Why Trump happens? Part 1

In last several years, i have read many explanations and analysis of Trump phenomenon. Why Trump happens? There are various aspects of this question; Why people elect him? Why there's no institutional checks and balances to block such a dangerous person to reach the highest office? How such an unstable, unfit, unqualified and a high criminal reaches to top position of power?

Numerous books & analysis have been written by various experts in trying to give a narrative to the 'Trump phenomenon' or 'MAGA phenomenon'. Authors have contributed to broader understanding of Trump and MAGA in several ways but all authors have left out important things. This is because of two reasons, first is that authors themselves being not fully informed of all the diverse factors behind Trump phenomenon. The second reason is that some these authors know more about Trump phenomenon than they can present or than they want to present. That is, these authors have presented their analysis in a format of conventional wisdom that can be made acceptable to larger public, media & political circles. So the focus of these kind of authors to give (intentionally or unintentionally) a restrictive narrative rather than presenting a real picture. Some of these thinkers & authors also demonstrate intellectual dishonesty by not presenting the full scope of the Trump problem and omitting some key issues. 

Unfitness of a leader or unfitness of the system? - Trump a product of unfit system 

This article is intended to present a full picture of the Trump phenomenon as i see it. A picture beyond much of the conventional wisdom that has been dished out on Trump and MAGA. I would also dispel some of the misconceptions and misplaced narratives on Trump that are built by some authors. To grasp the full picture on Trump, we have to combine knowledge from several overlapping arenas - Politics, economy, history, culture, social psychology and setup of our plutocratic institutional structure (Democracy, Capitalism, mass media etc). Combining all the knowledge, we can build a holistic view of 'Trump phenomenon'.

From a holistic view, crisis of Trump is broadly a culmination of failures of our existing political and economic system. And the crisis is not limited to America but its global. The political & economic system, its institutions and structures that were built in last 100 years or so have become corrupted, obsolete & dysfunctional.  These structures determined how we chose political leaders, who controls the power, how our economy produces wealth, how the national income is distributed, what kind of justice system we have, how social power pyramid is organized on basis of capital and how our institutions are plutocratic in nature. These structures determined how we run our world and society. Now the system, these structures have become malignant. MAGA phenomenon is not really a disease in itself, its a pulse of the system. 

Trump is dangerous, Trump is scary and Trump creates political anxiety among many people. This is because Trump is overtly dripping with so many visible personality disorders, erratic behavior and extreme megalomania. Undoubtedly, all these are very troubling signs of an unfit leader. But the leaders can appear to be fit & stable while 'the system' can be unfit & unstable. The policies that comes out of an unfit system can be equally fatal as if coming from an unfit dictator. Task of intelligent observer is to holistically examine the system and its actions, not just individuals. 

MAGA is a psychological phenomenon like Fascism (view of Bandy Lee); Trump is a product of Neoliberalism (view of Stiglitz); Trump is a counter-insurgency against class struggle (view of Noam Chomsky). All these views are true and there's still more to the Trump picture that i will elaborate. I would cover all these dimensions of Trump phenomenon along with some critique of the analysis of various experts as well. In this article, i would focus on structural failure of political system. 

MAGA phenomenon is not something that sprang out overnight. The series of events that led to this phenomenon were set in motion decades ago and the actual 'cult' of Trump (even without Trump) started to assemble roughly around two decades ago, originally as a disorganized & disoriented force which was finally given a direction in 2015 when Trump arrived in politics. Much of the analysis of American thinkers have emerged only lately when MAGA fully mobilized into politics. In fact, much of the research on MAGA has come from relatively new 'activist-thinkers' who arrived on scene of political analysis after the breakout of MAGA phenomenon. While these thinkers have presented valuable input on the subject, these thinkers were not in political research earlier. Hence, while they have a eye on present situation, they missed some critical events of previous decades which is crucial to understanding to MAGA. 

The structural faults in Political and Economic system - The Plutocratic control of society 

Trump is declared as a super villain against democracy. Various experts call for locking up Trump to preserve and protect American democracy. But this simplistic narrative diverts intellectual analysis of the very democratic system we have which is in a serious decay. Various thinkers and authors on Trump phenomenon have chosen to omit the inherent structural flaws of the political system. 

