2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumEconomist Michael Hudson on Neocon Neoliberalism Vs Trump's Righteous Populism
HUDSON: Well, Krugman has joined the ranks of the neocons, as well as the neoliberals, and they're terrified that they're losing control of the Republican Party. For the last half-century the Republican Party has been pro-Cold War, corporatist. And Trump has actually, is reversing that. Reversing the whole traditional platform. And that really worries the neocons....
... So in terms of national security, he wanted to roll back NATO spending. And he made it clear, roll back military spending. We can spend it on infrastructure, we can spend it on employing American labor... In economic policy, Trump also opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the TTIP trade and corporate power grab [inaud.] with Europe to block public regulation... And when he wrote this, quote, Trump is decimating the things Republicans stood for: NATO, entitlement reform, in other words winding back Social Security, and support of the corporatist Trans-Pacific Partnership. So it's almost hilarious to see what happens. And Trump also has reversed the traditional Republican fiscal responsibility austerity policy, that not a word about balanced budgets anymore. And he said he was going to run at policy to employ American labor and put it back to work on infrastructure. Again, he's made a left runaround Hillary. He says he wants to reinstate Glass-Steagall, whereas the Clintons were the people that got rid of it.
And this may be for show, simply to brand Hillary as Wall Street's candidate. But it also seems to actually be an attack on Wall Street. And Trump's genius was to turn around all the attacks on him as being a shady businessman. He said, look, nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it...
... So this is really the class war. And it's the class war of Wall Street and the corporate sector of the Democratic side against Trump on the populist side...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-24/michael-hudson-exposes-2016s-real-class-war-krugmans-neocon-neoliberalism-vs-trumps-
I'm posting this in the interest of reflection and discussion at DU on how best to counter this Trumpian strategy.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)looking for support from the gullible.
But will just rationally explaining this be enough to dissuade those gulled not to vote for him?
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)get out the vote in mass and quash this hatred and ignorance. But, I support any line of attack on Trump and his supporters.
pampango
(24,692 posts)Trump is a right wing demagogue. That does not make him a "populist" unless one thinks that Pat Buchanan, George Wallace, etc. were genuine 'populists'.
If our victory in November is to mean anything, we should not try to out-demagogue the demagogue but explain how FDR solved the problem of inequality which is very similar to how modern progressive countries have produced equitable societies.
Historically and currently that is not by a xenophobic scapegoating of foreigners (no matter how politically popular that is) but by empowering your own people and putting government to work for the 99% rather than the 1%.
Attorney in Texas
(3,373 posts)Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)and not underestimate the threat.