Above Photo: ERIC THAYER/REUTERS. GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump had a few interruptions during Monday’s speech at the Detroit Economic Club.
It was a late night at our house. It would be an understatement to say I was surprised that Trump pulled off a massive victory in the election. I surely didn’t see this coming.
I figured that with the mainstream media support for Clinton and the support from the banksters, the neo-cons, the military industrial complex and the oil companies it was a certainty that Trump would go down to defeat.
Obviously the white working class is angry and feels betrayed by the elites who run the country. I heard that half of the union workers in Michigan (traditionally ‘loyal’ Democrats) voted for Trump. But normal is gone now. Many of these voters who picked Trump told the exit polls that they didn’t necessarily like him – but they just saw voting for him as the only way to shake things up. How much patience will they have for Trump in the White House? That will be an interesting thing to watch.
Trump has named corrupt New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as his transition manager. Christie is a mobster and the rumors have long tied Trump to the mob. Clinton is corrupt as well and I see her as a key spokesperson for the corporate mafia. So this election was really the mob verses the mafia.
Studying the situation in Ukraine during the last couple of years has taught me a lot about how competing criminal oligarchies can control and tear down a nation. That is basically what I see we had in this election. There was division among ruling oligarchies here in the US – again the mob verses the mafia.
The Democrats blew their chance for power when they threw Bernie Sanders under the bus during the primary season where the Clinton campaign repeatedly cheated in order to take the nomination. Those ‘loyal’ Dems who refused to see the folly of this strategy are now in funeral mourning mode as they witness a damn near complete collapse of their party across the nation as the much hated Clinton ran them into the ground.
Democrats can blame others all they want for this loss but until they face up to the reality that the voters have rejected their corporate dominated Clinton machine their party stands little chance of a real future.
The Trump strategy was to go hard after voters in the ‘rust belt’ of the nation. Those living in the decaying former industrial heartland that is now virtually jobless had nothing to lose. Trump promised jobs and strongly opposed the disastrous trade agreements like NAFTA and TPP that the Clinton machine has long endorsed.
The truth is that for eight years the Obama administration did little to help create jobs in devastated regions like the rust belt and in impoverished communities across the country. He, along with the Republican party, kept the Bush endless war cycle going which drained the treasury of resources that could have been used for rebuilding our nation. Dems don’t want to talk about this but it is a major reason for the eventual rejection of Clinton who is an avowed war monger.
This was a ‘populist’ victory. Last night on the right-wing Fox News TV we saw conservatives saying that this was not a victory for the Republican Party but was indeed a ‘populist’ wave. The Democrats had a chance to match and beat Trump with the populism coming from Bernie Sanders but after the Clinton machine dispatched the Vermont senator that opportunity was out the window.
This morning we listened closely to some of Trump’s words on the radio where he said he wanted to bring the nation together after his divisive ‘wrestling match’ campaign. We’ll see how that goes. He also said he wanted to get along with all countries around the world. During his campaign Trump did repeatedly say he wanted to talk with Russia and he questioned whether the US should be spending so much on NATO. It will be instructive to see how he handles the war mongers inside the Congress from both the Republican and Democrat parties.
Will Trump continue the major US-NATO mobilization along the Russian border? Will he continue to build Poland as the key US power projection hub in eastern Europe – just as Israel is the US base of operations in the Middle East and Japan serves that role in the Asia-Pacific? Will Trump continue to destabilize Ukraine and use it as a bludgeon against Russia? These are the things to closely watch.
Trump has no real experience as an office holder to prepare him for this task. He notoriously has a short attention span. Those who have his ear will be directing US domestic and foreign policy.
We in the progressive community had best spend some time reaching out to allies and building a unified coalition to stand against the coming reactionary wave. We would be wise not to demonize those who voted for Trump – especially considering that many of them are working class union members who were primarily voting for jobs and against corporate elites.
We need to be offering a positive transformative vision for the future – ending our wars, closing our nearly 1,000 foreign military bases and bringing the troops home to rebuild America with sustainable technologies that help us deal with the coming reality of climate change.
No matter how you might have voted yesterday we should all recognize that we have a common enemy – corrupt corporate elites who don’t give a damn about working people in the US or around the world. This election is a call for everyone to get engaged in order to take our nation back from those on Wall Street who only live for their own power and enrichment.
Will Trump change the spots on his skin and become a real advocate for the working class and the poor (many of whom are his beloved ‘veterans’)? Hard to imagine. But by now we should all know that only when the people get organized can we really protect our own interests against those who wish to rape and pillage our Mother Earth for their private gain.
It’s kind of ironic that the biggest issue drawing progressive support across the nation these days is the Native American protests against the oil pipeline at Standing Rock in North Dakota. Hopefully we’ll all learn something from the people who have been under attack by the Great White Father in Washington for the past couple hundred years.
The indigenous people understand that no politician will bail us out as our compromised nation collapses. Only a good relationship with our Mother Earth will allow the future generations to survive.