Autocracy and Poverty
Trump and Vance bring them together
When I am on media, television hosts ask how democracy is relevant to people who are voting on kitchen-table issues. That’s easy.
When Trump destroys our democracy, he will also destroy our economy.
Autocracy will bring poverty.
Think about the politicians Trump idolizes, Vladimir Putin in Russia and Viktor Orbán in Hungary. The first undid a democracy through fake emergencies, the second through persistent constitutional abuse. It is not hard to see why Trump likes them.
Now consider the Russian and Hungarian economies. Russia sits on hugely valuable natural resources, and yet is a poor country. The profits from its oil and gas are in the hands of a few oligarchs. Hungary sits in the middle of the European Union, the most successful trade project of all time. And yet Hungarians are poorer than their neighbors, in part because the Orbán regime corruptly channels EU resources to friendly oligarchs.
The lesson is clear. Democracy is a method of checking corrupt rulers. When there is no functioning democracy, corruption is unchecked.
And democracy is an element of a more fundamental guarantor of prosperity, the rule of law. In Hungary and Russia, the rule of law has been bent and broken, to the benefit of the few, and to the detriment of the many.
Ending the rule of law is the Trump-Vance platform.
Trump is running as a candidate who has attempted a coup against constitutional rule. Vance has already said, multiple times, that law does not govern who leads the country, and that he would have supported Trump’s coup attempt.
The rule of law begins from the principle that we are all equally subject to to it. Trump promises to weaponize the law to immunize himself and his supporters and to pursue his political opponents. Those who worked with him in the White House believe him.
Laws are executed by trained civil servants. Trump and Vance back a plan to fire the forty thousand federal employees who now execute the law and replace them with forty thousand loyalist hacks. That is Project 2025.
It doesn't take much imagination to see where this leads. Here are five quick examples.
1. The very rich will not be taxed, but you will be taxed more. The hardest thing the IRS does is to tax the wealthy. In an atmosphere of lawlessness and favoritism, this will become impossible. Insofar as the federal government runs at all, it will be by taxing the middle class.
2. The banks can collapse. As we saw in 2008, our financial system is held together by a very thin tissue of regulation. Unless laws are enforced, as they won't be under a Trump-Vance administration, the overadventurous will very likely draw us all into another financial disaster. The bailout will be paid for by the average taxpayer because the rich won’t be taxed (see number 1).
3. Americans will be at risk of losing their benefits. Social Security and all the rest depend upon a functioning federal bureaucracy, which is exactly what Project 2025 guarantees that we will not have. Americans take for granted federal institutions, from VA Hospitals to the insurance of bank accounts (see number 2).
4. The stock market can crash. It depends upon the laws that prevent insider trading and other abuses. If these laws are applied selectively, and if the people who used to enforce them have been fired, then corrupt investors will win while others lose out. After a time, the stock market loses its prestige, investors go elsewhere, and everyone loses. (And those who were treating their investments as cushioning to their retirement benefits are now poor: see number 3).
5. Businesses will get stuck. Doing business depends upon all sorts of interactions with the federal government. When the federal government loses its civil servants, much of this will stop happening. Or, worse, companies with personal connections will be able to continue functioning without following any rules, while others will grind to a halt. This means millions of people losing their jobs. (And it is now hard for businesses to raise money: see number 4).
This list could go on. The collapse of the economy is not a bug of autocracy, but a feature.
There is an autocratic logic to economic failure. When nothing works, when law does not matter, when elections are irrelevant, the only way Americans will be able to get anything done is by appealing to those who have power. We will have to give bribes to the corrupt and hope for favors from the top.
Once we behave like this, we get used to the idea that only the leader can fix things, which is of course what Trump likes to say. And so the circle closes and the new regime is installed.
The new autocracy is confirmed by our new poverty. That is, in any event, the Trump-Vance plan.
They are talented politicians, and they have an alternative to democracy and prosperity, which is autocracy and poverty. Whether they bring America this new regime is up to us.
(Please share this post with anyone you think could be helped by its message.)
