Don’t Focus on the “Accidental President”

Admittedly, it is difficult to ignore Donald Trump. His irresponsible rhetoric and irrational approach to policymaking feed social chaos and economic uncertainty.  But while Trump’s narcissistic performance is maddening, he is only a major symptom of a deeply rooted political disorder that threatens to destroy United States as a democratic society.

Trump became our “Accidental President” in a tumultuous contest in 2016.  He did not win because of the quirks of the Electoral College. That institution is well-known, having been around for 231 years and 57 presidential elections. Trying to blame the Electoral College for defeat simply indicates an ignorance of history or a refusal to accept reality.

Trump won because of social and economic circumstances created over the past forty years by our country’s political and economic elites. Both major political parties have been complicit in letting the American people down. They have chosen to emphasize short term political gains instead of addressing serious issues that have persisted for too long.

Income inequity did not develop overnight and it has not occurred in some secret manner.  The Trump tax cuts are just the latest reiteration of policy preferences for the rich both parties have supported since the Reagan years. The capital gains discount and the carried interest travesty have allowed the wealthy to continue amassing great fortunes at the expense of the average American worker who is saddled with more and more regressive sales taxes.

All those jobs that were supposed to result from slashing taxes for already flush corporations, they have not appeared.  Some corporate elites were even rewarded for tax avoidance, but most of their tainted windfall went for stock buybacks, fattening even more their bulging wallets.

Neither party has been willing to take the steps necessary to restore reasonable balance between capital and labor. The federal minimum wage has not been increased since 2009 and some states, like South Carolina, still refuse to even institute one. Although a majority of Americans support the existence of labor unions, collective bargaining continues to be undermined at both the state and federal level.

Trade problems also have not just suddenly surfaced.  They have been festering for some time, intensified by the foolish decisions on the part of many corporations to create supply chains in other countries outside the legal jurisdiction of the United States. Their shortsighted quest for the lowest labor costs not only has impoverished American workers, but it has exposed the companies themselves to greater risk of intellectual property losses.

Globalization is a reality. But if US companies continue to insist that the interests of their shareholders must take priority over the welfare of the average American worker, they may wake up someday and find there is no one with the will or capacity to defend them.

Healthcare remains an unresolved problem. Obamacare was designed to address access to health insurance, but it primarily has reaffirmed the stranglehold various elements of the industry have on both major political parties. The corrupt behavior of the pharmaceutical companies in the opioid crisis is clear evidence that relying on the market will not produce safe and economical healthcare.

And the idea that most Americans “love” their private health insurance is a myth fed by the industry’s multibillion dollar lobby machine. Our current system of healthcare is the most expensive in the world today, yet it fails to serve the needs of millions of Americans, including nearly four million children. A carefully planned and adequately financed transition to a single-payer universal system will be welcomed by all but the most skeptical ideologues.

Restoring education to its rightful place at the heart of the American dream is should also be an important goal.  Both parties have been guilty of moving education from being viewed as a public good to being considered a private benefit with the resulting decline in priority. A college education does not need to be free, but it should be accessible at a reasonable cost--- one that is not a lifelong burden.

The country needs an educated and appropriately skilled workforce. In the period between World War II and about 1970, the US appeared to be on the right track in achieving this objective, but politicians in both parties started tinkering with the system without regard for the professionals involved.  Reinvigorating our education system is not going to happen overnight, but again the market has proven it cannot be depended upon to do the job.

Another area of concern has been the international arena. The end of the Cold War was supposed to bring the end of conflicts among nations and a “peace dividend.” Instead, the US has been continuously embroiled in foreign quarrels in which we have only a passing interest and little prospect for resolving.

The fear of terrorism, which has historically been a weapon of the weak, has been used effectively by the threat-industrial complex to justify enormous defense expenditures. In the name of seeking peace and secuity the US has become the world’s greatest supplier of military weaponry and is now feared more than respected.

Finally, much of what ails America today is the result of the demise of the fourth estate within our country. Free speech and a free press are basic American values and critical to maintaining a democratic government, but neither truly exists today in the mass media nor in social media.

Money rules in both. Commercials have pushed aside time and resources for legitimate news coverage on networks and cable. The business model of social media with its urgent demand for clicks has led to a focus on conflict that is counterproductive to representative government.  Some restoration of the fairness doctrine that ruled television from the 1940s until the 1980s is desperately needed.

If neither political party recognizes the real stakes in the 2020 election, the re-election of Donald Trump may be the least of our worries. And an election centered on him, similar to what happened in 2016, could very well create a situation in which his demagoguery proves effective again.