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Why Donald Trump Could Be the Next President of the United States
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_donald_trump_could_be_the_next_presi
dent_of_the_united_states_20160722/
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Posted on Jul 22, 2016
By Alan Minsky
Donald Trump called the GOP convention in Cleveland "a tremendous
success." (Dennis Van Tine / STAR MAX /
IPx(http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/STRMX-Dennis-Van-Tine-STAR-MAX-IP
x-A-ENT-New-Yo-/fccb8e3808e140d49e0d9fb19c0ab7a5/57/0) )
This is madness. Fully predictable madness. One archetype of the American
experience is now realized. We've always had our carnival hucksters and
itinerant preachers and snake oil thieves. P.T. Barnum put on a good show.
All sought wealth and power.
But never before has one risen so high as Donald J. Trump, with so vast an
audience of willing dupes and sleepwalking accomplices-the balance of the
liberal establishment included.
The 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland was ground zero to
witness this disaster. But before introducing you to its parade of zombies
and daemons-lest I be accused of malignant nihilism-here are three things we
can't lose sight of about Trump's winning the Republican nomination:
1. This is all happening because of rampant disgust with the members of the
American political establishment. While their clients (aka donors) grow
richer, the middle class is sinking. Simply put, the contemporary
"neoliberal" American economy does not allow for the majority of the
population to lead comfortable lives. In fact, the opposite is true: More
people are falling out of the middle class and into seemingly inescapable
debt traps. Trump acknowledges this reality more than the establishment
Republicans and promises a different economic path, albeit without providing
details. America will remain in a political crisis until this reality
changes.
2. No one should have any illusions: The election of Donald Trump would
generate a real sense of empowerment for the most reactionary white
supremacist forces in our society. Stating this fact does not amount to an
endorsement of Hillary Clinton, who has much to answer for herself as a
neoliberal at the center of power for decades; but Trump's ascendancy has
revealed how vibrant these terrifying forces remain in American society. No
decent people should have any illusions about the real danger a Trump
presidency would represent.
3. Donald Trump would be an unmitigated disaster for "Brand America." This
is not a concern of mine politically, but it is certainly important to an
American political and economic establishment that operates in, and to a
great extent oversees, a globalized world. Trump is the personification of
the "ugly American," and that's not helpful for the maintenance of the
United States' military empire, or for U.S.-based global corporations. If
for no other reason, the political establishment would be expected to rally
to Trump's opponent over these concerns. But in 2016, support from the
political establishment can be a kiss of death.
On this point, let's return to this week's vertiginous convention. We've all
been told that Mr. Trump is the candidate of the anti-establishment, and yet
if you came to Cleveland expecting to find the Quicken Loans Center overrun
with the Duck Dynasty/NASCAR set, you'd be disappointed. In contrast, the
delegates on the floor look almost like the same crowd who nominated Mitt
Romney in 2012: a preponderance of blue blazers, Laura Ashley summer dresses
and a notable lack of Army fatigues. In fact, the most conspicuous
alt-culture present was the 10-gallon-hat-wearing, pro-Ted Cruz Texas tribe.
READ: Donald Trump Ends His GOP Convention Show With Now-Familiar
Pitch(http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/republican_convention_live
_blog_donald_trump_takes_center_stage_20160721)
I asked Michael Steele, former Republican National Committee chairman, about
this anomaly. Was King Donald's coronation occurring at a court not of his
choosing? Could it be that the makeup of the delegates was a result of
Trump's lack of organization at the state level, and thus those committed to
voting for him were the standard longtime Republican Party set?
Steele explained: "Yes, partly. But most of the delegates voting for Trump
were hand-selected by the campaign. Still, it's true that the pool of Trump
delegates are diluted because of his lack of organization at the state
level. So what you have are a mix of people on the floor, all bound to vote
for Trump-some very enthusiastically, some less so."
On the one hand, the mass media representation of Trump supporters as
overwhelmingly semiliterate, white poor and working-class lynch-mob racists
is either: a) exaggerated, or b) this group has changed its attire to
include Sperry Top-Siders. While one can never overstate the mindlessness of
this well-bathed, suburban caste, it is striking to see them endorse a
candidate who so frequently expresses contempt for an establishment they so
clearly have been born into.
