Friday, July 29, 2016

Stuff You Normally Do Not Think About

There is a group of voters that Donald Trump has brought to the Republican party which has overwhelmed both the extremist-Christian / extremist-conservative (“tea party”) base,  and the “traditional” or “establishment” Republicans.  This is how he became the party nominee for 2016. 

The extremist-Christian / extremist-conservative groups had already overwhelmed the “traditional” or “establishment” Republicans enough to dominate party agenda for the last few elections.  But they,  in turn,  have been completely overwhelmed this year by the Trump supporters. 

So who are these Trump supporters?  It varies,  but largely they are working class and lower middle class folks who work in the trades.  They have been left behind economically by the Republican party,  which is largely in-hoc to giant corporation management,  but these Trump supporters have voted for Republicans generally because of “trickle-down economics” promises,  which have since proven to be lies. 

60+ years of being left behind economically have left them very angry,  and this anger actually extends to both parties (equally guilty).  Trump promises to do something to help them,  although his actual business record denies that he will. 

However,  you have to look very hard to find out about that discrepancy,  which is something non-college-educated folks seldom do.  And that is how Trump won the Republican nomination:  he tells the “conservative” left-behinds what they want to hear,  and they look no further.  They outnumber the rest of the entire party.

The Other Side

 There is also a group of relatively-strident voters that Bernie Sanders has brought to the Democratic party.  They are a considerable plurality,  or Sanders would not have come anywhere near as close as he did to being the nominee.  And he did. 

A plurality that large must be taken very seriously,  and I think the Democrats-as-a-whole did,  when adopting their platform.   Even so,  Hillary Clinton has become the Democratic nominee for 2016.  But,  a lot of the issues addressed in her acceptance speech actually came from the Sanders campaign. 

So who are these Sanders supporters?  A coalition of multiple groups,  actually.  One group is non-college-educated working class people left behind by both parties for 60+ years,  exactly like the Trump supporters,  except for opposite political leanings.  They are very angry,  at both parties. 

Another group is college-educated middle class people also left behind by both parties for 60+ years.  These are somewhat-similar to the Trump supporters,  but have opposite political leanings.  They are also angry at both parties. 

Most of the rest are college-educated and relatively-young (under-30) folks.  There are some older folks who also like what Senator Sanders had to say.  Most of these folks are not “angry” so much as just looking for real change. 

Net Effect from Both Sides

All share a problem with being left behind economically for 60+ years.  That’s the common element among them all,  whether Trump or Sanders supporters. 

Here’s the funny part,  if it wasn’t so pathetic:  between the Trump supporters and the Bernie Sanders supporters,  they are a majority of the electorate.  If they could ditch the opposite-party political propaganda,  there’s enough of them to vote in the changes that would correct 60+ years of being left behind economically. 

How Did This Happen?

That being left behind comes from three dominant sources:  (1) improperly-regulated globalization,  (2) improperly-regulated automation,  and (3) the very richest entities not paying their fair share of taxes. 

Improperly-regulated globalization sends jobs overseas to slave-labor economies,  because the short-term labor costs are lower.  Improperly-regulated automation reduces the number of properly-paying jobs at home,  because robots get paid no salaries or benefits.   Super-rich entities buy politicians in order to pay no taxes. 

Globalization:  this must happen,  but it demands proper regulation to avoid sending jobs overseas to the slave labor markets.  This is a moral imperative,  because slavery anywhere is wrong.  Simple as that. 

If the overseas job is a slave labor job,  then there needs to be a real economic disadvantage to sending that work overseas to that slave labor market.  The first thing that comes to mind is far bigger taxes when outsourced jobs go to slave labor. 

Automation:  this will happen,  but it doesn’t need to be as cheap as it currently is.  This again is a moral imperative,  and a constitutional imperative in the United States! 

The way automation currently happens in this country,  a large number of manual labor jobs are eliminated in favor of a very few robot-supervision / maintenance jobs.  So how is allowing net job elimination for enhanced profit in accord with “promoting the general welfare”,  as the constitution has it? 

Just what in hell are all 330 million of us supposed to do for a living?  Our government is supposed to be managing that question “for the general welfare”,  and obviously has not.  Not since at least WW2.

Tax avoidance by the richest:  if you can buy enough representatives and senators their jobs,  they will write laws for you that enable you to avoid paying taxes.  Only the real giants can afford to do this really effectively,  so there is a spectrum of tax avoidance effects that completely leaves out small businesses and individuals.  Again,  how is that fair?  Or in accord with the constitution?

My Conclusions

Yet,  there is nothing surprising about that outcome.  We have allowed it to happen since the founding of the Republic by allowing lobbyist monies in government.  This has been going on “big time” since WW2. To end it,  all lobbyist monies must be outlawed.  It’s really that simple.

Why have these three problems been going on for so long?  In a word,  money talks far too loudly in the halls of our government.  That’s both elected officials who work for whoever bought their jobs for them (not we who elected them),  and appointed officials who get rich the same way.

They follow the money. 

Fix that,  and a lot of our problems go away. 

Update 8-4-16:


8-4-16….Evaluation of Choices for 2016
7-29-16…..Stuff You Normally Do Not Think About  (this one)
4-24-16….Better Choices in November
12-21-15..Facts Must Trump Politics