counterpunch.org
MARCH 2, 2017
Trump is not a new phenomenon.
He is the latest, and most aggressive to date, repacking of corporate-radical
right attempts to reassert corporate hegemony and control over the global
economy and US society. His antecedents are the policies and strategies
of Nixon, Reagan and Gingrich’s ‘Contract for America’ in the 1990s.
Trump has of
course added his ‘new elements’ to the mix. He’s integrated the Teaparty
elements left over from their purged by Republican Party elites after the 2012
national elections. He’s unified some of the more aggressive elements of
the finance capital elites from hedge funds, commercial real estate, private
equity, securities speculators and their ilk—i.e. the Adelsons, Singers,
Mercers, and Schwarzman’s. He’s captured, for the moment at least,
important elements of the white industrial working class in the Midwest and
South, co-opted union leaders from the building trades, and even neutralized
top union leaders in some manufacturing industries. He’s firmly united
the gun lobby of the NRA and the religious right now with the Breitbart
propaganda machine and the so-called ‘Alt-Right’ fringe.
Trump is a political and economic reaction to the crisis in the
US economy in the 21st century, which the Obama
administration could not effectively address after the 2008-09 crash. Trump
shares this historical role with Nixon, who was a response to another decline
in US corporate-economic political power in the early 1970s; with Reagan who
was a response to the economic stagnation of the late 1970s; and with the
‘Contract for America’, a program associated with a takeover of Congress by the
radical right in 1994. All these antecedents find their expression in the
Trump movement and the policy and program positions that are now taking form
under the Trump regime.
American
economic and political elites are not reluctant to either change the rules of
the game in their favor whenever warranted to ensure their hegemony, targeting
not only foreign capitalist competitors when their influence grows too large
but also potential domestic opposition by workers and unions, minorities, and
even liberals who try to step out of their role as junior partners in
rule. This restructuring of rule has occurred not only in the early
1970s, early 1980s, mid 1990s, and now post Obama—a regime that failed to
contain both foreign competition and domestic restlessness. US elites did
it on an even grander scale in 1944-47, and before that again during the decade
of the first world war. What’s noteworthy of the current, latest restructuring
is its even greater nastiness and aggressiveness compared to earlier similar
efforts to restore control.
Trump’s
policies and strategies reflect new elements in the policy and politics
mix. He’s rearranged the corporate-right wing base—bringing in new forces
and challenging others to go along or get out. But Trump’s fundamental
policies and strategy share a clear continuity with past restructurings
introduced before him by Nixon and Reagan in the early 1970s and 1980s,
respectively.
Nixon-Trump
Like
his predecessors, Trump arose in response to major foreign capitalist and
domestic popular challenges to the Neoliberal corporate agenda.
Nixon may have come to office on the wave of splits and disarray in the
Democratic party over Vietnam in 1968 but he was clearly financed and promoted
by big corporate elements convinced that a more aggressive response to global
economic challenges by Europe and domestic protest movements were
required. European capitalists were becoming increasingly competitive
with American, both in Europe and in the US. The dollar was over-valued
and US exports were losing ground. And middle east elites were nationalizing
their oil fields. Domestically, American workers and unions launched the
second biggest strike wave in US history in 1969-71, winning contract
settlements 20%-25% increases in wages and benefits. Mass social
movements led by environmentalists, women, and minorities were expanding.
Social legislation like job safety and health laws were being passed.
+
Nixon’s response was to counterattack foreign competitors by launching his ‘New
Economic Program’ (NEP) in 1971. Not unlike Trump today, the primary
focus of NEP was to improve the competitiveness of US corporations in world
markets.
+ To
this effect the US dollar was devalued as the US intentionally imploded the
post-1945 Bretton Woods international monetary system. Trump wants to force
foreign competitors to raise the value of their currencies, in effect achieving
a dollar devaluation simply by another means. The means may be different, but
the goal is the same.
+
Nixon imposed a 10% import tax, not unlike Trump’s proposed 20% border tax
today.
+
Nixon proposed subsidies and tax cuts for US auto companies and other
manufacturers; Trump has been promising Ford, Carrier Corp., Boeing and others
the same, in exchange for token statements they’ll reduce (not stop or reverse)
offshoring of jobs.
