Red State American, Blue State American or Just Plain American?

   

Red State American, Blue State American or Just Plain American?

PETER ON THE WRITERS’ HANGOUT PODCAST!

“What Trump does not understand about anything, is that he thinks you can call somebody all kinds of names, and then you make peace and just move on. Well, that person you’ve just called all those names is your enemy for life. He may not say it, but he thinks it.” 

 Former Obama economic advisor and current fund manager, Steve Rattner, Puck.com, April 17th

The difference between the pre-WWII “America First” movement and the current Trump iteration revolves around the fact that, until Donald Trump attempted to bully the rest of the world under this tariff/trade war attacks, the post-WWII United States led the world (at least the democracy-driven Western world) in military power, economic leadership, wealth and global influence. Cheap goods were not “ripping us off,” any more than a sale at Macy’s is ripping off consumers. But words matter, insults against our allies followed by harsh tariffs matter, and the fierce isolation, that Trump mounted in his iteration of “America First,” has redefined the United States of America as an arrogant, untrustworthy bully, wildly successful in casting itself as an isolationist nation going it alone. If there’s a post-Trump recapture of trust and viable alliances, it will be a long time coming.

As Trump seems to have burned down so many bridges to the rest of the world, most of it in just under 100 days, what happened? In an interview on The Good Fight (Substack, April 19th), Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus at Harvard University, 71st Secretary of the Treasury for President Clinton and the Director of the National Economic Council for President Obama, presented this 30,000-foot view of the United States after this recent transformation: “There are set patterns that we associate with developing countries, for which some people would use the term ‘banana republic.’

“In mature democracies, it's institutions that dominate; in banana republics, it's personalities that dominate. In mature democracies, it's the rule of law that governs interactions between businesses and between business and government; in emerging markets, it’s personalities, personal connection, and loyalty. In mature democracies, the central bank and finance sits with independence relative to politics; in emerging markets, that is much more in question. In mature democracies, the goal is interaction, openness, and prospering along with the world; in immature democracies, in emerging markets, it is nationalist economic policies tied to particular interests.

“The United States in a stretch of a few short months is transforming from being the United States to being something much more like Juan Perón's Argentina—and that is being recognized by markets. It's being recognized in the economy. It's being recognized by people.

“The market version of it comes from looking at patterns. In the United States, traditionally when stocks go down, that's because the world is riskier and less certain. So bond yields go down as well, people rush to buy bonds, and the dollar goes up, as people in a more uncertain environment seek safety in the dollar.

“There's a different pattern. It's the pattern of emerging markets. It's the pattern that prevailed very briefly in the United States before Paul Volcker was appointed to the central bank during the Carter administration. It's the everything-goes-together pattern. Stocks go down, bond yields go up, the currency goes down. We now have that pattern in markets in the United States. But that's the market version of it.”

The global reaction is to create new workarounds against US economic hegemony, create new trade alliances that exclude the United States and challenge the supremacy of the US dollar (now perceived as “risky”) and the financial trading platforms that are/were controlled by major US financial institutions. Nation by nation, the world is turning its back to the United States. There’s no going back… for a very long time, If ever. China is delighted! They plan on resisting the US… no matter what it takes. And they can play dirty, very dirty.

Inside the United States, clearly and knowingly provoking a power struggle to take the US Supreme Court down a notch, Trump is using his generally popular immigration policy massively to revoke student visas, to assert his “anti-woke” agenda to clamp down on universities, law firms and even medical journals, asserting a level of censorship that flies in the face of our First Amendment. Claiming the ability to alter “American born citizenship,” insisting that centuries old war power statutes (as well as the President’s right to control “foreign affairs”) give him the power to deport, without due process, any foreign-born US resident (and perhaps even US citizens who are critical of his policies). The courts, showing deference to presidential policy-setting rights, have given Trump enough wiggle room to delay. But the confrontation, that constitutional crisis is upon us. Trump even insists that he is not required to answer the federal court’s questions.

I remember when “Southern hospitality” was open and amazing, less so for African Americans, but in today’s world, if you are in a deep red state at a white-owned establishment, you may not want to tell them that you are visiting from California or New York. The moment will change as they try to be nice but are fighting their revulsion at your presence. Unfortunately, there are red state Americans and blue state Americans, and even when they attempt to listen to each other, there is a deep disconnect.

Young men, seeking a new masculine identity, are more likely to follow “man-up” influencers and podcasts than any other form of media. “Teachers are raising concerns about the detrimental influence of social media personalities , such as Andrew Tate , on student behaviour, citing a rise in misogyny and sexism within schools… A recent survey conducted by the NASUWT teaching union revealed that nearly three in five teachers (59 per cent) believe social media contributes to the declining behaviour of students.” The Independent, April 19th. These younger voters, here and across the Pond, cannot be reached by traditional media, not even Fox News. What’s wrong with just being an “American”?

Trump’s version of the Russian Tsar’s Rasputin appears to be Harvard educated “economist,” Peter “I love tariffs” Navarro, who is generally considered an economic whack-job by virtually all credible economists. An outlier with dangerous influence. And while a prudently applied tariff has it place in global economics, the major American institutions, including the Federal Reserve, believe Trump’s unstable, on-again/off-again mega-tariffs are leading us straight into an ignoble period of stagflation. Tourism is sliding down fast. Canadians are cancelling their US vacations in droves (as are other nations’ travelers); many are listing their US properties for sale. Exactly, who would be dumb enough to attend the 2028 Olympics? Hotel or a holding tank?

I’m Peter Dekom, and there are an increasing number of trained psychologists who are beginning to question whether our self-proclaimed “stable genius” is indeed mentally “stable” without even having to answer the “genius” claim.