Well Reagan was already having a big impact on the Republican Party by the mid 70s. It’s fun for you to open saying you’re annoyed by hot takes and then proceed to end with a big one. If you’re talking “political impact” Trump has certainly remade politics in an incredible way and had a lasting impact over a long period of time. I’d still push back that FDR is sui generis. He won 4 times, served as president for over 12 years, and created a coalition that in some sense held dominant power for half a century. He also profoundly reshaped American life. The country wasn’t electrified before his presidency. He created Social Security and big federal science and the modern US military among other things. Trump did a tax cut, secured a strong conservative majority on the Supreme Court that ended Roe and now we’ll see. I’d save the lasting impact question for another date. But you’re right that Trump has remade politics more than anyone else since Reagan and has a chance to do more.
Do not compare FDR to Trump. I abhor the role he played re the forced repatriations due to which unholy act his soul might have fared not so well, but he did deliver the beginnings of Social Security. The southern senators did not want to pay their domestic servants’ SS, as they were freed slaves in their living memory then, so it took decades for Congress to do the right thing—eventually. It is within my adult memory that servants’ work was recognized for SS benefits.
His mass deportation strategy seems akin to FDR's internment of Japanese Americans. I think it will necessarily entail seizing people's homes and businesses and breaking communities and families apart. As you pointed out for inflation, I am guessing the facts for immigration make it a net plus for the economy.
Hard agree here. Trump represents the purest distillation of neoliberal politics when people are economically and socially stressed and demotivated.
There is no bringing back the ‘New Deal’. The social and economic structural forces that permitted it are long gone. Sour reaction is all that is left, since the US Democratic Party like all centre left parties in the democratic world is exhausted and absolutely out of ideas for real structural change. And even if they had ideas, there is no stomach for much needed political struggle.
Thanks for the reference. The penchant of so many USians for keeping "democracy" in one box and economics in another has made me crazy for decades. (No wonder I'm a little loopy.) if we can start thinking of economic power as the unelected fourth branch of government, we'll be better able to understand what the problems are and how to fix them. (FDR was on the right track, but the unelected fourth branch + white Southern Democrats helped derail the New Deal.)
It’s a pity political economy isn’t something that contemporary Democratic Party think tanks and apparatchiks take seriously. In any case inflation affects everyone whether working or retired. Especially retirees actually. And unemployment only affects the unemployed and their very immediate family. The Dems better get good at messaging because trump is going to take credit for the low inflation, high employment economy he was just bequeathed by the Democratic Party. Lucky man indeed.
It's not just the Democratic Party -- it's USians in general. The Dems (i.e., the party) could absolutely do a better job of making the connection, but the so-called "moderates" in the party still trash anyone who talks economic justice as the "far left." At least Joe Manchin will soon be out of there, but the so-called Problem Solvers' Caucus and others are very much around. Joe McCarthy's ghost is still hovering above Congress.
Linda, not sure what _neoliberal politics_ is as I’m used to that adjective modifying the noun “economics.” Not sure you’re thinking of that, though, because there are economists who think Trump doesn’t favor neoliberal economics so much as he does the corrupt, kleptocratic systems so common in modern autocracies in which wealth is funneled to the autocrats and their hand-picked cronies. That’s less subtle and more open and direct than in Neoliberal economic systems even though the end results are the same. Maybe the term _state capitalism_ could be tortured sufficiently to apply to Trump’s system so long as it’s clear that the wealth produced by the US economy isn’t going to be distributed for the benefit of the state, but only for the benefit of the autocrat and his fellow thieves. I think the more usual application would be to a state like China which distributed enough of its wealth to the Chinese people to allow them to avoid the so-called Poverty Trap.
I hope you’ll be willing to let me know what the social and economic structural forces are that will prevent bringing back an economy like the New Deal. I’m skeptical that such forces exist because I feel Pres. Biden made great progress in doing that in just four years and with great success. That is a tribute to the vitality of those generally New Deal-like ideas. By no means do I feel that VP Kamala Harris is exhausted and out of ideas for structural change because I think she’d have followed Biden’s lead on those good ideas and she looked and acted the exact opposite of exhausted in the campaign.
Neo liberal politics is the politics of precarity and individualism plus an unbounded narcissistic urge to be first in the oppression olympics. It’s a powerful state apparatus that works to ensure there’s no alternative to scarcity for ordinary people, and ensures bracing entrepreneurship for them and socialism for the wealthy. There is little state capacity for tipping the power balance between classes and absolutely no political appetite for it except by people who have absolutely no power.
