Why Trump happens? Part 4 and conclusion

I laid out the full picture of Trump phenomenon in the previous three articles. The brief summary is as follows. There's no single factor that explains materialization of Trump phenomenon. There are variety of overlapping factors and dimensions that i discussed in previous articles. Trump is crisis of breakdown of our political and economic system, institutional failures and structural flaws of our systems. The rise of plutocracy that has taken over political system. The breakdown crisis of Neoliberal capitalism that has stalled real economic progress of society while the wealth is getting accumulated at the top of social pyramid in hands of plutocrats and corporations. This has caused economic stagnation, regression and falling standards of living, and most of all, the massive inequality and populist discontent.

The political system is driven by populist sentiments of masses rather than objective reality and rational thought. The politicians exploit these sentiments for their political careers. The most incompetent and unfit leaders rise to the top while competent thinkers and experts are excluded and marginalized out of sociopolitical discourse. The plutocrats have become leviathan like creatures who control political discourse through unlimited financing, media enterprises, social media platforms and SuperPACs. The media has done the herculean task of 'normalizing' unfit leaders like Trump. 

The political and economic system is now based on institutionalized lies and hence people have become deeply distrustful of the government and public institutions. The new breed of fanatic adventurist politicians and plutocrats capitalize on this distrust and public anger. The accountability and rule of law has vanished for the super wealthy powerful people who own the courts and justice system. These powerful plutocrats have financed Trump, gave him media and internet platforms to reach out to the masses. Trump on his own is a pathetic, incompetent and impotent man without the support of his financiers and backers. 

I also tried to dispel some of the conventional wisdom on Trump as put forward by certain authors and so called 'scholars' of Fascism. Various authors have often given a narrow pigeonhole perspective of Trump crisis by omitting various dimensions and underlying causes of Trump phenomenon. Most authors on Trump have generally avoided to discuss the broader crisis of our institutional structures, the political and economic systems that have become thoroughly corrupt, dysfunctional and obsolete. 

Now we look at response to Trump crisis and our broader need for reforms of social-political-economic systems. 

Response to Trump so far

While the current political system is structurally flawed and weak, it still has mounted some defense to counter Trumpism. Various trials and investigations are ongoing into brazen criminality of Trump & his associates. However, the courts and justice system have not been up to the serious task of containing Trump and this is possibly due to systemic corruption in Justice system and courts itself.

After the crisis of Jan 6 Capital Hill riots, Trump was thrown off from social media platforms which he long used to mobilize his base. But later the social media bosses restored his access to platforms, even promoting him (notably Elon Musk) and Trump also started his own 'Truth social' platform. So Trump resumed his big lies and propaganda channels which should have remained suspended. The media also continues to 'normalize' him and prop him up with fake polls. 

Congress has passed legislation to block loopholes in electoral system but Republican states are passing their own local legislation for voter suppression and undermining free and fair federal elections. Trump has radicalized the Republican party and mini-Trumps have been created who seek to cultivate their political fiefs by emulating Trump (politicians like Ramaswamy, DeSantis etc). 

There is positive direction in economic policy which may turn out to be the key to beat Trump. Recall that Trump thrives on populist discontent and desperation of people. But US, despite its problems, has taken positive steps in economic policy. In response to pandemic induced recession, the Biden administration bailed out Wall Street as well as main street. This is different than what Obama did in response to great recession of 2008 when he bailed out wall street and left main street in the lurch.

Biden administration with variety of programs like American rescue plan, Child Tax credit, loan amnesty etc injected large fiscal stimulus into the main street. If Biden had not done it, US economy would have crashed leading to another 'lost decade' of long term unemployed. This would've been fertile breeding ground for Trump. Here Democrats learned from past mistake. US economy is currently healthy with low unemployment and households have come out of pandemic with minimal grievance with Biden. 

Despite all the efforts of media to 'normalize' Trump, it's an undisputed fact that American people are better off than four years ago. Trump wishes everyday that economy and markets somehow crash, or some new foreign war starts that throws America into a crisis. That's the nature of Trump, he can succeed in crisis when people are most vulnerable to his populist demagogy. 

Democratic party campaign also showed pragmatism and flexibility by changing presidential candidate ticket at crucial stage of campaign. Biden did a decent job in his tenure but found himself trailing Trump in 2024 campaign partially because of media's campaign against Biden's 'unfitness'. Dem party adapted to the need of the time and presented an alternative, with Biden stepping down, VP Harris taking Presidential ticket and selecting a new VP ticket, Tim Walz. It's yet to be seen what kind of policies will Harris pursue but beating Trump right now is the great priority. 

Whether Trump will lose or manage to win? Will there be another Trump after Trump? We don't know the answer. But what is the long term picture of reform? This brings us to final section.

Long term perspective

Various experts have given ideas, remedies and solutions to restore American democracy. However, unless and until the full picture of Trump phenomenon is comprehended, there won't be any broad based solutions. Much of the proposed solutions are thus superficial that barely address the underlying structural crisis of the system. The political and economic system have to be reformed for needs of the 21st century. 