That they would so willingly embrace a candidate whose victory would so
badly tarnish the American brand around the world (undoubtedly a bedrock of
their own prosperity) is proof of two things about our GOP brethren: 1)
America's prosperous suburban country-club set loves a winner, and 2) as
John Nichols(https://www.thenation.com/authors/john-nichols/) , political
correspondent for The Nation, pointed out as we stared out together onto the
convention floor, "This is an authoritarian party. Its rank and file is
expected to fall into line."
Indeed, Trump's bluster and erratic (yet always authoritarian) manner
perfectly fits linguist George Lakoff's conception of the Republican brand
as hyperpatriarchal, a worldview grounded in "strict father morality." Not
only does Trump parade his well-rehearsed and terrifyingly attractive family
at every opportunity, we cannot forget that Trump's business empire is not
publicly traded. It's a top-down, family-owned fiefdom with The Donald as
king. And like any pre-fallen Macbeth or Tennessee Williams' patriarchal
phantasm, the lord of these garish manors is erratic, contradictory and
teetering toward a destructive madness-even as the ghosts of his earlier
exploits remain well hidden (though expect some to slip into view with the
publication of David Cay Johnston's excellent "The Making of Donald
Trump(https://www.amazon.com/Making-Donald-Trump-David-Johnston/dp/161219632
2) " on Aug. 2).
So as the crowds who attended Trump's rallies watch their hero call out the
betrayal of the white working class from their Velveeta-stained couches, the
suburban set populating the convention floor in Cleveland falls in lockstep
behind its newer, more patriarchal patriarch because it's the only thing
they know how to do.
Joining them in their sleepwalk are the mainstream media. Upon arrival at
the convention, nothing was more striking than the contempt in store for the
Fourth Estate. Housed in a parking lot across from the Q Center, media row
was janky and claustrophobic. The hospitality resembled that afforded to
movie extras. The floor of their parking lot home was uneven, and the
makeshift booths of particleboard and Styrofoam all strangely askew. Author
Thomas Frank(http://www.tcfrank.com/) quipped, "This is as phantasmagoric
as any German expressionist set."
While it's true that the mainstream media burps up undigested objections to
the Trump phenomenon, their utter lack of depth provides The Donald
sanctuary in their preferred infotainment narrative: Trump as The Star on
another reality show. And herein may lie one source of Trump's success. On
balance, reality shows reveal a tawdry world of desperate Americans willing
always to walk over each other, stabbing any semblance of solidarity in the
back. In this, Trump's world is much closer to the lives led by the masses
of contemporary Americans, whose middle-class aspirations are in free fall,
than is the celebrated upward mobility of Hillary's professional class.
Bernie Sanders, in contrast, not only exposed America's class imbalances, he
also presented policy proposals to rectify them. Unfortunately but
predictably (as it's too early in this era of newly engaged class struggle
for the economic powers-that-be to sign onto Sanders' radical reforms), it
was only the nonsense-spewing narcissist tycoon who was able to eviscerate
his party's establishment. After all, Trump has yet to outline his policy
proposals in any detail (including in 75 minutes of Mussolini-esque
preening(http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/republican_convention_l
ive_blog_donald_trump_takes_center_stage_20160721) on Thursday night). I'm
sure the folks at the American Legislative Exchange
Council(https://www.alec.org/) are confident Donald will rely on them when
and if the time comes. And they certainly understand that they will continue
to control Congress if Trump wins and, thus, be able to stanch any program
of economic populism Trump might entertain.
So as we move on to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, let's be
clear: The great tragedy of the moment is not rooted in the Republican
Party's self-cannibalization. It's with a Democratic Party that
"successfully" suffocated responsible answers to the crises consuming our
world. Indeed, as Hillary Clinton's selection of the milquetoast Tim Kaine
as her vice
president(http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/republican_convention_
live_blog_donald_trump_takes_center_stage_20160721) shows, the Dems have
put forward a candidate who embodies an establishment widely recognized as
having betrayed the majority of the American public.
All of which leaves us with the very real possibility of President Donald
Trump being inaugurated on Jan. 20.
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