+
Nixon introduced a 7% investment tax credit for businesses without verification
that he claimed would stimulate business spending in the US; Trump is going
beyond, adding multi-trillion dollar tax cuts for business and investors, while
saying more tax cuts for businesses and investors is needed to create jobs,
even though historically there’s no empirical evidence whatsoever for the
claim.
+
Nixon froze union wages and then rolled back their 1969-71 20% contract gains
to 5.5%; Trump attacks unions by encourage state level ‘right to work’ business
legislation that will outlaw workers requiring to join unions or pay dues.
+
Nixon accelerated defense spending while refusing to spend money on social
programs by ‘impounding’ the funds authorized by Congress; Trump has just
announced an historic record 9% increase in defense spending, while proposing
to gut spending on education, health, and social programs by the same 9%
amount.
+
Nixon’s economic policies screwed up the US economy, leading to the worst
inflation and worst recession since the great depression; So too will Trump’s.
Similarities
between Nixon and Trump abound in the political realm as well.
+
Nixon fought and railed against the media; so now too is Trump. The only
difference was one used a telephone and the other his iphone.
+
Nixon declared he had a mandate, and the ‘silent majority’ of middle America
was behind him; Trump claims his ‘forgotten man’ of middle America put him in
office.
+
Nixon bragged construction worker ‘hard hats’ backed him, as he encouraged
construction companies to form their ‘anti-union construction roundtable’
group; Trump welcomes construction union leaders to the White House while he
supports reducing ‘prevailing wage’ for construction work.
+ Nixon continually promoted ‘law and order’ and attempted to repress
social movements and protests by means of the Cointelpro program
FBI-CIA spying on citizens, while developing plans for rollout in his second
term to intensify repression of protestors and social movements; Trump tweets
police can do no wrong (whom he loves second only to his generals)and calls for
new investigations of protestors, mandatory jail sentences for protestors, and
encourages governors to propose repressive legislation to limit exercise of
First Amendment rights of free assembly.
+
Trump’s also calling for an investigation of election voting fraud, which will
serve as cover to propose even more State level limits on voters rights.
+
Nixon undertook a major shift in US foreign policy, establishing relations with
Communist China—a move designed to split the Soviet Union (Russia) further from
China; Trump is just flipping Nixon’s strategy around, trying to establish
better relations with Russia as a preliminary to intensifying attacks on China.
+
Anticipating defeat in Southeast Asia, Nixon declared victory and walked away
from Vietnam; Trump will do the same in Syria, Iraq and the Middle East.
+ The
now infamous ‘Powell Memorandum’ was written on Nixon’s watch—a plan for
corporate America to launch an aggressive economic and social offensive to
restore its greater hegemony over US society; an equivalent Trump ‘Bannon
Memorandum’ strategic plan for the same will no doubt eventually be made public
after the fact as well
Nixon
was a crook; so will be Trump branded, but not until they release his taxes and
identify payments (emoluments) received by his global businesses from foreign
governments and security services.
Reagan-Trump
The
parallels in economic policy and political strategy are too many and too
similar to consider merely coincidental. Nixon is Trump’s policy and
strategy mentor.
Similar
comparisons can be made between Trump and Reagan, given a different twist here,
a change in emphasis there.
+
Reagan introduced a major increase in defense spending, including a 600 ship
navy, more missiles and nuclear warheads, and a military front in space called
‘star wars’; Trump loves generals and promises them his record 9% increase in
war spending as well, paid for by equal cuts in social programs.
+
Reagan introduced a $700 billion plus tax cut for business and investors, and
an even more generous investment tax credit and accelerated depreciation
allowances (tax cuts); Trump promises to cut business tax rates by half, end
all taxes on their offshore profits, end all inheritance taxes, keep investor
offshore tax loopholes, etc.—more than $1 trillion worth– while eliminating
wage earners’ tax credits.
+
Reagan cut social spending by tens of billions; Trump has proposed even more
tens of billions.
