President Trump's inaugural address was based on the
ridiculous conceit that he somehow had received a mandate for running second
in the election with just 46 percent of the vote, almost 3 million votes
behind the leader, who didn't do so well herself. With his ascension, Trump
said, "we are not merely transferring power from one administration to
another, or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from
Washington and giving it back to you, the American people."
Or as the megalomanical politician invented by the
Firesign Theater in 1970 said, "Now I am the people."
Continuing to pander, Trump offered another ridiculous
conceit -- that "a small group in our nation's capital" has been
cheating all the good people of the country.
In fact, while the country purports to hate Congress, it loves its own
congressman, almost always re-electing him because he does his best to cheat
every other congressman's district for the benefit of his own. That is,
nearly everyone is on the government gravy train one way or another but still
fashions himself exploited.
"We've made other countries rich while the wealth,
strength, and confidence of our country have disappeared over the
horizon," the new president said. "The wealth of our middle class
has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed across the entire
world. ... From this moment on, it's going to be America first."
Except that since 1945, when, by international agreement,
the U.S. dollar was installed as the world reserve currency, the world
itself has been run on an "America first" basis. That's because
for international trade the world has been required to use currency issued
only by the U.S. government, allowing the United States to run huge trade
deficits, thereby essentially taxing the world for using the dollar so
Americans can consume far more than they produce.
This currency arrangement is a primary cause of the
decline of simple manufacturing in the United States, about which Trump
complained during his campaign and again in his inaugural address.
"America first"? It has been a long time since
it was otherwise.
The protectionism and tariffs the new president seemed to
advocate in his address will not be good for the complex manufacturing
in which the United States now excels. Protectionism and tariffs will be
reciprocated and may be as bad for Boeing and Pratt & Whitney as they may
be good for Airbus and Rolls Royce.
Trump's address included fair grievances: "Mothers
and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities. Rusted-out factories
scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation. An education
system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students
deprived of knowledge. And the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too
many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. ... We
have defended other nations' borders while refusing to defend our own."
But Trump's own response to these problems was only the
most delusional megalomania. "This American carnage stops right here and
stops right now," the new president said before hurrying off to march in
the inaugural parade and dance at the inaugural balls.
A new week has begun and of course the
"carnage" has not stopped or even slowed, for mere proclamations
are powerless against problems arising from mistaken policies of long
standing. The country may not even be capable of addressing these problems
while it is as divided politically, philosophically, and socially as Weimar
Germany was divided between Nazis and Communists.
Indeed, as the tribune of America's populist right was
taking his oath, just a few blocks away the neo-Stalinist left was already
rioting, smashing windows and burning cars.
-----
Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal
Inquirer.
* * *
By Chris Powell
Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Connecticut
Monday, January 23, 2017
http://www.journalinquirer.com/opinion/chris_powell/trump-s-megalomaniac...
