By The TRUTH HOUND
Was Donald J Trump’s victory the American version of Brexit?
Some CBS and other network commentators said so during extended televised remarks that preceded “the Donald” becoming the US president-elect. Brexit was the successful June 23 referendum that started the process of the UK leaving the European Union.
So, big-media talking heads are saying that since Brexit was a repudiation of the mismanagement of Greater Britain by the EU (to the direct detriment to the daily lives and fortunes of everyday Brits) then Trump’s victory is a similar rebuff to centralized elites who want raw wealth to rule over the more democratic idea of a “commonwealth.”
In other words, the privileged few using central government to corral and control the energies (and tax dollars) of the working class at-large against the interests of that very same class. So, is populism, or nationalism, finally getting a leg-up over the plutocracy of rigid rule by an ultra-rich minority under internationalism? Time will tell.
At any rate, media pundits here and abroad thought Brexit would fail, and many of the same pundits thought Trump would fail.
One of these media pundits, the Weekly Standard magazine’s Bill Kristol, said on CBS early the morning of Nov. 9th that Trump had a 70-year-old “world order” to attend to, so the first maverick businessman to ever become president had better toe the same old line that his predecessors did.
The problem with that is it means serving only the super-rich while making America pay the vast majority of the world’s military tab as the global cop. America has been paying a grossly disproportionate share of that huge bill for a very long time, based on the idea of constant intervention in the affairs of other nations, through both military and non-military means.
Our first president, George Washington, warned against that. So did Thomas Jefferson, who served as both secretary of state like Mrs. Clinton did, and as president like Trump is about to do.
And maintaining the “world order” that Kristol referred to would also mean Trump would have to continue approving the same-old free trade deals that have raped America of its best jobs and industrial might.
But Trump didn’t run on that worn-out model that is bankrupting America, otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten elected. Let’s hope he can resist the overtures and pressure from the super rich and their many puppets in Congress and in the media who all want the American government to be on call for the world’s blue bloods, at the direct expense of the middle class.
Notably, Trump’s New York acceptance speech was not only conciliatory toward Hillary Clinton, who would have become an apparent felon-in-chief had she been elected; it was also conciliatory toward Russia and all other nations by implication.
So while Trump knows Russia could help defeat the mysterious ISIS terror faction, he also knows that making nuclear-armed Russia an enemy would be a disaster.
Neo-conservative Republicans like Mr. Kristol and hardline Democrats like Hillary have cited Russia as a virtual adversary; that could have led to a no-fly zone in Syria where US warplanes would have had to try and keep Russian planes grounded, Bad idea.
But with Trump entering the White House in January, odds are that the foolish policy of confronting Russia can be cooled way down.
Meanwhile, however, media predictions early this morning that the Trans Pacific Partnership, a massive free trade treaty, is “dead” with Trump at the helm could be off base.
Urgent TRUTH HOUND note: The Trans-Pacific pact could be voted upon by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in the lame-duck session that is now upon us. Remember the old government and the old president are still in power for the rest of the year.
So, with the euphoria over Trump’s victory bringing celebration to supporters and dread to his foes, let us not be distracted. If that trade deal were to pass before Jan. 20th, “the Donald” would be off on the wrong foot before he’s even sworn in that day.
Concerned about the TPP? Call the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121 or 225-3121 to ask for any House or Senate member’s office by name. And visit their district offices to make your voice heard. Don’t let the old guard advance the treacherous TPP before a better guard is seated.