Banana Republic Marxism for America, Trump Style

 

Banana Republic Marxism for America, Trump Style

“The less you are, the less you express your life, the more you have, the greater is your alienated life and the greater is the saving of your alienated being.” 

Karl Marx on learning to live with less, 1844.

“Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know? And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.” 

Donald Trump at the end of an April cabinet meeting.

“If this is your first time being poor, I’m Kiki, and I’m trying to make it affordable to eat by using depression, recession, and wartime recipes.” 

TikTok creator Kiki Rough in an April upload.

As if income inequality weren’t bad enough, Trump’s protectionist trade policies – which almost certainly will not bring back the manufacturing jobs of yore – required that “Americans must learn to sacrifice” for the good of the country during a transition period of undefined length. Trump embraced his old mantra, say whatever you think they want to hear and call the truth “fake news.” Backing up his campaign rhetoric that he would bring down consumer prices, when the opposite is our painfully reality, for example, “President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday [4/2] that gas prices were down to $1.98 a gallon — and it triggered hilarity… Fact-checkers and online commenters immediately reacted as Trump added that gas prices are $1.88 in three states. ‘Can you believe it?’ he asked.

“According to the American Automobile Association, which charts national gas prices, the lowest price comes closer to $2.61 a gallon for E85 gas. Regular unleaded gasoline is $3.18, AAA's data shows… CNN fact checker Daniel Dale wrote about Trump's post with the headline saying, ‘Trump keeps making up gas prices.’… In response to Trump's question, ‘Can you believe it?’ Dale responded, ‘No, because prices weren’t close to $1.88 in any state.’” Raw Story, April 3rd.

Indeed, the Trump billionaire sycophants, like his billionaire Commerce Secretary, redefine the “American dream” to look a whole lot like the life for the Marxist proletariat, as reflected in the Soviet era: “U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick says factory gigs are the ‘great jobs of the future’ that Gen Z could work in for the ‘rest’ of their life—and so could their grandkids. But the workforce’s youngest cohort probably won’t be running to fill the roles… Some white collar workers may be on the brink of layoffs thanks to AI, but the Secretary of Commerce says they will always have a place in America’s factories. As the U.S. puts up high tariffs and curbs immigration, the administration hopes to fuel an intergenerational manufacturing boom.” Fortune Magazine, May 2nd.

In late March, even as almost 70 million Americans depend on Social Security checks, Lutnick marginalized the importance of Social Security, which Elon Musk had called a “Ponzi Scheme,” by saying: ““Let's say Social Security didn't send out their checks this month, my mother-in-law — who's 94 — she wouldn't call and complain… She'd just think something I messed up and she’d get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining.” On the business and tech podcast All-In. Noone is protecting these programs!

Trumps policies represent rich people embracing Marxist/Communist sacrifice for the motherland for the masses… but how do they justify their own personal wealth? That’s the “banana republic” side of the equation: the rich leaders and their corrupt cronies always do well in these purported Marxist/Communist havens. The rest of the nation suffers under misguided economic policies that only target the masses for sacrifice. Those who complain are “eliminated,” one way or the other. The institutions that support the masses in their quest for equality – like law firms and universities – are brought to heel, a rough boot to the throat of dissenters. Writing for “We’ve Got this Covered,” Newsbreak.com, May 5th David James explains:

“Donald Trump and the American right throw around the word ‘communism’ like confetti. Disney movies with girl heroes: communism! Life-saving vaccination programs: communism! Getting a post deleted on social media: somehow also communism!... But it seems that all this has been a smokescreen to allow Comrade Trump to sneak Karl Marx in through the back door or the White House, as his defense of tariffs has resulted in an argument ripped from the pages of a communist pamphlet. According to Trump, ‘beautiful baby girls’ don’t need ‘30 dolls’, but can have just three or four. He’s also critical of their stationery expenditure, saying no child needs 250 pencils when ‘they can have five…

“An American president being openly critical of consumerism, advising citizens to spend less on objects, and instructing people to not prioritize possessions is radical and, at least on paper, probably makes Trump one of the most prominent Marxist figures in the history of American politics.

“Trump, of course, would never identify openly as a Marxist or communist, but his economic policies have backed him into a logical corner where the only response is to accidentally fall ass-backwards into Marxist theory. It remains to be seen whether Trump’s strategy of ‘fewer toys for kids’ will pay off in electoral popularity. Heck, maybe the American people will throw off the shackles of capitalism, refocus themselves on an ascetic life free of worldly goods, and dismiss the illusion of consumer choice.

“Or they could just get really mad on social media when their darling daughter Jenny asks for a Barbie that’s now been slammed with a 145% tariff that they can’t afford. Either way, we can only hail Trump’s embrace of the fundamentals of Marxism and hope his philosophical and economic enlightenment continues!” To bring home this elite vs proletariat model into greater clarity, you just have to look at an entire currency system, able to avoid governmental monetary and fiscal policies and hide behind blockchain secrecy… look at the tech billionaires and the Trump support for their rising cryptocurrency program… yes the same cryptocurrency he derided as a scam in Trump 1.0. For the elite class, there is now an entirely separate economic system, not built on wages but on asset wealth, and one where only truly big players can make money.

As David Wilson, writing for the May 2nd Fast Company, tells us, the tech world is governed by capitalist extremist author, Ayn Rand, such that the mavens of this new tech movement, like crypto entrepreneur Mark Andreasson believes in this new order for the rich oligarchs: “With [his firm’s] cofounder [Ben Horowitz ] … Andreessen’s 2023 ‘Techno-Optimist Manifesto’ as its guiding ethos (“It’s time the build”), [his investment] firm has spent the past year cozying up to Donald Trump and growing its investments in companies that its sees as essential to the future of America, many of them defense tech and security startups. It’s now pairing this new perspective with visuals that seem straight from Objectivism, the 20th-century philosophy developed by author Ayn Rand.

“‘My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute,’ Rand wrote in the appendix to her novel Atlas Shrugged, first published in 1957. No wonder the philosophy resonates so deeply with entrepreneurs and investors; these are creators who need to tune out the naysayers of the world in order to change it. But, of course, the flip side of Objectivism is that it prioritizes the individual at the expense of everyone else.” This class split is reflected in the House proposed budget, which has nothing for FEMA, does not mention supporting social programs like Medicaid, Social Security and Medicare as pledged but allocates $300 million to fly Trump back and forth from his Florida home and his golf resorts to the Capital. Creating the “new poor” is not cool!!!! 

I’m Peter Dekom, and this rising Trumpian justification for class distinction for most Americans is not only un-American, it’s disgustingly ugly.