Truthdig
Donald Trump's Demolition Derby
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/donald_trumps_demolition_derby_20170128/
AddThis Sharing Buttons
Share to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to More
Posted on Jan 28, 2017
By Bill Moyers / Moyers & Company
(http://billmoyers.com/story/donald-trumps-demolition-derby/)
The aftermath of a 2008 demolition derby in Fairview, Utah. (Eric Ward /
flickr CC 2.0)
We're a week into the Trump administration and it's pretty obvious what he's
up to. First, Donald Trump is running a demolition derby: He wants to
demolish everything he doesn't like, and he doesn't like a lot, especially
when it comes to government.
Like one of those demolition drivers on a speedway, he keeps ramming his
vehicle against all the others, especially government policies and programs
and agencies that protect people who don't have his wealth, power or
privilege. Affordable health care for working people? Smash it. Consumer
protection against predatory banks and lenders? Run over it. Rules and
regulations that rein in rapacious actors in the market? Knock 'em down.
Fair pay for working people? Crush it. And on and on.
Trump came to Washington to tear the government down for parts, and as far
as we can tell, he doesn't seem to have anything at all in mind to replace
it except turning back the clock to when business took what it wanted and
left behind desperate workers, dirty water and polluted air.
In this demolition derby, Trump seems to have the wholehearted support of
the Republican Party, which loathes government as much as it worships the
market as god. Remember Thomas Frank's book, The Wrecking Crew
(http://us.macmillan.com/thewreckingcrew/thomasfrank/9780805090901/) ?
Published in 2008, it remains one of the best political books of the past
quarter-century. Frank took the measure of an unholy alliance: the
century-old business crusade against government, the conservative ideology
that looks on government as evil (except when it's enriching its allies),
and the Republican Party of George W. Bush and Karl Rove - the one that had
just produced eight years of crony capitalism and private plunder.
The Wrecking Crew - and what an apt title it was - showed how federal
agencies were doomed to failure by the incompetence and hostility of the
Bush gang appointed to run them, the same model Trump is using now. Frank
tracked how wholesale deregulation - on a scale Trump already is trying to
reproduce - led to devastating results for everyday people, including the
mortgage meltdown and the financial crash. Reading the book is like reading
today's news, as kleptomaniacs spread across Washington to funnel billions
of dollars into the pockets of lobbyists and corporations.
That may include the pockets of Donald Trump's own family. As Jonathan Chait
wrote after the election
(http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/trumps-kleptocracy-already-fee
ls-like-old-news.html) in New York magazine, "[Trump's] children have taken
roles on the transition team. Ivanka attended official discussions with
heads of state of Japan
(http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/ivanka-preps-to-run-trumps-bus
iness-by-meeting-japans-pm.html) and Argentina
(http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/ivanka-joined-trumps-phone-cal
l-with-argentinas-president.html) . [As president-elect, Trump himself] met
with Indian business partners
(http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/trump-met-with-his-indian-busi
ness-partners-last-week.html) to discuss business and lobbied a British
politician
(http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/trump-on-business-conflicts-vo
ters-knew-who-i-was.html) to oppose offshore wind farms because one will
block the view at one of his Scottish golf courses." Only a couple of days
ago it was reported that the Trump organization would more than triple
(https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-25/trump-hotels-to-triple-l
ocations-in-u-s-expansion-ceo-says) the number of Trump hotels in America.
And why not? Its chief marketer works out of the Oval Office.
Jonathan Chait went on to say: "Trump's brazen use of his office for
personal enrichment signals something even more worrisome than four or more
years of kleptocratic government
(http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/theres-only-one-legal-barrier-
to-trumps-kleptocracy.html) . It reveals how willing the new administration
is to obliterate governing norms and how little stands in his way."
And oh yes, something else: David Sirota at International Business Times has
just published a new report
(http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/trump-white-house-appears-kill-oba
mas-ethics-rule-appointees-may-not-be-signing) showing that the Trump
administration appears to be quietly killing the federal government's major
ethics rule designed to prevent White House officials from enriching their
former clients. Experts say a review of government documents shows that
regulators appear to have abruptly stopped enforcing the rule, even though
it remains the law of the land.
We were warned. Donald Trump himself told The New York Times
(https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/us/politics/your-guide-to-most-important
-quotes-times-trump-interview.html) , "The law is totally on my side,
meaning, the president can't have a conflict of interest." Shades of Richard
Nixon, who said
(https://thinkprogress.org/when-the-president-does-it-that-means-that-it-is-
not-illegal-f04424f60c93#.asn7zy6j8) , "When the President does it, that
means that it is not illegal." And who also announced, "I am not a crook
(https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/nov-17-1973-nixon-declares-i-
am-not-a-crook/) ."
Which leads us to the second design now apparent in Trump's strategy of
deliberate chaos. He may have run a populist campaign, but now it appears he
aims to substitute plutocracy for democracy.
I know plutocracy is not a commonly used word in America. But it's a word
that increasingly fits what's happening here. Plutocracy means government by
the wealthy, a ruling class of the rich and their retainers. If you don't
see plutocracy spreading across America, you haven't been paying attention.
Both parties have nurtured, tolerated and bowed to it. Now we're reaching
the pinnacle, as Trump's own Cabinet is rich (no pun intended) in
millionaires and billionaires. He is stacking the agencies and boards of
government with the wealthy and friends of wealth so that the whole of the
federal enterprise can be directed to rewarding those with deep pockets, the
ones who provide the bags and bags of money that are dumped into our
political process today.
Yes, both Democrats and Republicans have been guilty of groveling to the
wealthy who fund them; it's a staggering bipartisan scandal that threatens
the country and was no small part of Trump's success last November, even as
ordinary people opened their windows and shouted, "We're as mad as hell and
we're not going to take it anymore." So now we have in power a man who
represents the very worst of the plutocrats - one who knows the price of
everything but the value of nothing. I shudder to think where this nightmare
will end. Even if you voted for Donald Trump for a reason that truly is from
your heart, I cannot believe you voted for this.
Tell me if I'm wrong. Tell me whose side are you really on? The people of
America or the cynics and predators at the very top who would climb atop the
ruins of the republic for a better view of the sunset?
Bill Moyers is the managing editor of Moyers & Company and BillMoyers.com.
At the 'March for Life,' a Deeper Look Into the Anti-Abortion Movement
Federal Judge Blocks Part of Trump's Immigration Ban
Donald Trump's Demolition Derby
Truthdigger of the Week: Charlie Liteky, Decorated U.S. Army Chaplain
Turned Peace Activist
Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines
C 2017 Truthdig, LLC. All rights reserved.
Signup for Truthdig's newsletter
