Joining the dots

By Jim McIntosh

As Donald Trump and his unqualified cabal of acolytes take a once great nation backward into the realm of stupidity and wilful ignorance, into what may well become a new dark age of bland neo-feudalism, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean a highly repressive but by no means backward regime gathers strength. And global support in direct opposition to the humanitarian and democratic principles that America once attempted to hold up as its own. It’s small wonder, really, that the decline of America has caused this plunge into redolent inwardness. But why? How did this start, and why is it happening?

Trump isn’t actually the one who is causing this atrophy. He’s simply the agent of its acceleration. Trump himself was never smart enough to engender the profound changes that are occurring, he’s just the agent of opportunity who was available, at the right time, to hasten its occurrence. He only latched onto the grief, the despair and the hopelessness that had been building in middle American society for decades. The root cause, rather, has been the advent of neoliberal economic policies that quickly become embedded into political policy, beginning late last century.

When an entire working class in America, comprising multiple levels of prosperity and status was reduced to an unprotected lumpen class of powerless proletarian ‘individuals’ in close competition with each other for scraps from the table of corporate America. The seeds were already both sown and malting in the stale soils of that society. What we see now, is simply the end result of this malady, seized upon by a self-absorbed narcissistic opportunist.

It all stems from the likes of Milton Friedman, the University of Chicago and the group of economists whose absurd theories become a reality.

Friedman’s influence over Donald Trump cannot be underestimated. In the article; “One of America’s greatest ever economists gave a blueprint for Trump’s most ambitious plan before his death,” the writer provides the link:

Late Nobel Prize laureate Milton Friedman supported the abolition of most government departments, as seen in a resurfaced video shared by Elon Musk.

The legendary economist, who identified as a libertarian, explained his vision for a government that is less intrusive but able to keep citizens safe in a 1999 interview.

When asked which government cabinet departments he would abolish, Friedman replied that he would get rid of all of them except the departments of Defense, State, Treasury and Justice.

Musk shared the clip after he and Vivek Ramaswamy was tapped by president-elect Donald Trump to ‘dismantle’ the $6.5 trillion bloated U.S. bureaucracy by spearheading the new ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE).

Friedman said he would get rid of the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior,  Education, Labor, Transportation and Veteran Affairs.

He also recommended axing the department of Housing and Urban Development, which he said ‘has done an enormous amount of harm’ and has ‘destroyed parts of cities under the rubric of eliminating slums.’

Friedman also said the Department of Energy should also be abolished – ‘except when it ties in with the military.’

In terms of the National Institute of Health, Friedman said ‘There is room for some public health activities to prevent contagion,’ but he would abolish the agency, which he claimed ‘was mostly a research agency.’

Friedman put the wheels in motion, Musk put them on a Tesla, and Trump hopped into the driver’s seat. The dots had now been joined.

 

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