I’ve learned a new phrase. When I Googled it I mostly got references to Neoliberal economics. If you have time can you give me a helpful link to look at? Thanks.
Provocative. It’s true that FDR sucked up the airwaves for at least 13 years. Trump same same. The right wing media propping up Trump treat him like FDR. So I get your point.
As usual you are laser beam like in your focus, David. Nevertheless, if you haven’t watched Stephanie Ruhle’s broadcast of The 11th Hour Friday night 11/8 tonight, please find it to listen to Prof. Eddie Glaude and his adamant assertions that racism is the American malady that controls American voters.
Take it a step further. He'll be positioned as being even more heroic than Reagan. He'll end the war in Ukraine, advance his version of peace in the Middle East, tighten the border and shrink government. It's all there. There is considerable reason with full control of the entire government to think he can make all that work.
I find it curious that Trump got the same amount of votes in 2024 than he got in 2020, about 74 million. Biden got 81 million votes in 2020, yet Harris only got 70 million. Where did 11 million voters go? Yesterday I saw a headline that 10 states kicked 19 MILLION voters off their voter rolls after the 2020 election (voter suppression?). I saw people commenting on social media saying that they had to re-register because they realized they had been removed from the voter rolls in their state. I wonder how many people weren't aware that they had been removed and were unable to vote. Then again, there was a huge rush of new voter registrations after Harris began her campaign. Did they all decide not to vote?
I don't want to go down the conspiracy rabbit hole, but this whole election stinks to high heaven.
The podcast yesterday with Simon R and Tara M was superb. Thank you for that. I've wandered back over to Twitter, which I haven't done since Musk took over, and note that RECOUNT is trending. I've never been into conspiracies but this one may have some teeth, particularly since election officials have had such a large turnover over the past 4 years. The optics don't add up- Dems voted downticket but not the top? The long lines, the enthusiasm? Maybe the polls were right but they were also paid for by the red side? Maybe David, you were right in the first place.
Well Reagan was already having a big impact on the Republican Party by the mid 70s. It’s fun for you to open saying you’re annoyed by hot takes and then proceed to end with a big one. If you’re talking “political impact” Trump has certainly remade politics in an incredible way and had a lasting impact over a long period of time. I’d still push back that FDR is sui generis. He won 4 times, served as president for over 12 years, and created a coalition that in some sense held dominant power for half a century. He also profoundly reshaped American life. The country wasn’t electrified before his presidency. He created Social Security and big federal science and the modern US military among other things. Trump did a tax cut, secured a strong conservative majority on the Supreme Court that ended Roe and now we’ll see. I’d save the lasting impact question for another date. But you’re right that Trump has remade politics more than anyone else since Reagan and has a chance to do more.
Do not compare FDR to Trump. I abhor the role he played re the forced repatriations due to which unholy act his soul might have fared not so well, but he did deliver the beginnings of Social Security. The southern senators did not want to pay their domestic servants’ SS, as they were freed slaves in their living memory then, so it took decades for Congress to do the right thing—eventually. It is within my adult memory that servants’ work was recognized for SS benefits.
A good, hard to accept, analysis of this election cycle.
His mass deportation strategy seems akin to FDR's internment of Japanese Americans. I think it will necessarily entail seizing people's homes and businesses and breaking communities and families apart. As you pointed out for inflation, I am guessing the facts for immigration make it a net plus for the economy.
But I also think, comparing him to reading, Trump is totally out of it as well!
https://youtu.be/luDm16TPlSo
https://youtu.be/luDm16TPlSo
Hard agree here. Trump represents the purest distillation of neoliberal politics when people are economically and socially stressed and demotivated.
There is no bringing back the ‘New Deal’. The social and economic structural forces that permitted it are long gone. Sour reaction is all that is left, since the US Democratic Party like all centre left parties in the democratic world is exhausted and absolutely out of ideas for real structural change. And even if they had ideas, there is no stomach for much needed political struggle.
Read Mark Blyth on the link between neoliberal economics and the politics it produces.
Thanks for the reference. The penchant of so many USians for keeping "democracy" in one box and economics in another has made me crazy for decades. (No wonder I'm a little loopy.) if we can start thinking of economic power as the unelected fourth branch of government, we'll be better able to understand what the problems are and how to fix them. (FDR was on the right track, but the unelected fourth branch + white Southern Democrats helped derail the New Deal.)
It’s a pity political economy isn’t something that contemporary Democratic Party think tanks and apparatchiks take seriously. In any case inflation affects everyone whether working or retired. Especially retirees actually. And unemployment only affects the unemployed and their very immediate family. The Dems better get good at messaging because trump is going to take credit for the low inflation, high employment economy he was just bequeathed by the Democratic Party. Lucky man indeed.
