Donald Trump’s reneging of the Kurds in northern Syria, his cynical treatment of Ukraine and his weak ambivalence on the Hong Kong protest movement may fit the pattern of his usual behavior, but to those outside the US these developments cut away the moral, military and diplomatic backstops that the US has provided to rest of the world for the last seventy years.
These acts pull up the drawbridge on the old liberal order, and now set in motion a fragmenting world of ‘patriots’, as he might put it. Another four years will render this regression permanent, with many yet unseen, negative consequences.
While many Americans will be happy that President Trump is committing fewer resources to what are other people’s problems, they must also realize that the cost of this is the end to American exceptionalism – this will have long lasting implications for the dollar, US multinationals, the security of America and Americans, for American culture and even for basketball.
For those who care about these things there are several things that can be done.
To start, technocrats, former public servants or even ‘experts’ from the military, economic policy, diplomacy and human development led sectors like education, need to speak loudly and clearly about the damage being done to America’s credibility, its institutions and human capital. Jim Mattis for example, entirely missed the opportunity to do this with his recent book.
Then, moderate Republicans, who if they have a sliver of moral courage and an ounce of sense, must start to put the future of the US – at home and abroad – ahead of career expediency. As it stands, they are more supine than many of the emerging nation governments they disdain. The very least they can do is stop blocking the rule of law, and the cloaking of the transparency of government.
As this occurs, the President will fight back. His greatest talents are his ability as a gutter scrapper, and his instinct for how to caricature his opponent’s weaknesses. He flatters and bullies, belying his own foibles. What no Democrat, or Republican for that matter has done so far, is to match him in this respect. Some might feel it is beneath them but it is the only way to loosen his electoral base.
Whomever succeeds in taking on the President will need to show that @DontheRobber is robbing the future to prop up the scam that the present is ‘great’. Corporate tax cuts, an alarming rise in corporate and government debt and a fiscal deficit that is unusually large for an economy in expansion, have all boosted the economy in the past three years, to cripple it in the future.
Record levels of wealth inequality rob the public in general, and the next generation. Equally, a short-term focus on a damaging trade war is disturbing corporate investment and supply chains, while the lack of real investment in education will rob the economy of a key source of productivity. Blindness to the consequences of climate change will rob many of the President’s supporters of their livelihoods as we move into the 2020’s.
The trade agreement with China, yet to be finalized, is a fine case in point. It falls far short of the terms that had initially been proposed, doesn’t at all tackle the concerns corporate America had and leaves open too many points of uncertainty. To their credit, the Chinese have done very well here.
In politics, the modus operandi of the President and those who enable him is robbing public life of any vestige of civility and fraternity, and risking divisions that will carry through this century.
The sense that America, its social fabric and its economy, are being robbed is just one, clear way of encapsulating the consequences of current policy making from the White House. It is now breaking old conventions, alliances and economic relationships on a nearly daily basis, and the cost of this needs to be made tangibly clear to Americans, lest the country, like a real estate speculation gone wrong, is sold away to opportunists.
Have a great week ahead,
Mike
The Levelling 