss strategy. They butter each other’s bottoms.
So while I agree that there is a tremendous groundswell of anger with neoliberalism, because it destroys everything it touches, and tremendous anger at a left or center co-opted by it, I am looking at you Clinton, I am looking at you Biden Pelosi Schumer Obama, the Republicans are absolutely the worst party to bring into power. They are the avatar of fascist forces on steroids. They will annihilate the union movement, they will shred any oversight, just as the extremist governments of almost a century ago wiped out trade unions, and any other group they took a disliking to.
We saw that in Germany, in Italy, and we saw that in Spain. And worse, they have the power of pervasive surveillance and media control.
We won’t have a chance to call for restoration of the neoliberal status quo, because the outcome it was created to achieve is now complete.
Some relevant history of what I’ve outlined has been scraped together in the video below, if anyone wants to bother with it. The description contains detailed list of background information and source material.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=issmDdjBa5w
Climate disasters are generally under-reported at present but there will be more frequent headlines like those for the Valencia catastrophe.
Not much mentioned is that most of the all-pervading mud there was probably fertile topsoil. After each heavier-than-usual rainstorm in Dorset, the rivers are brown for days. The effect on farming is increasingly serious. Also, the demand for *locally* grown food will increase as fossil-fuel-powered transport is reduced. The reduction will be serious and happen soon … so far as neoliberalism permits… if governments are wise.
Covid was first reported in China but the UK government took no action. Then it was in Italy – but there was no apparent hurry. Soon after it arrived in Britain, the Prime Minister and scientists such as the chief medical officer were on TV every day. Widespread mask wearing and lock-down followed.
When will the climate trigger a similar response?
When, in the 1970s, there was an OPEC crisis, a 50 mph maximum speed limit was imposed overnight to cut fuel use. What is the plan to reduce private motoring by something like 90%? It’s not just children who would benefit. Anyone who hopes to live for another 20 years would/will too – and life could be better in all sorts of ways – like cleaner air and safer streets.
As always happens with facism the facist turns on it’s own supporters.
I wonder what will happen when those that voted for facism realise what they have done to themselves?
I doubt Trump will last too long before he is replaced by Vance using the 25th Amendment. I give it 6 months, maybe a year at the most.
Vance is who the US populace have voted in.
I see no reason to believe that
Trump is no more mad now than he was in 2016
“I also think the Brexit vote was part of the same disenchantment”
It is exactly the same thing on both sides of the pond. UK citizens who voted for BREXIT and USA citizens who voted for Trump cast their ballots for the exact same reasons. These voters share the same disenchantment for almost the same reasons..
It is what it is.
In the last few days Trump was always asking ‘do you feel better off now than 4 years ago’. It seems that did cut through – quite simple and very specific. ‘Its the economy stupid’.
Analysts are now saying Harris had too much headwind to combat – because she was part of the Biden regime, which was so unpopluar – and him lingering on far too long, and so not providing time for a proper primary, and maybe to select a candidate less tainted by the Biden record..
Is it possible that an indited criminal , who uses fascist tropes to gain power will turn out to be less extreme and more ‘transactional’ than ideological?
That might be wishful thinking – the whole world seems to be moving right, with quasi-demographic regimes turning into autocracies.
There is no good ending for Ukraine – they were never going to ‘win’ and they lost when US/Nato hubristically dismemberd the Soviet Union in the 90’s, impoverishling millions and didnt try to negotiate a Richard Sakwa – type settlement – and didnt complete the Minsk agreement – so helping to create the Putin we have today.
The best that can be hoped for is some kind of ceasefire with Russians still in the Donbas but it formally remaining part of Ukraine as a federated state .
Biden is a knee jerk rigid cold warrior – so a ‘transactional’ approach to Russia and China may not be necessarily worse. But if Trump dispenses with advisors who last time were moderating influences -and many of whom have since come out against him – it could be pretty terrifying.
If Trump does ‘drill drill drill ‘ for oil , deport 10 million ‘migrants’ , threaten Russia China and Iran with nuclear , dismantle state support for healthcare and education, sanction independent media, drastically reduce taxes , impose trade tariffs – then we are certainly in for ‘interesting times’.
The people got conned again. It’s their own fault for not paying sufficient attention to what’s going on. Trump failed in his first term to stick it to China with high enough tariffs to bring back many manufacturing jobs to the US because the farming lobby protested China threatening to whack up tariffs against the massive agricultural imports from the USA. The British fail I think to understand that the USA has still a very large agricultural sector as part of its economy.
Trump will fail yet again to make America Great Again. Once again his only likely significant success will be to lower taxes yet again on the very rich which is the real reason why Elon Musk was getting so excited on stage! Meanwhile the gullible British got conned earlier in the year by voting for a party that doesn’t even appear to have any joined up workable policies that will effect much by the way of change. As a droll wit summed up a “working person” buys their own clothes and pays for their own event tickets and spectacles but in doing so painted a definitive picture of the political morass in this country.