It's not just the Democratic Party -- it's USians in general. The Dems (i.e., the party) could absolutely do a better job of making the connection, but the so-called "moderates" in the party still trash anyone who talks economic justice as the "far left." At least Joe Manchin will soon be out of there, but the so-called Problem Solvers' Caucus and others are very much around. Joe McCarthy's ghost is still hovering above Congress.
And his fixer Roy Cohn’s apprentice will soon be President again. JFC. The USA is unbelievable.
Linda, not sure what _neoliberal politics_ is as I’m used to that adjective modifying the noun “economics.” Not sure you’re thinking of that, though, because there are economists who think Trump doesn’t favor neoliberal economics so much as he does the corrupt, kleptocratic systems so common in modern autocracies in which wealth is funneled to the autocrats and their hand-picked cronies. That’s less subtle and more open and direct than in Neoliberal economic systems even though the end results are the same. Maybe the term _state capitalism_ could be tortured sufficiently to apply to Trump’s system so long as it’s clear that the wealth produced by the US economy isn’t going to be distributed for the benefit of the state, but only for the benefit of the autocrat and his fellow thieves. I think the more usual application would be to a state like China which distributed enough of its wealth to the Chinese people to allow them to avoid the so-called Poverty Trap.
I hope you’ll be willing to let me know what the social and economic structural forces are that will prevent bringing back an economy like the New Deal. I’m skeptical that such forces exist because I feel Pres. Biden made great progress in doing that in just four years and with great success. That is a tribute to the vitality of those generally New Deal-like ideas. By no means do I feel that VP Kamala Harris is exhausted and out of ideas for structural change because I think she’d have followed Biden’s lead on those good ideas and she looked and acted the exact opposite of exhausted in the campaign.
Neo liberal politics is the politics of precarity and individualism plus an unbounded narcissistic urge to be first in the oppression olympics. It’s a powerful state apparatus that works to ensure there’s no alternative to scarcity for ordinary people, and ensures bracing entrepreneurship for them and socialism for the wealthy. There is little state capacity for tipping the power balance between classes and absolutely no political appetite for it except by people who have absolutely no power.
I’ve learned a new phrase. When I Googled it I mostly got references to Neoliberal economics. If you have time can you give me a helpful link to look at? Thanks.
And also read Adam Tooze. He’s very good.
Agree!
The title makes me vomit.
Provocative. It’s true that FDR sucked up the airwaves for at least 13 years. Trump same same. The right wing media propping up Trump treat him like FDR. So I get your point.
As usual you are laser beam like in your focus, David. Nevertheless, if you haven’t watched Stephanie Ruhle’s broadcast of The 11th Hour Friday night 11/8 tonight, please find it to listen to Prof. Eddie Glaude and his adamant assertions that racism is the American malady that controls American voters.
Total bullshit!
Take it a step further. He'll be positioned as being even more heroic than Reagan. He'll end the war in Ukraine, advance his version of peace in the Middle East, tighten the border and shrink government. It's all there. There is considerable reason with full control of the entire government to think he can make all that work.
I find it curious that Trump got the same amount of votes in 2024 than he got in 2020, about 74 million. Biden got 81 million votes in 2020, yet Harris only got 70 million. Where did 11 million voters go? Yesterday I saw a headline that 10 states kicked 19 MILLION voters off their voter rolls after the 2020 election (voter suppression?). I saw people commenting on social media saying that they had to re-register because they realized they had been removed from the voter rolls in their state. I wonder how many people weren't aware that they had been removed and were unable to vote. Then again, there was a huge rush of new voter registrations after Harris began her campaign. Did they all decide not to vote?
I don't want to go down the conspiracy rabbit hole, but this whole election stinks to high heaven.
Pleassse . Putting g FDR and Trump in the same sentence is revolting.
The podcast yesterday with Simon R and Tara M was superb. Thank you for that. I've wandered back over to Twitter, which I haven't done since Musk took over, and note that RECOUNT is trending. I've never been into conspiracies but this one may have some teeth, particularly since election officials have had such a large turnover over the past 4 years. The optics don't add up- Dems voted downticket but not the top? The long lines, the enthusiasm? Maybe the polls were right but they were also paid for by the red side? Maybe David, you were right in the first place.
if the link works, Rachel Maddow seems to be suggesting that cheating was involved too. https://x.com/i/status/1854617114122108970 edit- link works.
Wow this is eerie as hell.