By Ben Tanosborn
Finally, after three-plus decades of unmitigated adventurism, both domestic and global, the [economic] chickens are coming home to roost in this 2016 presidential election. And this time around we can indisputably state that “the economy matters.” And it matters much more than at any other time in our nation’s history. Why?
Forty percent of America’s population has been victimized by globalization, and there’s another 40 percent queued in a forced march to the same economic slaughter house.
America’s ruling elite, and their capitalist kissing cousins around the globe, decided three, maybe four decades ago that American-style capitalism operates at its optimal best if economic barriers set up by nations across the world come down and some modicum in the redistribution of wealth was allowed to take place through the obvious vehicle: consumption; as if pursuing some economic natural selection, a Keynesian counterpoint to Darwin’s theory of evolution. Except that the accepted Darwinian evolution takes place in millennium multiples, generationally unnoticeable, while elite-induced economic change takes place in the here-and-now.
As a result of this globalization adopted by each and every American president during the past 30-plus years, that well-off Humpty Dumpty that represented our traditional and “exceptional” America for well over a century, sitting on a solid wall of gold, did come tumbling down; and establishment politicians of both parties, all instrumental in this self-inflicted globalization debacle, are finding themselves unable to, or incapable of, putting the pieces back together again, no matter how hard they try.
Lack of vision and/or concern by politicians of America’s undemocratic duopoly may have unintendedly provided added economic opportunity to others in the world via this globalization exchange, but have done so at their countrymen’s expense. Total lack of economic planning for the after-effects of the globalization tremors has brought about reckless, if unintended, consequences.
Millions of economically discontented Americans have swollen the ranks of the helpless, discarded poor; victims for the most part of their job exodus, or trivialization, brought about by irresponsible, unmanaged globalization. They appear to have filled the dam of discontent to the rim, exerting ever-increasing pressure on the floodgates… with the probability of a megatonic burst come election time in November. Discontent of such magnitude, it invites disaffection, and a parting of the ways from those associations, groups or institutions that appear to be the source or enforcement of such victimization.
Americans’ rejection of the political establishment, not just that of one but both ruling political parties, has grown from a lowly seed of disaffection towards some selfish career politicians, to a fully-grown plant of discontent against most politicians… a plant ready to be harvested. And it might well happen in this 2016 presidential election.
Disaffection can, and often does, usher in potential “saviors” from within and outside politics, replacement politicians one might say; well-intentioned in isolated cases, but often nothing more than blatant demagogues appealing to the raw emotions of those victimized while simultaneously providing an outlet for others, often non-victims, to join the fray venting their frustrations and repressed worst instincts (bigotry always present) in the dark shadows that often accompany legitimate indignation in those who have been victimized.
Enter Donald Trump, the perfectly cast Lorenzini in Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio; America’s own troglodyte-extraordinaire ready to channel the electorate’s anger, whether legitimate or bigotry-driven, for his personal ambitions of power and garish fame. Will America’s Pinocchio-electorate be swayed by such incoherent, lying charlatan? Difficult to imagine such nightmare could come to pass… but the economic reality created by a mismanaged globalization can no longer be disguised by whatever administration is in charge of both Congress and the White House.
Two other options to this troglodyte buildup expected to erupt in November may not be able to defuse this megatonic charge. Hillary Clinton’s evolutionary path, past-proven as a total failure, does not have the support of most grouped Americans, blacks being the sole exception… and less so, Hispanics. And Prophet Bernie’s revolution, shamelessly silenced by the Democratic establishment, is not quite ready for its debut and needed acceptance by our Pinocchian electorate, still sophomorically struggling with words and political concepts so “un-American”… socialism, in any form, at the head of the list.
We could state that the world should be worried by the possible, even highly probable, outcome in the upcoming US presidential election… but perhaps the concern should be closer to home, and our proneness to be swayed by troglodytic-speak.
