From the outset of his Presidential nomination, Trump has aligned himself unequivocally and unashamedly with the military Establishment, much of it based in Washington DC.
His pledge for a major boost in military spending is the one certainty that lies ahead. Trump is no fool, nor is the Establishment supporting him.
His claim of speaking for the ‘downtrodden, forgotten people’ is dummy selling at its best. Trash and venom are among the easiest of sells. He speaks to himself and his own privileged class. He is a narcissistic demagogue with buckets of money to spend.
He plays the privileged golf links. He belongs to the influential gun and anti-abortion lobbies entrenched in Washington DC, alongside the military. He easily won the Republican nomination, a party that represents the upper classes. He is true Establishment. Anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves, as is Trump, who thinks he can be the President without being a President.
This folly will undo him. He is ill-equipped to deal with the administrative requirements of public office. He will not sit comfortably behind the Oval Desk making studious and considered assessments. Hunch, cunning, and preening are his trade.
More to his liking is the role of elected Commander-In-Chief, cocked and ready for combat.
Why the mass build up of military expenditure when he claims to be an ‘Isolationist’ intent on withdrawing military forces from overseas? Who exactly is the enemy?
It is assumed the ending of a war is at the finish line, but it never is.
All war is over until the next one.
The Ancients tell us continual war is not new.
Since early Western settlement, war has become the modernised business of the U.S.A.
The list goes on and on:
The Native American War
The War of Independence
The Spanish American War
The American Civil War
World War 1
More Latin American Wars
Mob wars
Labour wars
Ku Kluk Klan wars
Moonshine and Prohibition wars
World War 11
The Cold War
The Korean War
Bay of Pigs
Vietnam
More Latin American wars
The Drug wars
Race wars
Nicaragua
Panama
Granada
Gangster wars
Balkans
The War on Terror
The War on Afghanistan
The War on Iraq
Syria and ISIS
The list goes on:
The United States of America is bountiful.
Imperial aspirations count for little against the prospect of Americans at war with themselves. Imperialists lose track of when they should cease and the list will go on and on.
Where the next war will be waged became clear during the Trump campaign. It was the deployment of loud trash to repudiate an educated hegemony. It showed the benefits of instigating fear and smearing to achieve an objective.
Under constant bombardment, oppositional responses were deemed feeble or deluded. Somehow, Trump and his people became the victims of the anger. All dissenters were bracketed together as following a ‘politically correct’ herd mentality, wherein fact dissenters are never the same on either side of the contest.
His motto MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN is no less than a declaration of a war within.
It assumes the United States of America is no longer great.
Trump’s position is similar to the Confederate slavers versus the Union abolitionists, trying to convince himself and everyone else that the Plantation owners are on a winner.
His vision looks backwards to the time he was born when America enjoyed a period of conservative prosperity – the way things were, but not the way they are now or will be.
What then lies ahead for Trump? The torrents of dissent! Henceforth, he is the one who will have to deal with the planting of Improvised Explosive Devices. When the rust belt States become further corroded, Trump will not have the power to stop deserters from his own camp.
Trump’s war is built on folly going nowhere. To maintain and boost the military he will have to borrow money from somewhere. Who shall this be, Mr Business President? And what price will the lenders demand?
…
It seems improbable in our age of education and communications that a remnant from the era of Snake Oil Salesmen roaming the frontiers selling cures for all ailments is taken seriously.
Yet it was the deployment of deception that won Trump the election. He sold the dummy. His success hinges on the fact that as a race, we are susceptible to deceiving ourselves.
War never ceases because the deception is ingrained.
Pre-election, Trump’s War became a series of skirmishes. Now he occupies the Presidency a major battle is about to begin. Will he succeed, again? Not likely! Why? because History is not on his side. He defeats himself. Trump will have to confront an uprising of creative forces he is not equipped to handle.
Civility and aesthetics matter. What Americans do best of anyone is protest and Nation defining songs. Nothing can beat Neil Young singing, Four dead in Ohio, or Billie Holiday, Strange Fruit, or Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, and Leaves of Grass … the list goes on and on.
The Establishment to which Trump is beholden is under the impression they can decipher and counter the creative forces of the songs, riddles, and sly enigmas of the oppressed and knowledgable people, but they never can.
Comments
Andrew southall
A well written no-nonsence no-ranting essay.
Max Thomas
Nice work, we’re in furious agreement Ted. Mr Trump’s rhetoric appealed to enough Americans to get him elected. Those electors will now be disillusioned because their expectations cannot be delivered. Rebuild inner cities, roads, bridges and make America great again. Miraculous if all this can be done by a man who tells his nation it’s smart to avoid paying tax.
Those who mistakenly think an election is a referendum on political correctness will be disappointed too: until they grow out of it. People do eventually tend to behave like those who govern them. Do we want it widely accepted that the end justifies the means, regardless of the consequences? That was uncle Jo Stalin’s M.O. One good thing for Australia is that any fool should now be able to see that a US-style military republic is not for us.
The pathetic outrage of wealthy and privileged people is laughable and could not meet a challenge demanding any kind of sacrifice for the greater good. The rise of a new order capable of reversing the descent into chaos that will inevitably result from global injustice and ecocide will make the present political uncertainty seem like a minor inconvenience.
“A hard rain’s gonna fall”