Will ‘Trumponomics’ temper
the Souls of Americans & the ‘Rest’ of God’s Creatures?
Public Policy Lecture, RL- CXXIV, MMXVI Vol. XI No. VII
Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD,
Professor
of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,
College
of Business & Economics, AAU,
Abstract
In every corner of the world,
governments are failing to recognise the full implications of their policies,
and experts are too confused, or inappropriately influenced, to provide clear
and credible guidance. The result is a mixture of hubris and cluelessness that
is consuming countries’ entire political establishments. America
elected Trump, a political novice, self-promoter and gleeful provocateur, on
Nov. 8 in one of the most extraordinary and unforeseen developments in American
history. There is more than an
air of panic in the media and political circles about it. Today’s leading avatar
of truthiness is, of course, Trump who has been rejected as deficient in
emotional intelligence. Donald Trump, the man who promised Brexit times ten is
now set to control the world's biggest economy. His
public discourse consists of attacking or ridiculing a wide range of others:
Muslims, Hispanics, women, Chinese, Mexicans, Europeans, Arabs, immigrants,
refugees whom he depicts either as threats or as objects of derision. By
persuading his supporters to view themselves as part of a white nationalist
movement, a claim about identity is supposed to solve the problem that many
people’s interests are neglected. The populist phenomenon, wherever it is found, “rests on a toxic triad:
denial of complexity, anti-pluralism, and a crooked version of representation”,
and each facet must be addressed. While the rise of protectionism and anti-immigrant
sentiment are widely believed to reflect stagnant incomes, widening inequality,
structural unemployment and even excessive monetary easing, there are several
reasons to question the link between populist politics and recent economic distress.
Like it or not, Angela Merkel is now
the main guardian of the norms, values, and institutions that make up the Atlantic
alliance. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s message of congratulations to a
newly victorious President-elect Donald Trump was markedly unlike that of her
European counterparts. Germany & America are bound by their values; democracy,
freedom, the respect for the law and the dignity of human beings, independent
of their origin, skin colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political
conviction; based on these values, I offer the future president close
cooperation. It is economics, not culture that strikes at the heart of legitimacy;
in other words, it is when the rewards of economic progress accrue mainly to
the already wealthy that the disjunction between minority and majority cultural
values becomes seriously destabilising. Trump ruthlessly exploited that disjunction,
and, in doing so, obviously made a successful claim to represent people. In the
world’s eyes, fear has trumped hope as the currency of American politics. In
the world’s eyes, “America will never be the same again.
Key words: Trumponomics, Trade Agreements, Populism, Values, Immigrants
See talk here or https://www.academia.edu/30648152/Will_Trumponomics_temper_the_Souls_of_Americans_and_the_Rest_of_God_s_Creatures_RL-_CXXIV_MMXVI_Vol._XI_No._VII
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