“The British fail I think to understand that the USA has still a very large agricultural sector as part of its economy.”
Agriculture products are a major USA export if not THE major export.
Sorry BayTampaBay but agricultural products aren’t the largest export but any foreigner or indeed American travelling about the country would be inclined to think so the country is so huge in terms of its rural areas.
https://www.shippingsolutions.com/blog/top-us-exports
@Schofield
Thanks for the link on US Exports.
Thank you, Richard.
Much, but not all, to agree with.
Richard: “I only have one obvious answer. I reserve the right to change my mind on this and to revisit the issue, but my immediate feeling is that there is one point of common ground between those who have voted for Trump and those who read this blog, and that is that they have rejected neoliberalism.” John S Warren and I have highlighted Obama’s betrayal of Main Street in favour of Wall Street. The rust belt and farm states like Iowa voted for Obama twice and switched to Trump in 2016 and 2024. 2008 and even the four decades preceding are playing out, a warning for Labour / Kid Starver.
With regard to abortion, the Dixiecrats controlled the White House and Congress in 1992 – 4 and 2008 – 10, but did not codify it. The Dixiecrats treat the issue as a wedge issue and one to raise money on come election time. They don’t care about such rights. (NB I’m Catholic and leave the matter to a woman, her doctor and, if she believes, her maker.) I’m stunned that abortion is the only thing the Dixiecrats care about. Class / economic issues rarely get an airing.
Fun facts: Obama expelled more undocumented migrants and imprisoned more of their children than Trump. Most of the border wall was built before Trump. (Lots of complaints about that wall, but none about the wall around Palestine.) As attorney general of California, Harris boasted to the Commonwealth Club how she “sent her meanest cops” to arrest the parents of truant children, mainly poor African Americans who could not afford bus fares, uniforms, food etc. The parents were them dumped into the prison system that serves as cheap labour and often had sentences lengthened for no reason other than to keep an army of free labour for Harris’ donors. Harris was a terrible candidate, mollycoddled by her Hollywood lawyer hubby’s media circle and, in 2020, dropped out of the race even before the California primary.
MarP mentioned racism. Probably true, but why did so many Latinos and African Americans and even Arabs in the upper midwest vote for Trump? A North Carolina county that is 40% African American voted heavily for Trump. Overnight, MSNBC’s Joy Reid lambasted Arabs and Muslims for voting Trump and said this would enable genocide in Palestine. Er… Muslim leaders asked for a meeting with Harris and Trump, but only Trump accepted. Dixiecrats need to look at themselves and stop assuming they are owed something.
“MarP mentioned racism”
In my arrogant Yank opinion, Racism did NOT play a role in this particular election.
From reporting here, that seems hard to believe
@Richard
To clarify: I was referring to racism against Kamala Harris not racism against immigrants.
Understood, now
The ‘elephant in the room’, as far as the mainstream media (MSM) was always:
“How come the Democratic candidate was struggling so much against an opposing candidate of such LOW calibre ?”.
As the excellent commentator Shihab Rattansi pointed out today, the majority of voters for Trump have incomes below $100k; the majority of voters for Democrats have income above $100k. Outside the elite city areas in the US, far too much of infrastructure is visibly crumbling; with dysfunctional communities The Democrats were deluded and arrogant in lazily switching to Harris, and then shouting out how good things were, “no change”, with giddy smiles.
A key question in the US now: is there any chance the Democrats will undergo some grassroots related introspection about what their politics means (As we should be doing here) ?
Because the real danger is what comes after Trump.
I ask that even as I know how dire the short-term changes could be, badly impacting the – albeit – little climate progress, but also on the Middle East. The prospect of Mike ‘Tony Soprano’ Pompeo taking over the reins of the Pentagon fills me with deep dread.
Economically, through Trump, the winds will blow the wrong way for the UK (and EU) and Starmer/Reeves will struggle as their ‘growth’ strategy will take a hit. And Richard, you are far too polite about Lammy, who has declared some of the most crass things about Trump a Foreign Secretary could have. Lammy is an over-promoted, inept prat.
Sadly, for the US the underlying, deeply right-wing establishment of the 1940s and 1950s seems to be resurfacing. Because it never really went away; the real off-ramp was cancelled with the demise of JFK and his hopes. He saved the world in October, 1962. Lets hope it was for a good purpose eventually.
Thank you, Richard.
Reading this thread, I do not believe people understand how this happened. It did not begin with Trump. Trump didn’t make it happen. He seized an opportunity that nobody else would touch. He has built a career out of it; but it isn’t really about him at all.