+
Reagan promised to balance the US budget but gave us accelerating annual budget
deficits, fueled by record defense spending and the tax cuts for business of
more than $700 billion (on a GDP of $4 trillion), the largest cuts in US
history up to that time; Trump’s budget deficit from $1 trillion in business
tax cuts and war spending escalation will make Reagan’s pale in comparison.
+
Reagan’s trade policy to reverse deteriorating US trade with Japan and Europe,
was to directly attack Japan and Europe ( 1985 Plaza Accord and Louvre Accord
trade agreements), forcing Japan-Europe to over-stimulate their economies and
inflate their prices to give US companies an export cost competitive advantage;
Trump’s policy simply changes the target countries to Mexico, Germany and
China. Each will have its very own ‘Accord’ deal with Trump-US.
+ The
first free trade NAFTA deal with Canada was signed on Reagan’s watch; Trump
only wants to ‘rearrange the deck chairs’ on the free trade ‘Titanic’ and
replace multilateral free trade with bilateral deals he negotiates and can
claim personal credit for.
+
Reagan encouraged speculators to gut workers’ pension plans and he shifted the
burden of social security taxation onto workers to create a ‘social security
trust fund’ surplus the government could then steal; Trump promises not to
propose cutting social security, but refuses to say if the Republicans in Congress
attach cuts to other legislation he’ll veto it.
+
Reagan deregulated banks, airlines, utilities, trucking and other businesses,
which led to financial crises in the late 1980s and the 1990-91 recession;
Trump has championed repeal of the even token 2010 Dodd-Frank bank regulation
act, and has deregulated by executive order even more than Reagan or Nixon.
+
Stock market, junk bond market, and housing markets crashed in the wake of
Reagan’s financial deregulation initiatives; the so-called ‘Trump Trade’ since
the election have escalated stock and junk bond valuations to bubble heights.
+
Reagan bragged of his working class Republican supporters, and busted unions
like the Air Traffic Controllers, while encouraging legal attacks on union and
worker rights; Trump has his ‘forgotten man’, and courts union leaders in the
White House while encouraging states to push ‘right to work’ laws that
prohibited requiring workers to join unions or pay dues.
+
Reagan replaced his chair of the Federal Reserve Bank, Paul Volcker, when he
wouldn’t go along with Reagan-James Baker (Treasury Secretary) plans on
reducing interest rates; Trump will replace current chair, Janet Yellen, when
her term as chair expires next year
Then
there are the emerging political parallels between Reagan and Trump as well:
+ Even
before the 1980 national election was even held, Reagan’s future staff members
met secretly with foreign government of Iran to request they not release the
300 American hostages there before the 1980 election; Trump staff (i.e. General
Flynn), apparently after the election, met with Russian representatives to
discuss relations before confirmed by Congress. Reagan’s boys got off; Flynn
didn’t. Events are similar, though outcomes different.
+
Reagan attacked the liberal media. Much less aggressively perhaps than Trump
today, but nevertheless the once liberal-progressive Public Broadcasting
Company was chastised, under threat by the government of budget cuts or
outright privatization. It responded by inviting fewer left of center guest
opinions to the show. So too thereafter did mainstream television Sunday talk
shows (‘Meet the Press’, etc.); Trump’s attack on the media is more aggressive,
aiming not to tame the media but de-legitimize it.
+
Reagan staff directly violated Congressional laws by arranging drug money
seizures from Latin America by the CIA to pay for Iranian arms bought for the
US by Israel, that were then distributed to the ‘contras’ in Nicaragua to
launch a civil war against their duly elected left government. Nixon had his
‘Watergate’, Reagan his ‘Irangate’. Next ‘gate’ will be Trump’s.
+
Reagan’s offensive against the environment was notorious, including
appointments of cabinet members who declared publicly their intent to dismantle
the department and gutting the EPA budget; Trump’s appointments and budget
slashing now follow the same path.
+ If
Nixon’s policy was court China-challenge Russia, Reagan’s was court
Russia-isolate China; Trump’s policy is to return to a Nixonian court
Russia-confront China.
The
corporate-radical right alliance continued after Reagan, re-emerging once again
in the 1994 so-called ‘Contract With America’, as Clinton’s Democrats lost 54
seats in the US House of Representatives to the Republican right after
backtracking on notable Democrat campaign promises made in the 1992
elections. The landslide was a harbinger of things to come in a
later Obama administration in 2010.
