Thursday, January 12, 2017

The 3rd Way Is The Wrong Way! A Big Reason Why A Reality TV Buffoon Will Be The Next potus

The rise of Trumpism makes perfect sense. Both parties have sacrificed the working class at the altar of globalism ~ Thom Hartmann (dob 5/7/1951) tagline from his 3/23/2016 article They abandoned the 90 percent: How the Reagan Revolution and Third Way politics led America to ruin.

The following excerpt is from the 1998 book Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America by American philosopher Richard Rorty.

Members of labor unions and unorganized skilled workers will sooner or later realize that their government is not even trying to prevent wages from sinking or to prevent jobs from being exported. Around the same time those workers will realize that suburban white collar workers themselves, desperately afraid of being downsized, are not going to let themselves be taxed to provide social benefits for anyone else.

At that point something will crack. The non-suburban electorate will decide that they system has failed, and start looking around for a strongman to vote for. Someone willing to assure them that, once he's elected, the smug bureaucrats, the tricky lawyers, the overpaid bond salesmen and the postmodernist professors will no longer be calling the shots.

One thing that is very likely to happen is the gains made in the past 40 years by Black and Brown Americans and by homosexuals will be wiped out. Jocular contempt for women will come back into fashion. All the resentment which badly educated Americans feel about having their manners dictated to them by college graduates will find an outlet. (As read by progressive Talker Thom Hartmann on the 1/10/2016 airing of his program).

As per Wikipedia "several writers have cited a passage of the book, in which Rorty predicts the rise of an authoritarian strongman who gains popularity among blue-collar workers, as prophetic of Donald Trump's rise to political power".

Yeah, I think so. Even though I still believe (KNOW, I'd say) that Trump was aided greatly by the Republican election fraud scheme known as Interstate Crosscheck (see DSD #54 & SWTD #358).

I do acknowledge, however, that Hillary Clinton was a bad candidate. Also (and I think this is an important point) Barack Obama (IMO) shares a lot of the blame. Because of his support for the TPP. The blue collar workers who voted for Trump did so because "their government is not even trying to prevent wages from sinking or to prevent jobs from being exported".

If Bernie Sanders had been the candidate? I think the Democrats could have won. Because he has always been against these kinds of job-killing free trade deals. Unlike Bill Clinton and Barack Obama (WJC signing NAFTA and BHO's support for the TPP). And don't forget that HRC initially (at least) supported the TPP (calling it the "Gold Standard") and ran as a 3rd term for Obama.

So, while she said she wouldn't sign it as president, people didn't believe her. Ironically, they believed she was just saying what she needed to in order to get elected. I say ironically because (as most/all voters who opposed Trump know), the thin-skinned reality TV buffoon lied his ass off during the campaign.

For the record, I view presidential campaigns as aspirational. In that the candidate states what he'd LIKE to do, not what he (or she) thinks they can do. Realistically they know they will only be able to accomplish a portion of what they're running on. Bernie Sanders what criticized for his proposals supposedly being unrealistic. He'd never be able to get his proposals through Congress, his detractors said. Perhaps, but I believe he would have tried. Trump, on the other hand? I believe was outright lying.

His VP choice (Pence, who is pro-TPP) and the Republican Congress (also in favor of the TPP) told me that Trump was not serious about bringing jobs back. He simply told Blue collar workers what they wanted to hear. Just like he told his dupes that he wouldn't cut Social Security or Medicare, yet cutting these programs are on Speaker Ryan's agenda to be brought up quickly. Bernie Sanders challenged Trump to issue a veto-threat so Congress doesn't waste a lot of time on debating and passing legislation that might not go anywhere (if Trump vetoes). So far no response from Trump.

Anyway, what's clear to me is that the Democrats need to return to their FDR roots. The Democratic Party went astray with the election of 3rd way Democrat Bill Clinton. That is when, according to William Greider of The Nation, the Democratic Party lost it's soul and "abandoned its working-class base".

The shift away from the people was embraced most dramatically when Bill Clinton's New Democrats came to power in the 1990s. Clinton double-crossed labor with NAFTA and subsequent trade agreements, which encouraged the great migration of manufacturing jobs to low-wage economies. Clinton's bank deregulation shifted the economic rewards to finance and set the stage for the calamity that struck in 2008. Wall Street won; working people lost. Clinton presided over the financialization of the Democratic Party. Obama merely inherited his playbook and has governed accordingly, often with the same policy-makers. (How the Democratic Party Lost Its Soul. Dec 1-8, 2014).

The Democratic Party needs to get a hell of a lot more Progressive. It's looking like they realize this (fortunately), but it took a horrific defeat (by a thin-skinned liar who has no idea what he's doing as far as the potus job goes) and a (very likely) disastrous Trump administration for them to get the message.

I am dreading the next four years, during which I anticipate rights to be rolled back for African Americans and gay people, our social safety net to be greatly weakened, the wealthy to get even wealthier, the middle class to shrink, the ranks of the working poor to swell, and a recession (possible depression). As well as more war (Trump knows how to defeat ISIS... yeah, right). Possibly a world war.

Video: SNL video making light of the fact that HRC began adopting more and more of the positions of Bernie Sanders as the campaign progressed. Because the voters wanted a more progressive candidate (1:55).

SWTD #367

13 comments:

  1. Are you an isolationist when it comes to trade and global competition Dervish?

    Just want to be clear on that.