The manifestation of Trump & MAGA no doubt are the extreme mutations of faults of the system. But the problems with populist political systems existed long before, even before Trump was born. The state of American politics (and so of many other decadent states) today is in fact nothing new. You can pick 1895 work of Le Bon in which he describes the Populist politics, politicians and political system to a revelating detail. The present state of affairs in our politics & nature of our politicians isn't very different from what Le Bon described over a century ago. 

Politicians don't just arrive into politics, win people's vote and take public office. Politics in its present structure is very narrow constrained field. The prerequisite of the present political system is that one should be an agent and a lobbyist for Plutocracy & ruling class. Election campaigns are won on financial support & promotion by big money. The big money flows through variety of channels; through campaign financing, SuperPACs, media platforms, opposition research etc. All this requires big money and without money flow, even the most capable of street smart politician won't get far. And political system in our epoch has no space for actual thinkers, intellectuals, philosophers etc. In fact, these kind of people don't have any room in public office nor they would find any mass appeal. 

The model of our political system can be briefly described as follows. The politicians we have are not any kind of philosophers, thinkers, competent experts or problem solvers. Most of them are mediocre greedy scoundrels, adventurers, fanatics with unhealthy ambition of political power but mostly without any competence and real capabilities. They are kind of relationship managers between social classes which balances the demand of peasant population (the bottom 90%, the middle & lower class, the poor etc) and the goals of ruling class (a tiny fraction of 1% of population). 

The peasant class (poor and middle class) wants free/subsidized healthcare & education, higher wages, pensions, social security, affordable homes, cheaper goods, job guarantee, higher standards of living, clean environment etc. Much of these things are contrary to interest of ruling class in our present economic system; a system based on finance capitalism, casino economy, rentier capitalism and Neoliberalism. 

A competent Govt can easily build a publicly funded education & healthcare system with minimal costs to citizens (America spends the highest per capita on healthcare, yet it has relatively backward health system compared to other developed nations). But building such a system means the demise of private corporate health system & insurance industry. A well regulated Pharma sector, an open patent system etc means lower drug prices for people which again runs counter to big Pharma corporations. Similarly, a publicly funded education system and debt free college will mean shrinking profits of private education system. 

Citizens want pollution free clean air and clean water. A green energy transition will give environmental protection and longevity of people's life. But this again runs counter to interest of Big Oil & Gas companies who have over the decades built their empire on these substandard polluting fuels. From energy production to internal combustion engines for transortation, a whole array of our technology is built on substandard polluting resources. If government brings new regulations that drastically tends to modernize our energy production, it will be harming Big Oil business interests. 

Similarly, public wants pensions and social security but that runs counter to Wall Street financial institutions which gamble & parasitize on wealth & savings of American people. In fact, Wall Street institutions have long been pushing for Privatization of Social security & other Golden eggs of American people so that rentiers can parasitize on economic rights & life savings of American people. Public also wants peace & stability, end to senseless conflicts (Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan etc). But if peace is achieved, what will happen to profits of Defense industry whose only business depends on conflicts?

The point is clear. The interest of ruling class / Plutocracy are opposite to the interest of broader public most of the time. Politicians are lobbyists/relationship managers that pretend to work in interest of public while actually serving their real masters - the ruling class plutocrats. Slogans & speeches of politicians are nothing but demagogy to gain trust of public & its votes. In political system, variety of politicians compete each other with their brands of demagogy for fruits of public office. Many of these politicians are fully owned by big capital interests. That's the system of revolving door in politics & wall street. The politicians get sponsored by wall street and deliver on demands of their financiers throughout their political career. When politicians get out of fashion in politics (when they lose mass appeal & lose elections), they get hired by their financiers in private sector on hefty paychecks. Reverse also happens. 