I wish the Democrats would talk more about the fact that Trump inherited a very healthy economy from Obama, and then through Covid mismanagement, left the new Biden administration a mess to clean up. Instead, we just see interview after interview where ordinary people say that they economy was better under Trump.
This article is a helpful explanation of the harsh(er) reality we will face if trump-vance win or are allowed to steal the election.
However, America is not a democracy nor has it been one since Citizens United. America already is an oligarchy - where the rich rule. Corruption already rules here as well. Our laws absolutely do not apply to all equally.
For one example all you have to do is look at trump’s entire life. He has never been held legally accountable for the laws he has broken - and continues to - with gleeful openness. Ask yourself why the person who openly attempted to overthrow our government isn’t sitting behind bars in solitary in a federal prison (without any access to the internet) and has been instead allowed to not only run for the Presidency again but to constantly call for and foment violence Every. Single. Day.
Why hasn’t his entire corrupt administration been investigated and held accountable for the crimes and grift they did while he was in office the first time? Why is Kushner still walking free? Why was Bannon allowed to stay out of prison after defying subpoenas? And the others who did the same?
Why are our Supreme Court justices allowed to stay on the bench after very clear evidence of corruption has been brought to light? Or after they very clearly protect a felon running for the Presidency?
Why is Musk allowed to call for and foment violence against our government while pulling in billions of dollars in government contracts? Why hasn’t he been charged for a crime that is clearly in our Constitution, been relieved of those contracts and either imprisoned for that crime or deported back to his country of origin?
Why hasn’t the Army recalled Flynn (and other former and retired military personnel) who willing call to overthrow our government? Every last one should have been recalled and tried for treason, sedition or fomenting violence against the government. If I had done even 1/100th of the shit they have I would be making big rocks into little ones at Leavenworth.
I’m not just picking on the Republican Fascist Party. Look at all the Corporate Democrats who won’t pass a common sense law that says they can’t trade on stocks, etc that pertain to any issues or laws that come before them. Look at how they protect businesses over citizens.
Look at how Biden did not hold one single military officer responsible for the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal but instead called those who had the moral courage to speak out about what really happened “liars” and to say “I don’t believe any of that, no” repeatedly when referring to the DOD’s first report on what happened and how badly it was handled.
Our country is already deeply, deeply economically uneven. Servicemembers and disabled veterans have to rely on food stamps. Disabled veterans have to fight for - repeatedly - the medical care they earned. It took me several decades - and no, that is not a typo - to have a joint replacement. (The War Horse recently did excellent reporting on this problem.) Do you think any member of Congress would be told “you can live with it” and “you are just a complainer” over and over when they go for medical care? Would any of them be told “oh, that ruptured disc is only gently pressing on your sciatic nerve - so you don’t need it fixed. Sure, it’s touching it all the time but it’s just gently doing so - so suck it up and deal with the pain - I mean, what little there is”? I was told that last weekend by a neurosurgeon at an Indianapolis ER where I went after the military connected injury of a pinched sciatic nerve root caused my entire leg to go numb. I was told that and discharged. Would any member of Congress or any 1%r be treated like that?
Where are the social programs to help citizens live good lives? Sure, the jobs market might be adding jobs but look at the actual jobs. Do they offer excellent medical coverage? A retirement program? Sick days with pay? Can people live without financial fear or dread with only one job? Why is our medical system a disgusting for profit grift run by private equity firms instead of a government provided right we all deserve and receive from birth? Why is education so expensive?
America is not a democracy. It is a deeply entrenched oligarchy and has been since Roberts and his court sold the country to the highest bidder with Citizens United. (It has never been a full democracy but it was closer to the idea before Citizens United.)
We could be a democracy. But that will take everyone who can vote and who cares about our country doing so to keep trump and vance out of the White House. We also need to start paying attention to who holds government positions - all the way down the line from the WH to our school boards. Start weeding out the actual and wannabe fascists and crooks. We need to build our country into one that actually looks out for all of its citizens and not just the rich and the corrupt. One where the law truly applies to everyone equally.
Can we do this? Better yet, will we?