Sunday, December 27, 2015

The Gospel according to Trump

A seasonal thought from Morten Morland, cartoonist at The Times.



Seems to me that Trump is not the hard thing to explain. It's regular politics that's hard. After all, if you perceive a problem and you have the power to fix it, why not just do it? As Stalin observed, "No man, no problem."

It's not like Trump's white, non-elite base don't have a bunch of well-telegraphed problems ranging from economic stagnation, cultural imposition and deprecated patriotism. Many other countries have Trump-like leaders - they are, however, countries which by and large can't get themselves together, limiting their potential for collateral damage.

America not so much.

Trump isn't remotely a fascist, but his aggressive tribalism is not dissimilar to the rhetoric of the Führer in the thirties. The bourgeoisie swung behind Hitler when all alternatives to resolving Germany's economic, political and social crisis were exhausted - they mistakenly believed they could, in the end, control him.

I doubt the American bourgeoisie hasn't learned that lesson.