Embedded in this post is a Bluesky thread from Dana Houle about the fundamental difference between our current broligarchic coup and the actual Nazis of the 1930s. It actual dovetailed with something I did in my International Relations class at the end of last week. The topic in class was about how individuals are usually constrained by institutions. As we know, Project 2025 and Musk's DOGE are an attempt to overwhelm and degrade our institutions, because they limited Trump from becoming King last time and he really hates that.
In the class reading, they talked about how some sort of crisis - whether military or economic - can empower a leader to overwhelm institutions. This is important when you consider Trump's actions, calling the border situation an invasion (it isn't), slapping tariffs on Canada and Mexico because they are "flooding" our country with Fentanyl (they aren't). His whole American Carnage bullshit is intended to justify the destruction of democratic oversight.
In Houle's thread, he compares the relative strength of the Nazis, namely that they had Stormtroopers ready to control the streets and they actually increased the size of the administrative state to gain more control and embarked on a military buildup that helped pull Germany out of the Depression. Keynes was right. So, for the Average German, life probably got a little or a lot better from 1933-39.
Trump's tariffs have the potential to explode like a bomb in the global economy, but especially the North American economy. The assumption all along has been what's referenced in the Krugman tweet/blurst that begins the linked post: the Very Savvy Business leaders who supported Trump thinking they would only get tax cuts and massive deregulation are going to be surprised with this stupid, vindictive motherfucker actually does what he said he was going to do: Blow up the post World War II global order.
As we were in November, we are currently having to hope, actually, that Trump's programs are worst case scenarios, where the extraordinary economic pain crushes people across the country. There's this scene from The Big Short where Ben Rickert says that for every percentage point that the unemployment rate goes up, 40,000 people die. The correlation is actually real and not a throwaway line. But that's where we are.
For American democracy to survive the combined assault of Trump's Christian Nationalist base and Elon Musk's unelected oligarchy, we have to watch them crush the American economy. Precisely because Trump does not enjoy the structural advantages that Hitler did in the late Thirties, the pain that he seems intent on creating should destroy whatever momentum he has in his nightmarish plans for America.
No comments:
Post a Comment