The
Contract for America proposed a program that shares similar policies with the
Trump administration. It was basically a plagiarism of a Reagan 1985 speech.
But it provided program continuity through the 1990s, re-emerging in a more
aggressive grass roots form in the Teaparty movement in 2008.
Trump as the ‘Breitbartification’ of Nixon-Reagan
Trump
is more than just Nixon-Reagan on steroids. Trump is taking the content
and the tone of the conservative-radical right to a more aggressive level. The
aggressiveness and new elements added to the radical right conservative
perspective in the case of Trump are the consequence of adding a
Breitbart-Steve Bannon strategic (and even tactical) overlay to the basic
Nixon-Reagan programmatic foundation.
The
influence of Bannon on Trump strategy, programs, policy and even tactics cannot
be underestimated. This is the new key element, missing with Nixon,
Reagan, the Contract with America, and the Teaparty. The Breitbart
strategy is to introduce a major dose of ‘economic nationalism’, heretofore
missing in the radical right. The appearance of opposition to free trade,
protectionism, reshoring of jobs, cuts in foreign aid, direct publicity attacks
on Mexico, China, Germany and even Australia are all expressions. Another
element of Bannonism is to identify as ‘the enemy’ the neoliberal
institutions—the media and mainstream press, the elites running the two
parties, and even the Judiciary whenever it stands up to Trump policies. Added
to the ‘enemy’ is the ‘danger within’, which is the foreigner, the immigrant,
both inside and outside the country. The immigrant is the ‘new jew’ potential
in the Trump regime. This too comes from Breitbart-Bannon. Another
strategic element brought by Bannon to the Trump table is the expanded hiring
and tightening of ties to various police organizations nationwide and the
glorification of the police while denigrating anyone who stands up to them.
Another element is to attack the character of democracy itself, raising issues
of fraud in voting, and undermining popular understanding of what constitutes
the right to assembly and free speech. Even the military is not exempt from the
Bannon-Breitbart strategy: high level military and defense establishment
figures who haven’t wholeheartedly come over to the Trump regime are replaced
with non-conformist and opportunist generals from the military establishment.
Bannon-Breitbart is the conduit to the various grass roots right wing radical
elements, that will be organized and mobilized if necessary, should the old
elites, media and their supporters choose to challenge Trump directly with
impeachment or other ‘nuclear’ options.
Nixon
and Reagan both restructured the political and economic US capitalist system.
But they did so within the rules of the game within that system. Trump
differs by attacking the rules of the game, and the established elites and
their institutions, while offering those same elites the opportunity for great
economic personal gain if they go along. Some are, and some still aren’t.
The ‘showdown’ is yet to come, and not until 2018 at the earliest.
Trump
should be viewed as a continuation of the corporate-radical right alliance that
has been growing in the US since the 1970s. The difference today is that that
alliance is firmly entrenched at all levels and in all institutions now, unlike
in the past, and inside as well as outside the government. And the
opposition to it today is far weaker than in the 1970s, 80s, or 90s: the
Democratic Party has virtually collapsed outside Washington DC as it continues
myopically on its neoliberal path with its recent selection of Perez as
national chair by the Clinton-Obama-Big Donor wing still firmly in control of
that party; the unions are but a shadow of their past selves and split, with
some actually supporting Trump; the so-called liberal press has been thoroughly
corporatized and shows it has no idea how to confront the challenge, feeding
the Trump movement instead of weakening it; grass root minority, ethnic, and
progressive movements are fragmented and isolated from each other unlike never
before, locked into their mutually isolated identity politics protests; and
what was once the ‘far left’ of socialists have virtually disappeared
organizationally, condemning the growing millions of youth who express a
favorable view of socialism to have to learn the lessons of political
organizing from scratch all over again. But they will learn. Trump and friends
will teach them.
Jack
Rasmus is the author of ‘Systemic Fragility in the Global Economy’,
Clarity Press, 2015. He blogs at jackrasmus.com. His website is www.kyklosproductions.com and twitter
handle, @drjackrasmus.
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