Ruling class favor those politicians who have a certain populist appeal (charisma to excite the masses) and a strong conviction to deliver the goals of ruling class. The populist appeal and charisma is to dupe the electorate for votes while the real allegiance of politician lies with his financial masters. Politicians today don't have to innovate constructive ideas to transform society, bettering economy, solve societal problems of unemployment and poverty etc, and to find ways to solve challenging issues of the time (like Climate Change). Instead, rudimentary slogans and narratives are to be invented that people will find appealing. 'Make America Great Again', 'Build the Wall' and 'Yes we can' are the kind of themes which people find most absorbing. People don't have the intellect to understand public policy in any meaningful way. They are driven by sentiments and herd mentality. The basic playbook of politician is innovating social populist demagogy and simultaneously finding financiers to bankroll his political career.  

Today, much of the focus is on derangement of Trump; presenting him as an anomaly in our healthy US political system. A media pundit has started 'Stop-Psychopath PAC' to make Trump's mental health as the focal point of crisis. MAGA is a psychological phenomenon for sure. This analysis has been put forward by author Dr Bandy Lee in extensive work. But is Trump's mental health the focal point of present crisis? Is psychodynamic analysis of Trump and his MAGA followers the core task to comprehend the present crisis?

In our system, politicians are really the fronts of plutocrats. The destructive populist demagogy and social phenomenon created by these politicians comes later. Take out the big money, media support and plutocratic backing of Trump, he's just a lunatic windbag with no real power. Attributing psychological phenomenon of populist politicians as the centerpiece of present crisis is not an accurate analysis. The crisis also lies very much in plutocratic structures of political system and it impacts the entire political spectrum, not just Republican MAGA. 

There's also a fundamental flaw in US economic system and modern Neoliberal capitalism in general. The economic growth and development in America comes only through enriching giant corporations and Oligarchs. The corporations control the CAPITAL - the means of production & employment, the industry, trade and commerce. Government has to give subsidies, favorable regulations, tax incentives and tailor made economic & trade policies for corporations to encourage production. The economic growth comes but most of the national income is grabbed at the top of social pyramid - the plutocrats, the CEOs, the corporate executives, the top manager class, the rentiers, the controllers of Capital. Bottom 90% of population, the middle and lower class gets only a small share of national income. 

The Middle and lower class, the average Americans comprises of the majority of electorate but the Corporations and plutocrats wield stronger power over political system because of huge wealth they have at their disposal. Plutocrats and corporations select political candidates and electorate elects them. There are vast number of Plutocratic Wall Street lobbies that freely operate in American politics. They finance political campaigns of their favorable political candidates. Some of the notorious lobbies are - Defense industry or military industrial complex, finance industry and big banks (also called too big to fail institutions), Big Pharma, Big oil & Gas, Big Tech and Silicon Valley (which includes newly emerged Crypto industry) etc.

Today, much focus is put on fitness of candidate rather than fitness of the system. But even a fit President, in an unfit system, is compelled to take unfit decisions. For example, Biden administration expanded the Nuclear weapons program which will modernize US nuclear arsenal and add hundreds of more Nuclear weapons. The project will cost $1 Trillion over the coming decade. Much of these defense programs are to satisfy defense industry which gobbles hundreds of billions every year. The defense industry lobby has a strong control over politics and politicians have very little independence in making defense policy.

Now with departure of Biden from Presidential race and arrival of Kamala Harris, the Wall Street lobbies are already tightening their screws over Harris by demanding ouster of Lina Khan; chief of FTC regulator who is seen unfavorable by many wall street corporations. The dilemma of US economic model is on display. Biden's industrial policy has helped propel US economic growth but this has come with more wealth and power to plutocrats. These plutocrats get big subsidies, govt contracts and various incentives from US Govt but they later come back to bite the hand that feeds them. 

Elon Musk is a prime example of powerful antisocial, anti-Democracy billionaire (1, 2, 3). Owner of Tesla industry, America's largest EV automaker (industry heavily subsidized by Govt), owner of Social media giant X and Starlink internet which is also a Pentagon contractor; is working strenuously against American state & society. Similar to him are other tech brothers, the Silicon valley billionaires who have thrived due to Govt deregulation, Govt granted patent monopolies and govt subsidies. These tech brother have built cartels, monopolies and oligopolies and now they despise the Govt. These billionaires are also delusional and antisocial personalities who live in their small bubble reality (1, 2). 

