Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - TRUMP PHENOMENON - BLAME OBAMA & THE DEMOCRATS

From a "longue duree" perspective, Thomas Piketty wrote an article in the UK Guardian, I think, trying to explain the emergence of Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Socialist in the current presidential primaries. Here is a link to the article here for those that have not read it: 

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2016/feb/16/thomas-piketty-bernie-sanders-us-election-2016

In brief, using tax records he shows that U.S. was at one point more egalitarian than Europe, but not so now. Things have changed. No matter the problems of Europe, it is now more egalitarian.

Why is the Donald Trump phenomenon happening now? The arguments by Piketty I believe are in many ways applicable to the emergence of Donald Trump. For me, what I am seeing is an excellent sociological experiment. It shows that when elites ignore the masses, it cannot continue indefinitely. A day of reckoning is coming. 

While on my way to Guatemala City, I spent much time reading the Wall Street Journal and it is amazing how many Republicans feel this kind of rebellion by the grassroots members of their party did not take place for a century. Some are afraid this serious problem in the Republican Party is like a political suicide that will either change or destroy the party. For that reason, I am happy with the success of Donald Trump even though I would not want him as president. If the Republican party is willing to talk openly about issues of inequality and injustice, it will force the Democrats to even to the left further, and that will be in the interest of ordinary Americans. Donald Drump makes sense to the working class. Paul Ryan will like to do away with social security and medicare as we know it. Donald Trump on the other hand refuses. I know there are some Republicans who equally would not want to see Social Security and Medicare privatized. Indeed, this debate raises fundamental questions about the purpose of a society or civilization. 

But the issue is not Donald Trump per se. Using a social realist epistemology Trump is the appearance of the problem but the real problem is much deeper in the social structure and institutions of Americans society. America is made of a huge  group of elites that have become so disconnected with the ordinary masses. They ignored them and continued to use cliches and nebulous phraseology to explain why their nation is great. You cannot continue to use liberal or conservative phrases and assume that they answer or solve the real problems of real people. 

There are two books that come to mind, which reaffirm this: Jared Diamond's book titled "Collapse." He identified five factors that led to the collapse of civilizations and one of them is the widening gap between the elites and the masses, to the point the elites are totally out of touch with the masses or assume that the masses can have problems in the country, but no matter what the problems are, they,  the elites are safe, they have gotten their golden parachute as they use the term to refer to CEOs. Such CEOs can mismanage their corporations but worrying little about that because they have their golden parachutes, which will ensure they land safely. Professor Diamond says when the crisis comes unfortunately it sweeps away all. 

Second, the book: "Coming Apart" by Libertarian scholar Charles Murray, also the author of much-hated and debated book "The Bell Curve." In the book coming apart, even as a libertarian, and libertarians are more tolerant of inequality, he expressed sincere fears and concern about the future cohesion of American society. It is not in this case immigration or ISIS that are of great and immediate threat but the widening inequality in my own assessment. The libertarian tolerance of inequality goes back to the ambitious book by John Rawls -- "A Theory of Justice." which is making a case for trivializing inequality by emphasizing justice as entitlement i.e., the mere existence of inequality does not mean injustice, unless you can prove that someone's rights were violated in the process of accumulation. 

In effect, many in Americans assume that even if inequality is widening if it is consistent with John Rawls' argument, everything is alright because it is legitimate. Well, Charles Murray warned that America is coming apart. He thought that even as a libertarian, the widening inequality in the country has reached a level that it is a threat to national cohesion. Getting old, he said, this is the last time Americans will hear from him. In the book, he provides good comparison of the zip codes of the rich which he called super zip codes, and the zip codes of the poor which are different and the difference can be noticed by just attending parent-teacher meetings of the two zip codes and noting the average waist size of the parents. According to him, marriage in America is increasingly becoming skewed and smart people who go to IVY LEAGUE schools end up marrying each other and the odds of them producing smart kids in the future is higher, which then leads him to conclude that inequality will in the future make intelligence concentrated among the upper classes because presumably dumb people end up marrying each other and the odds of them producing someone smart is low, even though not impossible because of so many reasons related to disadvantage. He argues that the U.S. congress man or woman does not know how the average ordinary American copes with life.

Every president can have some fault but one cannot explain what is happening in the U.S. today without taking a long historical perspective and the way American Institutions have been transformed in the past forty or so years. Much of what the majority of scholars in American have done with the situation of widening inequality is either to remain agnostic about it, withdraw to their cocoon and pursue their self interest so as to survive in the system or in some cases provide justification for why nothing can be done about it because we are at the end of history and this is the best country that has existed in the face of the earth. Well, history is there to teach us a lesson. One man in Wall Street Journal said, other than Donald Trump shooting his daughter on the street, nothing will prevent him from supporting him. This is a guy who voted for Romney before.

