12 Jan '21 20:301 edithttps://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jan/12/donald-trump-us-joe-biden
"Is Donald Trump an aberration or a symptom of a deeper US malady?
The underlying causes of Trump’s rise to power must be addressed,
from taming social media to tackling inequality"
--Joseph Stiglietz
"The assault on the US Capitol by Donald Trump’s supporters, incited
by the president himself, was the predictable outcome of his four-year-long
assault on democratic institutions, aided and abetted by so many in the
Republican party. And no one can say that Trump had not warned
us: he was not committed to a peaceful transition of power.
Many who benefited as he slashed taxes for corporations and the rich,
rolled back environmental regulations and appointed business-friendly
judges knew they were making a pact with the devil. Either they believed
they could control the extremist forces he unleashed, or they didn’t care."
"Trump is the product of multiple forces. For at least a quarter century, the
Republican party has understood that it could represent the interests of
business elites only by embracing anti-democratic measures (including
voter suppression and gerrymandering) and allies, including the
religious fundamentalists, white supremacists and nationalist populists."
"This political system did one other thing: it generated a set of policies
(sometimes referred to as neoliberalism) that delivered massive income
and wealth gains to those at the top, but near-stagnation everywhere elsewhere.
Soon, a country on the cutting edge of scientific progress was marked
by declining life expectancy and increasing health disparities.
The neoliberal promise that wealth and income gains would trickle
down to those at the bottom was fundamentally spurious.
As massive structural changes deindustrialised large parts of the
country, those left behind were left to fend largely for themselves."
"As we have repeatedly seen, Americans’ entrepreneurial spirit, combined
with an absence of moral constraints, provides an ample supply of
charlatans, exploiters and would-be demagogues. Trump, a mendacious,
narcissistic sociopath, with no understanding of economics or
appreciation of democracy, was the man of the moment."
"We also need to decrease the influence of money in our politics:
no system of checks and balances can be effective in a society with
as much inequality as the US. And any system based on “one dollar, one vote”
rather than “one person, one vote” will be vulnerable to populist demagogy."
"As I have repeatedly argued, small tweaks to the system won’t be
enough to make large inroads in the country’s ingrained inequalities."
I predict that President Biden will attempt no more than some
'small tweaks to the system', thus setting the stage again for
another politician like Trump, only less stupid.
"Is Donald Trump an aberration or a symptom of a deeper US malady?
The underlying causes of Trump’s rise to power must be addressed,
from taming social media to tackling inequality"
--Joseph Stiglietz
"The assault on the US Capitol by Donald Trump’s supporters, incited
by the president himself, was the predictable outcome of his four-year-long
assault on democratic institutions, aided and abetted by so many in the
Republican party. And no one can say that Trump had not warned
us: he was not committed to a peaceful transition of power.
Many who benefited as he slashed taxes for corporations and the rich,
rolled back environmental regulations and appointed business-friendly
judges knew they were making a pact with the devil. Either they believed
they could control the extremist forces he unleashed, or they didn’t care."
"Trump is the product of multiple forces. For at least a quarter century, the
Republican party has understood that it could represent the interests of
business elites only by embracing anti-democratic measures (including
voter suppression and gerrymandering) and allies, including the
religious fundamentalists, white supremacists and nationalist populists."
"This political system did one other thing: it generated a set of policies
(sometimes referred to as neoliberalism) that delivered massive income
and wealth gains to those at the top, but near-stagnation everywhere elsewhere.
Soon, a country on the cutting edge of scientific progress was marked
by declining life expectancy and increasing health disparities.
The neoliberal promise that wealth and income gains would trickle
down to those at the bottom was fundamentally spurious.
As massive structural changes deindustrialised large parts of the
country, those left behind were left to fend largely for themselves."
"As we have repeatedly seen, Americans’ entrepreneurial spirit, combined
with an absence of moral constraints, provides an ample supply of
charlatans, exploiters and would-be demagogues. Trump, a mendacious,
narcissistic sociopath, with no understanding of economics or
appreciation of democracy, was the man of the moment."
"We also need to decrease the influence of money in our politics:
no system of checks and balances can be effective in a society with
as much inequality as the US. And any system based on “one dollar, one vote”
rather than “one person, one vote” will be vulnerable to populist demagogy."
"As I have repeatedly argued, small tweaks to the system won’t be
enough to make large inroads in the country’s ingrained inequalities."
I predict that President Biden will attempt no more than some
'small tweaks to the system', thus setting the stage again for
another politician like Trump, only less stupid.
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