COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN INVESTMENTWATCH
“Proof he American
Dream Has Been Indefinitely Deferred”
Oh please, “The American Dream” is an advertising slogan
from the 1950s.
It never had any substance beyond the sheer fact that in
postwar America people could rise far more quickly than they could in other
parts of a world where so many countries had been flattened.
It never had anything to do with any special merits of being
American, although simple people and propagandists allowed themselves to slip
into thinking that way.
But, in case you hadn't noticed, it is not the 1950s
anymore. Countries that were once flattened are now thriving and competing.
This marks an immensely important change in the world.
And the truth is that the United States can't even
effectively compete in many cases. Its costs are too high, its products are
limited or inferior, its products often just don't suit others, and it wastes
vast sums on its bloated military and on meaningless wars.
Many Americans, actually believing in fairy tales like
"The American Dream," simply cannot “get their heads around” those
facts.
Americans resemble kids raised in an indulgent, well-off
family that now, after years of excess, has gone bankrupt and cannot sustain
anything like the life they once knew. The kids just cannot take in the new
reality. They pretend it just isn’t so, that what has happened only reflects
the doings of evil neighbors who must be put in their place.
They are angry, you can feel it, and it's a good part of why
they support Trump and are ready to support hostile and aggressive measures in
a delusional effort to try winning back the 1950s. That anger also comes out in
attitudes towards migrants and refugees.
"Make America Great Again” is nothing but a new slogan
built on anger and delusions. It is offered by a leader who is ignorant of economics,
ignorant of history, ignorant of diplomacy, but who is packed with attitudes
and fantasy notions.
Just one of his many fantasies is his often-expressed belief
in his own courage, but there is not a courageous moment in the entire life of
this man. He is a bully, and bullies are always cowards.
But “Make America Great Again” is not going to happen. It
literally is impossible to go back in time almost three-quarters of a century.
Not only that, but much of the situation in which America
finds itself reflects innumerable bad choices over the years by a spoiled and
navel-gazing establishment. They have learned no lessons, none at all.
They, too, expect a world that is no more, and that fact is
the basis for the influence of the Neocons with which Trump has become so
completely entangled. Their basic credo is that America should use its strength
to dominate everywhere. It’s a national World Bully Policy.
No, Trump’s slogan is not going to take America back in time
to what was. Where it could take us though is a world of trade wars and real
shooting wars, and that's just the direction in which The Great Orange One seems
headed, full-steam ahead.
