Trump and a Reaction
The gentle reader will have heard or read of Donald Trump, a US billionaire who hopes to become the presidential candidate of the Republican party in the election 2016 and has become known for his style of campaigning: blackpainting less-than-Aryan minorities (such as Mexican immigrants), disparaging women by crude jokes, appealing to the childish pleasures (of especially men) of (collective) strength (such as being members of a great/strong nation), expressing himself often in politically incorrect ways (= inviting the followership of all those who are in the habit and also proud of not following the rules of political correctness – such as men at beertables) – in short, appealing to all those who at earlier times thought one Adolf Hitler so very marvellous, and being remarkably successful by this method (of all the Republican presidential hopefuls he has the clearly biggest support).
And it was about him that Yrsa Grüne was, in Hbl of Ons 12.08., writing a ledare titled ”Trump förvånar och förskräcker”, in which she was pretty exclusively dealing with his style and its possible consequences for his chances of becoming the presidential candidate of his party.
My own point is that her piece was a rather typical example of a bourgeois reaction to a politician who is not expressing himself in the way one expects from a member of the established ”elite”. Certainly I do not like his style either, but MUCH more important I should think the political intentions of a candidate and the consequences if he should get into a position of power. And when considering THIS, then the presidency of ANY Republican candidate would be a catastrophe for the whole world (all the same whether he expresses himself in politically correct ways or not). Because: the Big Money is very mostly supporting the Republican party (presumably because it can be relied on to not increase the taxation of large incomes or properties and also in other ways be very ”friendly” to Big Money), and if somebody becomes president by Big Money having generously paid for his campaign and he also wants to sit a second term as president, then he HAS to follow the wishes of Big Money during his first term as a president in order not to lose the necessary financial support when campaigning for his second term. And as we know that the Big Money in North America is HEAVILY involved in the fossil fuel business, and that also several very influential EU countries are very much inclined to follow any US-American lead, a Republican US presidency would be an EXTREMELY big obstacle to any policy which would try to prevent catastrophic climate change. Quite apart from what a Republican presidency would mean for the lives and the health of poor US citizens, US women, US citizens of colour, US workers and employees, for the policy of NATO, et cetera … . – But perhaps one should simply not expect a bourgeois commentator to see (or at least to mention) this.
Jag tror du gör för stor affär av skillnaden mellan republikaner och demokrater, som mest är retorisk och kulturell. Identitetspolitik, rätten till abort o dyl. Trump blir nog inte republikanernas presidentkandidat, men det vore roligt om han ställde upp ändå.
Nedan följer en utskrift av en del av debatten.
Inte bara Hillary utan också Bill Clinton gästade Trumps bröllop. Mot betalning, alltså. Ungefär som om Göran Persson och Mona Sahlin skulle gratta Bert Karlsson på födelsedagen.
Here’s the entire exchange direct from the transcript:
FOX News Brett Baier (talking to Trump): Now, 15 years ago, you called yourself a liberal on health care. You were for a single-payer system, a Canadian-style system. Why were you for that then and why aren’t you for it now?
TRUMP: As far as single payer, it works in Canada. It works incredibly well in Scotland. It could have worked in a different age, which is the age you’re talking about here.
What I’d like to see is a private system without the artificial lines around every state. I have a big company with thousands and thousands of employees. And if I’m negotiating in New York or in New Jersey or in California, I have like one bidder. Nobody can bid.
You know why?
Because the insurance companies are making a fortune because they have control of the politicians, of course, with the exception of the politicians on this stage. (uneasy laughter) But they have total control of the politicians. They’re making a fortune.
Get rid of the artificial lines and you will have…yourself great plans…
BAIER: Mr. Trump, it’s not just your past support for single-payer health care. You’ve also supported a host of other liberal policies….You’ve also donated to several Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton included, and Nancy Pelosi. You explained away those donations saying you did that to get business-related favors. And you said recently, quote, “When you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do.”
TRUMP: You’d better believe it.
BAIER: — they do?
TRUMP: If I ask them, if I need them, you know, most of the people on this stage I’ve given to, just so you understand, a lot of money.
TRUMP: I will tell you that our system is broken. I gave to many people, before this, before two months ago, I was a businessman. I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And do you know what? When I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call them, they are there for me. And that’s a broken system.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did you get from Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi?
TRUMP: Well, I’ll tell you what, with Hillary Clinton, I said be at my wedding and she came to my wedding. You know why?
She didn’t have a choice because I gave. I gave to a foundation that, frankly, that foundation is supposed to do good. I didn’t know her money would be used on private jets going all over the world. It was.
BAIER: Hold on…..We’re going to — we’re going to move on.” (Transcript: Read the Full Text of the Primetime Republican Debate, Time)
There it is, two glorious minutes of pure, unalloyed truth on national television. How often does that happen?
How often does a fatcat billionaire-insider appear on TV and announce that the whole system is a big-fat scam run by crooks and patsies?
Admittedly I was concentrating too much on just the Republican candidates, which may have given the impression that I was expecting much from the Democrats. In fact, I do just expect that the Democrats are the smaller evil (and to be more precise, I do expect Bernie Sanders to be less damaging to the world than Hillary Clinton). But the most important conclusion, I think, should be that Europe should make itself less dependent on the USA, mentally, economically, militarily.