THere are lessons for Canada in this too

[Mark Llew]

Is Donald Trump an aberration or a symptom of a deeper US malady?
by Joseph Stiglitz
Tue 12 Jan 2021 12.11 GMT

The underlying causes of Trump’s rise to power must be addressed, from taming social media to tackling inequality

The assault on the US Capitol by Donald Trump’s supporters, incited by the president himself, was the predictable outcome of his four-year-long assault on democratic institutions, aided and abetted by so many in the Republican party. And no one can say that Trump had not warned us: he was not committed to a peaceful transition of power.

Many who benefited as he slashed taxes for corporations and the rich, rolled back environmental regulations and appointed business-friendly judges knew they were making a pact with the devil. Either they believed they could control the extremist forces he unleashed, or they didn’t care.

Where does America go from here? Is Trump an aberration, or a symptom of a deeper national malady? Can the US be trusted? In four years, will the forces that gave rise to Trump, and the party that overwhelmingly supported him, triumph again? What can be done to prevent that outcome?

Trump is the product of multiple forces. For at least a quarter century, the Republican party has understood that it could represent the interests of business elites only by embracing anti-democratic measures (including voter suppression and gerrymandering) and allies, including the religious fundamentalists, white supremacists and nationalist populists.

Of course, populism implied policies that were antithetical to business elites. But many business leaders spent decades mastering the ability to deceive the public. Big Tobacco spent lavishly on lawyers and bogus science to deny their products’ adverse health effects. Big Oil did likewise to deny fossil fuels’ contribution to the climate crisis. They recognised that Trump was one of their own.

Then, advances in technology provided a tool for rapid dissemination of dis/misinformation and America’s political system, where money reigns supreme, allowed the emerging tech companies freedom from accountability. This political system did one other thing: it generated a set of policies (sometimes referred to as neoliberalism) that delivered massive income and wealth gains to those at the top, but near-stagnation everywhere elsewhere. Soon, a country on the cutting edge of scientific progress was marked by declining life expectancy and increasing health disparities.

The neoliberal promise that wealth and income gains would trickle down to those at the bottom was fundamentally spurious. As massive structural changes deindustrialised large parts of the country, those left behind were left to fend largely for themselves. As I warned in my books The Price of Inequality and People, Power and Profits, this toxic mix provided an inviting opportunity for a would-be demagogue.

As we have repeatedly seen, Americans’ entrepreneurial spirit, combined with an absence of moral constraints, provides an ample supply of charlatans, exploiters and would-be demagogues. Trump, a mendacious, narcissistic sociopath, with no understanding of economics or appreciation of democracy, was the man of the moment.

The immediate task is to remove the threat Trump still poses. The House of Representatives should impeach him now, and the Senate should try him some time later, to bar him from holding federal office again. It should be in the interest of the Republicans, no less than the Democrats, to show that no one, not even the president, is above the law. Everyone must understand the imperative of honouring elections and ensuring the peaceful transition of power.

But we should not sleep comfortably until the underlying problems are addressed. Many involve great challenges. We must reconcile freedom of expression with accountability for the enormous harm that social media can and has caused, from inciting violence and promoting racial and religious hatred to political manipulation.

The US and other countries have long imposed restrictions on other forms of expression to reflect broader societal concerns: one may not shout fire in a crowded theater, engage in child abuse images or commit slander and libel. True, some authoritarian regimes abuse these constraints and compromise basic freedoms but authoritarian regimes will always find justifications for doing what they will, regardless of what democratic governments do.

We Americans must reform our political system, both to ensure the basic right to vote and democratic representation. We need a new voting rights act. The old one, adopted in 1965, was aimed at the South, where disenfranchisement of African-Americans had enabled white elites to remain in power since the end of Reconstruction following the civil war. But now anti-democratic practices are found throughout the country.

We also need to decrease the influence of money in our politics: no system of checks and balances can be effective in a society with as much inequality as the US. And any system based on “one dollar, one vote” rather than “one person, one vote” will be vulnerable to populist demagogy. After all, how can such a system serve the interests of the country as a whole?

Finally, we must address the multiple dimensions of inequality. The striking difference between the treatment of the white insurrectionists who invaded the Capitol and the peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters this summer once again showed to those around the world the magnitude of America’s racial injustice.

Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic has underscored the magnitude of the country’s economic and health disparities. As I have repeatedly argued, small tweaks to the system won’t be enough to make large inroads in the country’s ingrained inequalities.

How America responds to the attack on the Capitol will say a lot about where the country is headed. If we not only hold Trump accountable, but also embark on the hard road of economic and political reform to address the underlying problems that gave rise to his toxic presidency, then there is hope of a brighter day. Fortunately, Joe Biden will assume the presidency on 20 January. But it will take more than one person – and more than one presidential term – to overcome America’s longstanding challenges.

Copyright The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jan/12/donald-trump-us-joe-biden

[Mark Llew]

I posted the long article above because we in Canada are also susceptible to the problems that America has. Trends in that country have a tendency to find their way across the border eventually, For example, when I went to university in Michigan in the 1970s, guns were not a major problem in Canada -- however, they were ubiquitous in the US. Not twenty years later, we had our own problem with handguns, which were sourced from the US (as far as I know, there is no hand-gun manufacturing industry in Canada). My reasons for saying this:

–– there is still systemic racism, as evidenced by the plight of aboriginal peoples and by the disparate treatment of blacks by police

–– the right-wing mantra that taxes are bad and the political rhetoric that goes with it has begun to suffuse our own politics -- we used to grumble about taxes, of course, but we accepted them as the necessary price of a well-run country... and our politicians did not insist differently. But now we DO hear anti-tax rhetoric, from the right. The cost of reducing taxes is always borne by those at the bottom, who suffer loss of services and programs, while the beneficiaries are always businesses and those who already have enough. This US-originated 'taxes are bad' rhetoric has already made it very difficult for any Canadian politician to argue in favour of taxes.

–– while not as advanced as in the US, there is growing militarization of our police forces. And too often, police forces are close to unaccountable -- the Calgary police are an example.

–– Trump has a sizeable number of fans in Canada

–– it is still possible to win an election with less than a majority of the voters -- in fact, it's the usual way. As a result, parties like the NDP and the Green Party, who might have good ideas to contribute (and who represent a large fraction of the voters) find it virtually impossible to contribute, unless there's a minority government (but even then their role is limited). As the US has shown, demagogues can win with a minority of the votes, if they play their cards right.

–– Federal politics across the country is dominated by the interests of Ontario and Quebec. As a result, it's easy for other regions of Canada to feel disaffected and frustrated. Hence the rise of the Reform Party, followed by its subversive takeover of the Progressive Conservatives. We do not have a mechanism by which the power of Ontario and Quebec can be tempered. Nor a mechanism by which policies that favour Central Canada can be prevented from harming provinces like Alberta. As long as this kind of frustration exists, and the feeling of being marginalized, Canada will be susceptible to demagogues


Comments welcome!

[Phantom Gtowner]

"The right wing mantra that taxes are bad....". Speaking of people complaining about paying taxes, Mark, I always say this. If we are so overtaxed, as they say, why are we constantly running at a deficit? Surely if we are paying more than we need to we'd have a revenue surplus. No one wants to pay taxes but if you want government funded education and healthcare you'd better be prepared to pay up. Do you want safe roads and bridges? Well, that's more money. It takes billions of dollars to run a country like Canada and that's why we pay taxes.