Posted on 08/19/2015 6:54:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
A new chapter in American politics has begun.
Millions of Americans on the right and left have lost faith in their political parties, their government and even the economic system. Only 1 in 4 Americans are satisfied with the way things are going.
Policy experts will offer various arguments why at least some of these people are wrong to feel this way, but the discontented will not tolerate arguments that amount to "don't believe your lying eyes – or wallets." In politics, feelings are more important than hard numbers.
Consider immigration. I still believe that immigration is a net benefit for America, but those benefits aren't felt uniformly throughout society. Obviously, immigration is a huge boon to the immigrants themselves, something nobody disputes. Employers, whether in the tech sector or in agriculture, also reap disproportionate rewards. But for the typical consumer, the positive effects (cheaper food, construction, software, etc.) are hard to tie to the causes (the importation of cheaper labor).
Meanwhile, the negative effects seem all too apparent, at least for many Americans. This is true not just for people who believe, accurately or not, that their wages are lower and jobs are more scarce because of immigration (legal and illegal), but also for people who dislike the cultural disruptions that come with millions of non-English-speaking migrants pouring into the country.
Similarly, free trade has been an enormous boon to American consumers, but it doesn't feel like it, particularly to the workers who lost good jobs they'll never replace.
Add in the very understandable impression that the government is lying about – and incompetent at – taking these problems seriously, and you have the perfect preconditions for a populist backlash. And that's exactly what we are seeing.
On the left, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is unapologetic about his socialist views. He offers a searing indictment of modern capitalism and vows to "transform" the country.
On the right, Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner, is equally unapologetic about, well, everything, but in particular his nationalism. He lacks the vernacular of your standard nationalist, but the message comes through. He boasts that he is "the most militaristic person" in the world. His favorite national security idea is to build a wall – and to punitively make Mexico pay for it. His second favorite idea is to use the U.S. military to take Middle Eastern oil at gunpoint (30 years ago, he wanted to seize Iranian oil; now it's Iraq's oil where it's under the control of Islamic State).
In his just-released immigration plan, which is not the joke many of its critics claim, one of his core principles reads: "A nation that does not serve its own citizens is not a nation. Any immigration plan must improve jobs, wages and security for all Americans."
The first part is nonsense. A great many nations do not serve their own citizens; no one would seriously argue that North Korea or Panama aren't nations. But the second part taps into a very real perception about the moment we are in. Millions of people are convinced that the system is rigged against them. We constantly hear that income inequality is our greatest problem, and yet the Democrats insist there is essentially no downside to ever more poor people coming here legally or illegally. Republicans concede that illegal immigration is a problem, but they have proven feckless at fixing it.
What is fascinating is that though Sanders and Trump couldn't be more different culturally, their programs overlap a great deal. "What right-wing people in this country would love is an open-border policy," Sanders said recently. "Bring in all kinds of people, work for $2 or $3 an hour, that would be great for them. I don't believe in that." Trump's immigration paper states that "real immigration reform puts the needs of working people first – not wealthy globe-trotting donors."
Trump has said that there's little daylight between them on the issue of trade, while Sanders has praised Trump's favorable statements on single-payer health care.
The establishments of both parties have proved pitifully inept in fending off their respective nationalist and socialist insurgencies. I suspect they'll eventually succeed. But I also suspect this is not the end of the challenge, merely the beginning.
Jonah shows his true elitist red-tinged colors.
Insurgencies? Sanders' and Trump's views largely mirror wide swaths of the bases of their respective parties. And what is very interesting is that both Sanders and Trump focus on the damage massive immigration, both legal and illegal, has inflicted on the economic well-being of the lower and middle classes in this country.
This is not insurgency, it is an attempt of reclaiming the political process from those who sold us down the river long ago and continue to profit handsomely from it. Which is why the establishment in both parties are fighting against it so hard.
I don’t think North Korea is a nation. It is a scary hellhole that was divided artificially. So Trump is right. And since when has the word “patriotism” been supplanted by the problematic word “nationalism”? I notice this more and more.
Excellent point
I think the present sometimes inhabitant of the White House has already done much to transform the country.
Jonah is the son of Lucianne Goldberg....gossip was her thing in life...and she was classy at it and good....however Jonah doesn’t have the class that his mother has, he’s just plain stupid....so there-in are his articles...
I know that he is the son of Lucianne Goldberg, who btw used to be a Freeper, but he writes opinions and has a right to his opinions, just as you and I have a right to ours
Orwell hits it out of the park again! Patriotism is soft, nationalism is hard and controlling.
Holy Crap Batman! Jonah has gone over the deep end.
Have you read his book Liberal Fascism?
Jesus Christ: You can’t impeach Him and He ain’t gonna resign.
Hitler did the same thing: the Jews were responsible for all of Germany's problems, and he was the only one who was going to deal with the "Jewish problem." Stalin blamed the kulaks, that is, tradesman peasants who constituted the middle class, and he was the only one who could deal with them.
Neither Trump nor Sanders has that potential because, for one thing, neither of them has a political party behind them, but they're certainly distracting in a big way, thanks to the media and push polling, from candidates on the right who are offering real solutions to real problems, and also are distracting from Hillary's very serious situation and the fact that, other than nutty Bernie, the Dem party has no candidates.
That is the question of the day!
What is inside? Is there a there, there?
Keeping in mind what David Horowitz once said about the establishments of both the Wall Street wing of the GOP and the left wing of the Democratic Party:
"It all comes together at the top."
By adopting the tactic of the left in using the term ‘immigration’ as if there is no difference between legal and illegal entry into the US, Goldberg lost what little credibility he had with me.
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