The Trade-Offs

 

The Trade-Offs

Limited Immigration, Lower Crime vs Police State, Stagnant Economy, Limited Personal Freedom, Risk of Arrest

There is no question that the MAGA approach to governance has some clear advantages. As federal troops and the Trump’s personal “secret” ICE police, federal surveillance, federal agencies restructure to eliminate opponents and opposing information, there will be very limited undocumented inward migration, traditional criminal activity will be reduced and any ambiguity in governance will be gone. The ability of corporate America to operate without regulations and with lower taxes might give them a short-term competitive advantage. Questions of governance will be answered quickly, efficiencies will not be limited by social or moral considerations, America will become more Christian with Caucasian Americans able to revert to their enhanced status without challenge.

If we return to a Constitution-driven nation, which is clearly not the case now, that fragile set of amendments, the first ten known as the Bill of Rights, plus the 13th through 15th amendments (the Civil War-driven civil rights amendments), women’s suffrage and term limits from subsequent amendments would be restored. But there are clear problems with that Constitution: it is significantly dated (and by virtue of recent Supreme Court interpretations, limited to the historical context at the time of passage), it is virtually unamendable under today’s divisive politics, it represents the rural reality of the United States (90%+ rural in 1789) in its political power allocations, it fails to create a one-person/one-vote reality and it fails miserably in containing corruption and conflicts of interest. On the other hand, autocracy embeds corruption and unchecked conflicts of interest as a fundamental aspect of governance.

For nations transitioning from backwardness, the failure to provide for the masses with lots of internal fighting (often violent), a strong, forward-thinking autocracy can leapfrog into a modern era. Indeed, China did not cross the one billion population mark until Deng Xioping, the father of modern China, assumed power in 1981. He recognized that that Mao may have formed the Peoples’ Republic of China, but Deng maintained, he missed the necessary steps for a Marxist state to evolve properly. Mao attempted to transition from feudalism into communism without an interim capitalism component. “Some must get rich first,” he said, and between Deng and his successor, Jiang Zemen, the vast majority of Chinese people moved from a nation of dire poverty, into a global power where poverty was substantially erased. Simply put, autocracy works as long as the leaders do not make substantial miscalculations. Old practices and cultural/religious barriers to modernization fall in the wake of a forced push into a government hell-bent on moving the nation into competitive, technological reality.

New Chinese strong man, Xi Jinping (2012-present), quickly did away with term limits and began becoming the most powerful leader since Mao. But he got a tad carried away with his own power, firing half the senior officers in his military, arresting mega-billionaires and building new towns without asking if anyone would want to live there… and his economy teetered, pushed over the edge by the pandemic. But he realized his policies were killing his own economy. Unlike the double-down autocrats who are convinced they are always right (as the Trump hat says: “Donald Trump was right about everything”), Xi restored the business leaders, accelerated a consumer economy… and is still in fix-t mode. Fortunately for him, his arch nemesis – Donald Trump – keeps leveling the playing field and helping China be great again, even as the United States is unraveling.

Thus, for nations that are already modern and competitive, however, a misguided autocrat can inflict pain and economic hardship to focus on repressive military or police superiority. North Korea and Iran are examples of this failure. Autocracies can be so focused on maintaining control that they can become severely isolated in a world where freedom and growth are very much dependent on international alliances and trade. China lived in that hell under Mao; Iran and North Korea are under that lead foot today. And as noted, Xi is undoing as much of his autocratic, egotistical nonsense as he can, and he is playing Donald Trump with a consistent and very successful strategy.

Invading US cities with federal or federalized troops may appeal to MAGA adherents, but polling tells us that this ICE fantasy is only popular with MAGA diehards. Gallup tells us that 62% of Americans find this effort unacceptable and un-American. Aware of the numbers, MAGA Trumpers are fighting as hard as they can to gerrymander Democrats out of existence, all with the profoundly partisan support of our Supreme Court. As hard as the Trump administration is dismissing the 7 million strong, October 18th “No Kings” rallies across the country as America haters, most the country is taking notice… and Trump’s disapproval levels have skyrocketed.

Whether Trump is so far along in his Russell Vought’s (OMB budget cutter that Trump himself as labeled as his “Darth Vader”) Project 2025 implementation that it cannot be stopped has yet to be determined. Freedom of speech, warrants required for felony arrests, bring our best universities (the real job creators) to their knees, censoring books while rewriting American history into obvious distortions, masked agents asking you for your papers, one-man imposed tariffs that are making everything more expensive, legislation that cuts regulation and taxes for the rich requiring cuts for everyone else are the trade off for implementing the vision of a single man who believes he must rig the elections to hold power.

And if you like the tradeoff, you will love the covered demolition of the East Wing of the White House (B&W photo above), theoretically paid by donors, to accommodate a monstrous new ballroom structure that will overwhelm the White House forever. Despite that almost every historical preservation society opposing what is viewed as a discretion of a national treasure, Donald Trump unilaterally wants to change the face of the White House, perhaps because he intends to live in it for the rest of his life… and pass in down to Don, Jr. How do we tell him, it’s not his house to redesign on his own?

I’m Peter Dekom, and if you like the imposition of an autocrat’s unitary vision for America, hang on, because you are in for a much, much bigger treat!