Noam
Chomsky is credited as being somewhat of a savvy political
commentator and in this interview he tries to explain the Trump
phenomena and expose much of the fallacies his supporters still hold
about him. Despite much of the media's depiction of him as clown
Trump
could very well be re-elected in 2020 as his approval ratings still
appear to show strong support for him.
Chomsky comments:
“...he
is a highly skilled politician, with a good sense of how to gain
popular approval, even virtual worship in some circles. He certainly
has taken control of the GOP, to quite a remarkable extent. He’s
been very successful with his two constituencies: the primary one,
wealth and corporate power; and the voting base, relatively affluent
fairly generally, including a large bloc of Christian evangelicals,
rural whites, farmers, workers who have faith in his promises to
bring back jobs, and a collection of others, some not too admirable.
It’s clear why the primary constituency is mostly delighted.
Corporate profits are booming. Wealth continues to be concentrated in
very few hands. Trump’s administration is lavishing them with
gifts, including the tax bill, the main legislative achievement,
across-the-board deregulation, and rapidly increasing fossil fuel
production...To keep the rest in line is sometimes easy, among them
the Christian right, white supremacists, ultranationalists and
xenophobes, and those in terror of “hordes” of immigrants. It is
easy to throw them occasional chunks of red meat. But sometimes
maintaining their allegiance takes the kind of demagoguery at which
he is expert. Thus many who are understandably aggrieved by the
economic policies of the neoliberal years still seem to feel that
he’s the one person standing up for them by shaking his fist at
those they blame for taking away their jobs: immigrants and “the
scheming Chinese”...”
Chomsky
continues his analysis:
“...It’s
quite true that huge numbers of jobs have fled to China, but who is
responsible for that? China? Is China holding a gun to the heads of
Apple, GM, IBM, GE … and forcing them to ship jobs to China? One
can’t even say that it’s the fault of the managers of the
corporations. Their responsibility, in fact legal obligation, is to
make profits for shareholders, and that purpose is served by shifting
jobs to China, Mexico, Vietnam, Bangladesh. Those who object to these
practices should be demanding that such decisions should not be in
the hands of management and the board of directors, but rather in the
hands of those who actually do the work of the enterprise, as
democratic principle might suggest. Perhaps along the lines of a 19th
century writer whose initials are K.M. But somehow one doesn’t see
this interesting idea explored in mainstream commentary.”
He
continues:
“...Another
charge is that China steals U.S. technology by forcing firms to hand
over secrets as a condition on investment (already dealt with) and by
violating World Trade Organization rules on intellectual property
(TRIPS)... Putting aside the legitimacy of these highly protectionist
devices, which raise patent protection far beyond the historical
norm, we can ask who gains and who loses if, say, China uses
discoveries in U.S. research labs to produce cheaper drugs than the
corporations that have gained the patents, or to develop a better
alternative to the Windows operating system? American consumers gain,
while Big Pharma’s huge profits are somewhat reduced and Bill Gates
might decline slightly in the ranks of richest men in the world...”
On
the economy Chomsky points out “...The “economic boom” is a
continuation of the slow recovery that began under Obama...The
tax cut, of course, exploded the deficit, which can now provide a
pretext for cutting social spending. The
continuing increase in employment has led to a slight increase in
wages, with opportunities for those at the lower end of the income
scale, but it doesn’t come close to making up what has been lost
during the period of stagnation from the early ‘80s....Jobs
are growing slightly faster in Trump-supporting rural and exurban
counties than in the urban mostly Clinton counties. At the same time,
real wages declined slightly in Trump counties and increased slightly
in Clinton counties, in both cases a decline from the Obama years...”
Full
interview at the Truthout website
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