A critical thing US needs is restoring political independence. That means building impermeable concrete walls between Wall Street and political institutions. The ideas of campaign finance reforms have been around since long but never reached anywhere. And after SCOTUS allowed corporations to throw unlimited money into SuperPACs, the political system has become a playground of dirty & dark money. 

The ideas for reforming American Justice system and SCOTUS are also in the air like ending the lifetime appointments, enforceable code of ethics, expanding Supreme court etc but so far there's not much political will & political capital to implement these reforms. There's a two track justice system in America - One for wealthy & powerful and one for ordinary citizens. Trump is a career criminal, a fraudster, a swindler, a sexual predator all his life but he has always evaded accountability, even after inciting an insurrection. US needs a system of 'rule of law' and accountability for every citizen (including the judges), for powerful and ordinary people alike. 

Then there's a need to reform economic system which has to start with slaying the leviathans. US dismantled the standard oil cartel in last century. Today similar thing needs to be done to many Silicon valley companies, big financial institutions and other wall street monopolies. For the most fanatical leviathans like Elon Musk who have brazenly undermined Democracy, they need to be sent to prisons and their corporate empire liquidated and/or nationalized. Recently, Brazil has started acting to curb the subversive activities of Elon Musk. A similar approach is needed to be taken by all western countries and especially America to curb fake news and subversive internet activities that are sponsored by tech brothers. 

A progressive tax system, economic rights, higher wages, national healthcare and free public education need to be implemented. Developed nations have the resources to implement such things but they have been too hamstrung by Neoliberal ideology. Education is a great liberator. An educated intelligent society is a strong defense against reactionary politics. Fascism at its basic level is anti-intellectualism which seeks to destroy healthy thought process of society. Recall how Trump likes the 'low information voters', that is because they are easier to dupe. Needy people, people without employment and basic amenities cannot be free. That was the reason FDR proposed the bill of economic rights but didn't live long enough to implement it. Economic rights are not something that profit based 'free markets' can provide and thus are in realm of government policies. Later day politicians only tout these ideas in weaker forms like subsidized private insurance healthcare, college loan forgiveness, debt free education etc.

Then there is deeper level of reforms which embodies overhauling political and economic structures of society.  In terms of our economic system, there are two ways of looking at it. One way is that we can adopt principle of economic rights in which government will ensure free education, universal healthcare, a strong social safety net to the people. A certain minimal standard of living of society will be ensured by the government. The rest of the economy, the production and capital, the opportunities for social mobility etc will be left to the working of regulated free markets. With economic rights and free markets (regulated by government), the people will have adequate opportunities to unlock their potential.

A second approach to overhauling economic system is rethinking the control of Capital - the realm of industry and employment. The government itself can participate in economy, the government will own certain strategic enterprises, the people will be provided economic rights and social safety net. The private corporations will exist side by side with government enterprises and operate in regulated free market system. This is model that comes close to current Chinese system (if we exclude its authoritarian DNA) and certain Scandinavian countries. 

A critical element of any economic reform has to be in the distribution side of national income. An egalitarian distribution, a progressive tax system that constricts mass accumulation of wealth at the top of social pyramid, will be the central feature of economic reform. Higher tax rates on top earners, inheritance tax on super wealthy, financial transaction tax, shutting down tax havens and outlawing the worst speculative activity (like Crypto, derivatives etc) will be some of the features of such reform. The structure of private corporation can also be re-imagined like democratization of employees and managers, and conciliation between labor and capital. A corporation where the profits are more equitably shared between bosses, managers and workers instead of being gobbled up at the top. Once we open our mind to reorganizing society, we will realize that there are countless ways we can arrange our social-political-economic system to best serve our needs. The unchallenged supremacy of current Neoliberal world order is just a myth.

The political system also needs overhauling. Here, the temple guardians of conventional wisdom continue to harp the usual 'save the democracy' slogan without recognizing the need for deep structural reforms. In today's Democratic system, the politicians are incompetent and mediocre, and agents and lobbyists of plutocracy. The people vote on populist sentiments, free from all objective thought. The system is based on institutionalized lies and coverups. The biggest problem is that competent people, real problem solvers, the experts, the philosophers don't have any share in political power and are unable to even enter into the present dysfunctional system.

Today's world problems requires technocrats, the scientists, the engineers, the field experts. But these kind of people don't have any populist appeal, neither they can compete on basis of imbecilic demagogy of current politics. Today we need a separate parliamentary house specifically of the field expert and competent technocrats. They should be elected, not by average joe, but by competent electorate like scientists, engineers, philosophers themselves of designated national institutions and intellectual communities. This kind of political system needs to be formulated which will either supersede the present dysfunctional Democratic system of current political cretins or it can work independently and parallel to the existing system. 

The long term goal remain democracy in its true essence but when electorate will be informed, intelligent and capable to exercise its political power. There is another myth that current Democratic model is the best political setup. This myth is similar to supremacy of current capitalism (which is Neoliberalism and Technofeudalism) as being the best economic set up. However, once we open our minds, we will realize that there are countless ways we can reorganize our society and political systems to better suit our needs.