While Trump's bungling of Covid-19 pandemic is well known, there were shortcomings of Biden too which really were because of Biden serving Big Pharma interests. The world needed a unified approach in Covid response strategy, which meant a collective global initiative for vaccines and drug development and making them easily accessible to all nations. However, the drugs and vaccines were developed behind patent and IP paywalls. This created vaccine billionaires as Government funded vaccine research was privatized in service of Big Pharma corporate interests. The pandemic could've ended a little sooner and more lives could've been saved if US government had taken a global approach instead of serving the drug industry and for-profit western centric vaccine procurement strategy.

Foreign lobbies also meddle heavily in US politics and own many politicians (1, 2, 3). AIPAC lobby, the foreign policy tentacle of Israel is most notorious in financing politicians of both political parties. President Biden is compelled to kowtow to foreign interests including enabling a Genocide in middle east. US middle east policy also undermines broader global diplomacy of America. Why Biden who is a 'fit' President doesn't take 'fit' decisions? Stopping a Genocide should be a critical element of mental fitness. But this demonstrates once again that 'fitness' of individual matters little in a wholly unfit system. Just last month, US government in a bipartisan initiative invited the Genocidal war criminal for Congressional ceremony even when he's under indictment in International criminal court.

Dr Bandy Lee, the editor of book 'The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump' has worked extensively on issue of Psychological phenomenon in today's politics and authored of two insightful books dedicated to Trump phenomenon (Profile of Nation and Trump contagion). But a deserving book is also needed on 'Dangerous case of American ruling class' or 'Dangerous case of Elon Musk and tech brothers' or 'Dangerous case of Murdoch and Mercer family'. As i emphasized above, these plutocrats are the real enablers and financiers of madman Trump. 

Who are the main enablers of Trump? There are variety of plutocrats and Wall Street interests. In age of Climate change, the Govt is pivoting towards renewable energy, thus undermining the interest of Big Oil industry - the giant oil & gas conglomerates who own the Capital in Oil, Gas and Coal sectors. Hence, Big oil corporations are big financiers to Trump. Trump has also promised Big Oil donors to use executive orders on day one to shred Biden's Green transition & environmental initiatives. The Tech brothers like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Zuckerberg and prominent Crypto entrepreneurs have strong affinity to Trump. These Tech brothers are inherently Libertarian anarcho-capitalists who want a world without government. The closest they can get is Trump & Republicans who promise to deregulate and privatize everything. (Though it's another paradox that empires of tech brothers have been created by big subsidies from the government. It's difficult to imagine how Tech brothers can run their empires in chaotic world without a government.)

The big media houses especially the empire of Rupert Murdoch are also financiers and promoters of Trump. These media houses, proclaiming itself to be News platforms (Fox & NewsMax aren't really a News channel) promote Donald Trump. Even so called liberal News platforms like NYT, CNN and Washington Post give a slanted coverage to benefit Donald Trump. You may have heard of this technique called 'both sideism'. There's really no independent media today which can give objective news and analysis. The big news agencies are tentacles of giant business conglomerates which present a tailor-made conventional opinion crafted for consumption by mass audience. 

The media has done the herculean task in 'normalization' of Trump. It's well known that the owners of media conglomerates will enjoy big tax cuts, deregulation and policy favors from Trump hence they either support him openly (like right wing platforms) or normalize him discreetly (like liberal press). Many experts like Dr Bandy Lee keep raising the question on why mainstream media doesn't invite them to present their specialist opinion on unfitness of Donald Trump. Media isn't interested in presenting analysis of independent experts and intellectuals on any subject. Foreign policy, economic policy, healthcare, politics, culture - media has a standing lineup of hacks and blob to dispense conventional wisdom on every subject. 

 

With global industry moving towards sophisticated automation, AI and advanced assembly lines, the less competitive labor intensive industry is shrinking. This has most impact on businesses like the meat industry, construction, food services etc. To remain competitive, labor intensive businesses are adopting 'low-wage' business model by suppressing worker wages to maintain profits. These businesses want cheap labor even if it comes from child labor. These businesses want lower minimum wage even when it's below subsistence level (1, 2). Hence powerful lobbies of sweat shop businesses that exploit workers are also financing Donald Trump. The endorsement by various Labor and Trade unions (who want high wages) to Democrats is on the flip side to sweat shop business enterprises endorsement to Trump. 