In some states of the U.S. fighting against inequality and interstice can create problems for a faculty member. Yes, the person can retain his or her tenure, but they can make life miserable for a person. So there has been a moral minority on this issue for good reasons. This is part of the broader campaign of neoliberalism to legitimize itself. It is not easy to discuss justice, fairness and inclusion, but any economic system that reduce these topics to the footnotes will sooner or later have an encounter with historical reality. It is not enough to allow people to go and vote between two groups of exploiters i.e., who will guarantee your exploitation for the next for or two years, since there is no attempt to restructure institutions and social structures that create and perpetuate inequality. When I watch the debates among pundits and analyst on TV, it reminds of Marx critique in German Ideology of the typical German scholar who assume by just making critique or analyzing the situation thoroughly they will solve the problem. It is like a man with a stone around his neck sinking into the bottom of the ocean but instead of really doing something concrete, he just remains there using scientific explanation related to the law of gravity to explain his predicament. But that knowledge is not enough to save him. There is need for social action. No nation has achieved justice and fairness by relying on miracles. And if anyone knows of such a nation, please help me with the information, because I will like to assign readings on it. That will be a faster way to achieve justice. We can just fast and pray for so many days or perform long rituals in order to bring the intervention, while we continue our lives as we know it.

Samuel

On Sat, Mar 5, 2016 at 7:58 PM, william bangura <william.bangura17@gmail.com> wrote:

Then Sen. Barack Obama was the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state of Virginia in 2008, since President Lyndon B. Johnson did in the 1964 General Elections. As President, Obama won Virginia again in 2012. Bill Clinton a "Bubba" lost Virginia as a governor in 1992 and as a president in 1996. Al Gore also a "Bubba" who was born in DC but appealed to his Tennessee roots did not win Virginia either.

One of President Obama's problems is that he does not know how to talk to his "enemies". He neither had rural nor urban policies to appease those who had voted for him in these regions. Then Sen. Barack Obama was the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state of Virginia in 2008, since President Lyndon B. Johnson did in the 1964 General Elections. As President, Obama won Virginia again in 2012. Bill Clinton a "Bubba" lost Virginia as a governor in 1992 and as a president in 1996. Al Gore also a "Bubba" , who was born in DC but insisted in his Tennessee roots did not win Virginia either.

In the South and "Bible Belt", Obama should have utilized the language that they recognized. On taxes he should have quoted Luke 20:25.

He should have enlightened them "that they could "cling to guns or religion", but at the end of the day if they are unemployed and could not pay their rents--if they live in apartments--they would be evicted; and their houses would be foreclosed if they do not pay their mortgages.

He should have also informed them though government is not the answer it adds about 20 percent to 25 percent to the GDP which is about $3.2 trillion to $4 trillion respectively of a $16 trillion GDP.

Obama should have also exposed the faux "Southern elites" who rail against the 'bureaucracy'--code word for uselessness--of Washington, DC, the waste, fraud and abuse of the federal government, the elimination of the departments of education, interior, and the EPA, and abolition of the Internal Revenue Service.

After former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R. GA) resigned from the House he did not move back to Georgia to cultivate Vidalia Onions, but he bought a house in Mclean, Virginia which is 10 miles from Washington, DC. Ditto Sen. Jim Mint (R. SC). When he retired from the Senate he did not return to South Carolina and produce cotton, but became president of the Heritage Foundation. Obama should have asked a rhetorical question that if Washington, DC was such a Sodom and Gomorrah these arch conservatives should not stay in that city.

During the 85th United States Congress the Democratic Party wanted legislation for Civil Rights. But to the contrary Senate Majority Leader, Lyndon B. Johnson convinced liberals and "Dixiecrats" that they must pass a Voting Rights bill. His logic was that if the Negras--he used this pejorative in the presence of liberals; but employed the 'n-word' when he was in the company of the "Dixiecrats" --were allowed to vote those racist senators would have to kiss their fannies (he used a choice word which I cannot place in this forum), and then the Democrats would then pass a civil rights bill.

Obama and the Democrats should have politically educated these "conservatives" that former President Ronald Reagan never anticipated that most low-tech manufacturing jobs would be lost and moved overseas. And that Reagan should have provided the training to educate them for the high tech jobs which would replace their manufacturing careers. But during his presidency Reagan wanted to eliminate the Department of Education, so he would not have utilized this department to enhance the living standards of his conservatives and "Reagan Democrats".

Obama and the Democrats should have also enlightened these poor whites that they would not have the opportunity to attend the "Southern Ivy League Universities" because their "Southern elite" Republican and conservative representatives have and continue to use education to subjugate them.

William Bangura (Konkay)

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