Is Trump such a bad lot?

 

I'm old - really old. I mean I saw "Woodstock" the film in the early 70's. I went to the Isle of Wight (a small island off the English south coast ) in 1970 and swooned at all the American artists there, especially Melanie. I got a silver peanut when, with my flat mate, I travelled across the States in '76 and we were astonished by the country and the generosity of the people we met.

We went from New York to Hartford Connecticut, and I lost my wallet on the way. It was returned to me when we went back to New York. We spent days in Zion National Park, fed wildlife in Yosemite and watched "Deep Throat" and "The Devil in Miss Jones" in a 24 hour movie house in San Francisco. We hired a car in Flagstaff and when I returned home waiting for me was a $100 refund from Avis. 

It is therefore saddening to see such a generous hearted nation being led by a vindictive old man who believes the only way to win is to humiliate.

I think he might have bitten off more than he can chew going head to head with China and the apparent random attack on American institutions and programmes seemed the actions of an angry child, but I'm rethinking my view of Trump.

He has a native intelligence and  he understands his followers. His is grievance politics. So many of his constituents have grievances with the well heeled educated (white) bankers/economists/sociologists/doctors, in fact any expert. Middle America has been fed up for a long time being told by experts what's best for them. Fed up being told what to eat, what to drink, where to live, what job is best when many don't have decent jobs. They buy the (unhealthy) food  they do  because that's what they like. 

A UK politician Michael Gove said that the country was fed up of experts - a lot of us in the West are fed up of experts (and politicians). Stuff has got worse, life is more precarious for many than it has been for ages. Expertise doesn't seem to have made things any better.

That's why, in part, Trump's cabinet is made up of non experts (it's also a way of keeping his cabinet in line). He saying "We're done with Chairman Powell pontificating, we're done with the markets. Let the rich investors and Mag 7 experience the financial uncertainty many American have to endure day after day". 

On tariffs the experts are scornful. Maybe orthodoxy is right - they're self harming and they'll harm the very people (ordinary Americans)  he promises to help. They may, however, expose the profit maximising practiced by American companies who have, by shifting production abroad hollowed out much of middle America. Experts tell us that the American job market is healthy - but swapping a lost industrial job for shop work or clearing tables  isn't much of an improvement. And his constituency get that, they've seen what has happened but "the experts" has done nothing about it. According to the "big brains "America's health is America's wealth - measured by the S&P and the astronomical valuations of AI companies. When you have a job that just about covers living costs and you have little or no pension provision Bloomberg's squawks about the market just annoy.

Also, those same  experts are bemused by tariffs only on traded goods. They think Trump's so naïve that he doesn't understand the trade balances in services (Finance, insurance etc).  I think he does. Putting tariffs on services won't create metal bashing jobs, or reshore smelting, and hitech plants. 

Many of think the world is going to Hell in a hand cart and we're helpless to do anything about it. All centrist parties are from the same mould and seem incapable of meeting today's challenges. The gutting of Gaza and its people, the War in Ukraine, the seemingly unstoppable rise of China - our western democracies seem incapable of purposeful action. In place of inaction - action of any sorts. Turn Gaza into a resort, sell out Ukraine to Russia and slap huge tariffs on China. 

At least this very unlikeable man has stirred the west out of its complacency - whether we have any muscle memory left is the question.