And it's not just Wall Street and American billionaires that finance Donald Trump. In today's globalized world, foreign governments and corporations also participate in financing politicians - overtly and covertly. Political campaign financing by Wall Street is basically legalized bribery and its open to all. In 2016, Russian govt covertly supported Trump's campaign through various political interference. Trump family's business connections to Saudi Arabia, Israel, China and other foreign states is no open secret. It wouldn't be a far fetched speculation that Trump is taking dirty money or political favors from foreign states. 

A lottery system of Democracy - Russian roulette with fate of society

The politics is bounded in tunnel vision by the plutocratic interests who sponsor and finance candidates only after careful vetting. Hence no philosopher, independent thinker, real expert problem solver can enter political arena. The thinkers and problem solvers with real ideas and imagination will always linger on the margins of sociopolitical disourse. 

With plutocrat billionaires and corporations sponsoring the political candidates and providing them platforms, the candidates fight elections using their populist mass appeal. The elections are a volatile unpredictable exercise. In Presidential elections, any candidate can win elections regardless of his policy substance. A candidate can have no substance in policy but can win elections purely on demagogy and charismatic mass populist appeal. A candidate can have relatively better substance in policy than his competitor but he may lose. Rest assured that whoever wins, the interests of plutocrats will be fulfilled. 

The net result of present political system is not really about competition of great ideas and philosophies, it's actually a competition among Oligarchs and plutocrats for political power through their funded henchmen politicians. The elections is a lottery system where the electorate are conditioned and manipulated into endorsing politicians. Then whoever manages to get the most votes get the power. This is kind of civilized way of polycentric ruling class and plutocrats to contend for power. 

Elections are unpredictable lotteries which are influenced by many seen and unseen factors. For example, Trump's rating spiked after first Presidential debates and his assassination attempt. But very soon his ratings dived after Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden. Even a small event can alter the Presidential outcome. Like 2004 elections were closely contested and a tape of Osama Bin Laden in last days of campaign tipped the balance in favor of Bush. Similarly, a trivial issue of Hillary Clinton emails propagated by media & Wikileaks helped tipped the balance in favor of Trump in 2016.

The reason why balance of elections can tip hard & fast from one side to another is that electorate - the voters - are volatile creatures with no rationality and intellect. Their sentiments can quickly change even on any nonsensical trivial matter. Today, Trump is lagging in ratings behind Kamala Harris but there's a possibility that some new event (possibly a scandal) in coming weeks may again alter the sentiments of people. The event can be trivial and people's sentiments only need to be shifted for a short while - a distraction to fool the masses. Odds of Trump victory always exist and can rise again in this unpredictable election lottery system. 

It's not just politics and media that is controlled by plutocratic forces, the Justice system and Govt bureaucracy is also owned by big money. The scandal of billionaires owning Justices like Clarence Thomas and SCOTUS giving judgements in service of plutocratic interests is now well acknowledged and understood. SCOTUS has also given immunity to Trump which has allowed him to continue his campaign despite nearly a hundred counts of criminal charges pending against Trump in various courts. Lower courts (like in Florida) have even dismissed some of the most serious cases against Trump. The point is that the system of checks and balances have broken down in America. The plutocrats are the king makers (or breakers) in present political system as accountability is vanishing.

Undoubtedly, Trump doesn't have any principles. He loves populist Democracy as long as he gets to win. Otherwise he attacks the Democracy as 'rigged' and elections getting stolen from him. But we must acknowledge that there are serious flaws in current Democratic system, in its political and economic structures today. Various critics of Trump continue to harp about 'saving Democracy' without acknowledging the serious crisis that has emerged in Democratic systems - the erosion of checks and balances, the plutocratic takeover, the malignant Neoliberal capitalism, the demise of free & independent Press, the intellectual decline of electorate etc. 

The conventional wisdom on Trump overlooks the many shortcomings in our Democracy that contribute to Trump phenomenon. The experts like Ruth Ben Ghiat, Timothy Snyder, Jennifer Mercieca & many others have very little to say on broader crisis of American political system that goes beyond Trump. The Democracy has to be saved, not just from MAGA phenomenon but also from structural cracks that has compromised the very system.