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  2. NAFTA has been a wonderful help to cooperation in our continent. Ford Canada has been around since WWII. Toyota and Volkswagen have been building cars in the U.S. for decades. My truck was built at the Kentucky Truck Plant. I don't have a big problem with Fords being built in Mexico. I don't mind electric guitars and electronics being built there either. Trade with China brings up our standard of living by providing affordable appliances.

    When we lift up our friendly neighbor to the south, it brings us all blessings. Do you still believe in the insane rantings of Ross Perot?

    If you want a nice manufacturing job and want to live in the U.S., there are still many options. The trick is being able to find affordable housing. Nothing will ever change that.

    Kyocera - San Diego California.
    Taylor Guitars - San Diego, California.
    New Balance - Boston, Massachusetts.
    Encad - San Diego California.
    FoMoCo
    Hewlett-Packard - Indianapolis, Indiana. Houston Texas.
    General Motors

    I agree that we are moving towards a service economy. Trump isn't going to help much to change that. There are always the professions. No one can change that, except for call centers.

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  3. Ross Perot was right! That is why he got so many votes - more than any 3rd party candidate before or since. It is also why every candidate running this time (except for Gary Johnson) opposed the TPP. Free trade kills jobs and lowers the standard of living for us all.

    Foreign car companies building cars in the US has forced down the wages of American auto workers. Plus all the profit goes to a foreign country - instead of being spent and invested here in America.

    The situation CAN be changed! We just need to start rejecting these job-killing, oligarch-enriching trade deals and put America first. DJT had that right, and it was a big part of why he won. Although he added ugly nationalism and xenophobia to the mix (which got him the vote of the White racists). And he's going to cut taxes massively on the wealthy and eviscerate the social safety net.

    But (desperate but gullible) White blue collar workers voted for Trump because of his stated positions on jobs and trade. The same positions as Bernie Sanders (which is why I think Bernie could have won).

    I believe in fair and balanced trade, btw. I am not an "isolationist".

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  4. Robotics & AI = less and less need for human effort and thus less and less will be available. This will have a huge impact on society and will force us to reevaluate how we define value in our lives relative to work.

    What we are seeing happening as the result of advancing technology and science (computer) is way beyond anything Karl Marx could have envisiond. But, it does show us that Marx was right in many ways.

    Think beyond what we know and accept today because the world will be vastly different in the future. Even 25 years from today. Which is why social conservatism, and Ross Perot will will be left on the ash heap of history.

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    1. I think you've got it right, RN. Lower labor costs in other countries is only part (and not necessarily the biggest part) of the reason we are losing jobs. Manufacturing is changing worldwide, and the manual labor part of it is declining. The factories may come back, but a lot of the jobs will not. The assembly line will continue to be automated, and manufacturing jobs will continue to be lost. The job market is changing and the job seeker will have to change with it.

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    2. So, foot down on the accelerator in the race to the bottom? That's the answer if what you desire is a Trump 2nd term. America will become more and more of an oligarchy... best just to accept it.

      BTW, the WEALTH that Adam Smith refers to in the Wealth of Nations is manufacturing. That we can move to a "service economy" and maintain the size and vibrancy of the middle class is a myth.

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    3. You cannot stop automation, robotics, or AI.

      Jerry is right. New skills, how we structure what manufacturing (robotic AI) is left, and changing our paradigms as I mentioned above will be necceaary Dervish. Trump really will have next to zero impact on the result of technology advancements.

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    4. The changing labor market does not have to mean it will be a "race to the bottom", or a total "service economy". The labor market is changing. That's fact. Well paying, middle class jobs will be there, just not nearly as many in manufacturing, or assembly-type work. Those jobs will be done by machines. Other jobs will develop, jobs that need well trained, educated, and innovative people. If we don't supply them, other countries will, and your scenario of low paying, service-type jobs will become the norm in the US. We will only have ourselves to blame, not other countries who recognized the changes and did something about them.

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    5. We've been allowing/encouraging the outsourcing of jobs for decades. AI robots taking over manufacturing completely hasn't happened yet. That we shouldn't be encouraging companies to keep these jobs here in anticipation of losses to automation in the future is lame.

      The Trump administration and the Republican majority will be cutting taxes massively for the wealthy and corporations. How about (re corporate tax cuts), instead of simply cutting their taxes we incentivize them to train Americans? The more American jobs they create (especially those requiring well trained and educated people) the lower their taxes are?

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  5. It is true the entire world will be effected by technogical advancement driven by computer science, robotics, and AI. The smartest and quickest economies to effectively respond to this reality will be the economic (and social) powerhouses of the future.

    I wonder if Trump us smart enough to understand this.

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  6. Dervish, the cost to kick start and rebuild the manufacturing infrastructures we've already lost to more competitive and cost effective offshore operations is YUUUUGE. That horse left the barn quite some time ago.

    Flying Junior's points are all valid and what you propose WILL drive up costs. The hardest hit will be the people who can least absorb the higher prices.

    Having said that, the business AND government powers that be should be looking at how we as a nation can mitigate and improve upon the situation in a way that benefits the middle class rather than the top 2%.

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    1. So, what you're saying is that the trade war is over and we've lost. I don't buy it. Giving up certainly isn't the answer. Democrats need to put a lot of energy into coming up with ideas here, I think. So when Trump fails to deliver on his campaign promises the Democrats have concrete ideas and plans to offer to win back the votes from those duped by Trump.

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    2. That is not what I'm saying. Jerry can speak for himself as can Flying Junior.

      We put ourselves where we are currently at but a trade war is not the answer. Negotiating and renegotiating trade deals that result in a win win is what is needed.

      Yep democrats, be smart and prepare.

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