What Happens When the Trump House of Cards Folds?

The failure of the Trump administration to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Healthcare Act, which they dubbed “Obamacare”, has underlined the obvious: this administration cannot possibly deliver on the excessive promises of the Trump campaign. When Trump was campaigning, he never had any real plan to deliver on his promises since he had not expected to win. The primary reason for his win was the incompetence of the Democratic party. The Democratic party having failed to deliver on its promises to its’ demographic, further demonstrated that it had sold out to special interests by sandbagging the candidacy of Bernie Sanders to enable Hillary Clinton’s nomination as their candidate for the presidency. That act of betrayal doomed the Democratic party and handed the Presidency to Donald Trump.

Make America Great Again?

Going forward, the USA now has a President with no clue on how to deliver on his campaign mantra of “Make America Great Again”. While that may be a lovely slogan, the “solutions” proposed are primarily based on scapegoating those who had nothing to do with the economic tailspin of the American middle class. What is happening now is the cutting of any programs that would benefit the same demographic that supported Trump in the first place and the propping up of those who have contributed to the demise of American labor and the middle class.

The Status Quo

Much of what is happening on the US political scene is simply a furthering of the agenda of the radical right, which is to enrich the top 1% (their donors) at the expense of the bottom 99%, in spite of the blustering rhetoric of Donald Trump. It is hard to overstate the level of incompetence and complete lack of comprehension in this President. He knows as much about the economy and foreign policy as a barstool dwelling drunk at the local bar, who is so full of alcohol and hubris that he believes he is the only one that can lead the world.

It may take a while, but sooner or later those who voted for Trump will realize that the jobs are not coming back, the rich will continue to get richer and the poor will continue to get poorer and the status quo goes on. What is necessary to solve the problems of America is not in the wheelhouse of the Republican party and Donald Trump since they live in a world where they succeed at the expense of those they purport to represent: those who work for a living. The ruling elites, including Trump, represent the ugly face of predatory capitalism, which savages social programs to fill their own pockets by avoiding tax and putting a huge proportion of tax dollars into the bank accounts of military contractors.

Who Pays for all of this?

Most governments, including the American government are primarily supported by tax revenues received through the taxation of labor (payroll deduction). Corporate taxation is a relatively small net contributor to the tax base. However, those who demand the most tax breaks are those that already contribute the least, on a percentage basis, to the overall tax revenue. This has happened through the increasing corporatist control of governments which operate for the benefit of special interests, at the expense of the majority of taxpayers.

It may take some time, but sooner or later the realisation must sink in that:

• The jobs are gone for good, you can’t compete with labor pools that are paid a fraction of what American labor would demand.
• The wall on the Mexican border will do nothing to make anyone safer, but will negatively impact American agriculture since it is hugely dependent on migrant labor.
• Nations such as China, Mexico etc. are not the bad actors. Much of the benefit of the exportation of labor and profits goes to American corporations who control what can happen in Congress. They will not support measures (eg. trade barriers) that erode their profits.
• Military spending will continue to suck massive amounts of tax dollars from social and infrastructure spending.
• Healthcare will continue to be privatised to ensure the profitability of corporations invested in “healthcare”.
• American will not be great again

The only way a horrific program, as outlined above, can continue to be sold to the American people is to continue the lies provided by a showman with no clue on how to fix anything and is only concerned with his own image and his own bottom line.

Once the “show” is no longer working, what will happen? Will we see an new American Revolution? The uncomfortable feeling around all of this, is that it will not end well.

Socialism?

Another peculiar thing about all of this, is that most of the American public would agree with the socialist agenda of Bernie Sanders, whether they self-identify as liberal or conservative. This underlines the point that the ideological differences between the right and the left are largely illusory, since there is only the appearance of difference without the substance of difference. The differences between the Republican and Democratic parties are largely illusory as well, since they both agree that big money should call the shots and their appeals to each of their demographics are largely postering, since they must always assuage their donors. The old mantra of “Divide and Conquer” applies to this situation very nicely. As long as the public believes there are real differences and real choices, when in fact there are none, they will continue to be hoodwinked. As some political pundits have observed: “There is no way to vote against Goldman-Sachs”. You get what you get no matter who wins the election.

So what happens when the house of cards inevitably collapses? Will it be chaos or unity? If the American public continues to believe in artificial differences there will be chaos and conflict. If they can manage to see clearly on how unified they really are, there is hope. I can only wish for the best.