It began with the Financial Crash, and Obama’s Treasury combining with Wall Street to enable Wall Street to profit from foreclosures and the legitimate grievances of Main Street against Washington and Wall Street. The sense of injustice, of harm, of help withheld have never been fotgotten, or forgiven by Main Street; and the Democrats ignored it. ‘Yes, we can’ for Main Street, America was seen as ‘No, we can’t’. The fightback began with the Tea Party (a symbol of rebellion), but not one that could win a Presidential election. Trump found (by accident or design?) the ‘gap in the political market’ seized it and ran with it, no doubt for his own labyrinth of reasons, to make himself the improbable representative of Main Street; Mr Smith goes to Washington was reworked for a disturbed neoliberal age, and Trump goes to Washington to produce a different kind of result.
After the 1929 Crash, Main Street America could turn to a Roosevelt and the New Dealers to fix their problem. Today, there are no Roosevelts, just phoney machine politicians and weak machine minders, incapable of independent thought or action. In the age of neoliberalism, Trump was the accessible way for Main Street to find someone to articulate their rejection of the Washington system, and ‘take down’ the conventional Washington consensus. Main Street wasn’t interested in how it was done, only the result. For Americans, this approach (however difficult it is for Europeans to understand) finds abstracted, heavily mythologised echoes from their political and constitutional past
Wall Street? Wall Street is always with the winners.
Much to agree with.
‘Tis true.
Snap.
Thank you and well said, John.
Further to John’s superb comment: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/05/08/jail-bankers-obama-has-been-their-staunchest-defender.
Thank you, John.
A quibble, if I may. I would go back to the late 1970s and reign of Paul Volcker (hell bent on diminishing living standards for workers), Reagan (including mass firing of air traffic controllers), Clinton (bail out of Wall Street in 1994 (including Goldman Sachs, formerly run by his Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin) and 1998 and off shoring of jobs under NAFTA and to China when China joined the WTO), Bush’s laziness / indulgence of neocons and neoliberals, Obama’s betrayal of Main Street, Trump’s cosmetic change and Biden’s indulgence of Capital.
Please do quibble. It is the essence of the acquisition of knowledge. I claim no special insight into anywhere as complex and easily misunderstood, as America.
It wasn’t “the economy, stupid”, as many would interpret that statement, ie the economy doing well, GDP growing, the “rising tide lifting all boats”, because that “economy” was neoliberal – wealth for the wealthy and the rest must do the best they can with what’s left.
It was the neoliberal political economy which left so many in poverty, public services hollowed out, infrastructure crumbling, bullshit jobs, wholesome nutritious foods too expensive for many, the imperative to consume ever more even when it meant debt and politicians who didn’t seem to care for the have-nots.
Then many turn to a Trump who says he will fix these things, will drain the swamp, and claims he is on “their side”, while creating “others” to blame and hate and realises no lie is too big to turn people away and in fact increases his support. Because what he has created is a cult of true believers.
The US and the UK have ignored the needs of the majority, and especially the millions at the bottom and those towards the middle to the benefit of the top few percent.
Your post contradicts itself of course it was the “economy stupid” that’s the point of neoliberalism it fails to focus on the many just the few and Trump of course didn’t do much for the many on his first outing and neither will he do so on his second. Neoliberalism is going to take a long time to kill off!
See Bhashkar Sunkara’s comment in the Guardian why the Democrats lost the election:-
“Harris herself ran a competent campaign, but was limited by the very nature of today’s Democratic coalition: it’s increasingly the party (in both style and substance) of professional-class people. Even though Harris herself shied away from it, the Democrats as a whole are still associated with identitarian rhetoric and relied on cross-class issues like abortion – which turned out to be less salient than the economy – to drive turnout.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/06/trump-win-election-panel
Thank you to John S Warren, above.
Should we not be more worried by the unidentified people pulling Trump’s strings?
Ex-Yank here …I renounced my citizenship early in 2024. However, I still have tons of friends, family …and old acquaintances from high school, etc.
This from an old high school classmate of mine (we’re both 75 years old now, so that was a while back.) She commented on my Facebook post early this morning, which showed the Statue of Liberty with her face in her hands. I didn’t actually post a comment, just the picture—and my old classmate posted this:
“Sorry, but I’m smiling. God is the King and he gave us a champion of the people. Our 4 years of suffering has some light at the end of the tunnel of ridicule.”
She had mentioned earlier in a private message to me that she loves Trump, whom she believes is a good man who has been maligned by the media. She is angry at Biden because she can no longer afford to insure her house—in Florida.
She is also a committed Christian. Actually a nice woman. But she thinks Trump is the Savior and won’t hear a word said against him.
I don’t know where to start….
Trump is going to guarantee Florida is uninsurable as a result of climate change
Jan, I share your feelings. I have a younger sibling in the US, been there almost 50 years, same age as you, successful, voted for Trump 3 times, thinks if Trump had lost it would have been the end of the republic. The irony!! I don’t know what to think or what to say.
“Beyond our shores, we can expect Netanyahu to be emboldened by this win.”
In a bit of a senior moment, I first read this sentence as:
“Beyond our shores, we can expect Netanyahu to be emboldened by his twin.”
I have a twin…..
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