As you read excerpts from the following article, keep several facts in mind.
Unlike state and local governments, the United States government uniquely is Monetarily Sovereign. It never can run short of dollars. Even if it collected zero tax dollars, the U.S. government could continue spending, forever.
The American people are running short of money, and many are entering a starvation phase they never before had experienced.
U.S. politicians, especially conservatives, claim that federal deficit spending (aka “money printing”) will cause inflation or will have to be paid for by our children. Neither claim is true. They both are part of what is known in economics, as “The Big Lie.”
It is a disgrace. The wealthiest government on earth, having infinite resources, is intentionally allowing its people to fall into starvation.
In the history of the United States, inflation never has been caused by federal deficit spending. Inflation always is caused by scarcity— shortages of vital products, usually food or energy (oil).
And the claim that aid given now will be paid for by our children later, not only is false, but makes no sense on the face of it.
State and local governments don’t operate that way. They are not Monetarily Sovereign. They use tax dollars to pay their bills. The federal government does not.
What becomes of those federal tax dollars you send to the Internal Revenue Service or the U.S. Treasury? They are destroyed upon receipt. They cease to exist in any money measure. That is why there cannot be a definitive answer to the question, “How much money does the federal government have?” The correct answer is: It has infinite money.
And as for worries about future children paying for federal stimulus dollars, our children are paying now, by sliding into poverty.
Many children and adults will die too soon, by not being able to afford medical care or by inadequate nutrition. Many brilliant brains will be wasted by not being able to afford college.
This is today’s America, the once “golden land,” that now has been turned into “misery land.” And it all is unnecessary.
At the touch of a computer key, our federal politicians could end poverty in America. Yet, because their own bellies are full, they focus only on being re-elected, not on the welfare of the people.
The Democrats want to spend money into the economy; the Republicans refuse. It is that simple.
There is no apolitical way to sugar-coat this. It is the Republican Senate, led by Senator Mitch McConnell, that primarily is responsible for the currently growing poverty in America.
The Democrats are responsible for not explaining the facts to the American people, but at least they want to pump money into the economy. The Republicans don’t.
The blood of today’s impoverished and dying Americans is on GOP hands.
Yahoo Money Millions of Americans are entering poverty amid pandemic as stimulus runs out
Denitsa Tsekova·Reporter, Sat, October 17, 2020
Millions of Americans have been thrown into poverty as government aid dried up in the last five months, according to a pair of studies, and those ranks will likely swell without more relief on the way.
“Poverty is rising in the United States,” Zach Parolin, a researcher at the Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy told Yahoo Finance (video above). “More families, once again, are struggling to put food on the table, struggling to provide for their families at a time when we have the means to be able to help them out.”
Eight million more Americans fell below the poverty threshold since May, a study by Columbia University found. A similar study from the University of Chicago and Notre Dame estimated 6 million Americans entered poverty for the same period.
A figurative “wall” divides federal wealth from starving people. The wall is guarded by Congress.
Without further government intervention, more Americans could follow, facing food insecurity, utility shutoffs, and even homelessness.
What a disgrace, what a cruel disgrace.
Visualize that to the left is a vast pile of wealth — money, food, medicine, education etc. — and to the right are homeless, starving people.
In between is a wall, guarded by the U.S. Congress, intentionally preventing the impoverished people from receiving aid.
That is America, today.
Poverty in the U.S. actually declined at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, thanks largely to two provisions in the CARES Act: stimulus checks and the extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits.
Since then, there has been no second round of checks, and the extra unemployment benefits expired at the end of July.
“That’s just a lot of money that they’re going to have to do without,” Bruce Meyer, a University of Chicago economist, told Yahoo Money. “It means people are going to be cutting back on what they can.”
While the funding provided under the $2.2 trillion CARES Act was the largest economic stimulus package in history, its effects won’t last long enough to support those in financial hardship, especially when the job market and the economy haven’t recovered.
“Unless we see a miraculous employment recovery,” Parolin said, “it’s certain that families are going to need some extra income support to be able to pay the bills and put food on the table.”
The fading effect of the stimulus comes as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin continue talks for a bipartisan stimulus deal.
But disagreements on price tag and key provisions, lack of GOP support, and the proximity of the election all lower the prospects of a deal before the election.
The bottom line is quite clear. The Republicans, having for decades told their constituents that federal deficits are bad for the people and bad for the economy, now do not want to tell the simple truth: Federal deficit spending is necessary for economic growth.
So despite the fact that predictably, deficit spending for stimuli has been beneficial, with none of the politicians’ dire predictions realized, the GOP would rather see people starve than to admit they have been lying all along.
I hate to put this in such stark political terms, but there is no way around it: The Democrats want more stimulus; the Republicans want less. Period.
With no additional support, experts warned that the economy will slow and fewer jobs will be created. Protections for renters and borrowers also are set to expire, likely leading to another increase in poverty.
The so-called “protections for renters and borrowers” merely shifted the pain to landlords and lenders, who also are people suffering from the recession.
The solution is not to transfer pain from one group to another, but rather for the federal government to pump dollars into the pockets of all the people.
Only the federal government can spend money without feeling pain.
“Poverty is going to continue to rise,” Meyer said. “You’re going to have people having had more and more weeks out of work, and only a fraction of those lost earnings replaced. That’s going to accumulate over time.”
The financial hardships caused by this will likely mean a rise in people who can’t pay rent and utility bills, who will struggle to buy food, and who could even lose their homes.
“It’s sad to say,” Parolin said, “we can probably expect to see an increase in homelessness in the United States.”
The above article should make you furious. All this pain, all this hunger, all this tragedy in America, coming mostly from the party that promised to “Make America Great, Again,” is completely unnecessary.
There is no other way to say this. We (in the U.S.) are headed for a depression because we have an incompetent and untruthful government.
Our fundamental problem is the lack of money in the private sector. The solution is for the federal government, which being Monetarily Sovereign has unlimited money, to pump dollars into the economy.
Sorry, but it isn’t any more complex than that.
Problem: Lack of money. Solution: Add money. How much money? What the economy lost due to the virus.
The economy needs at least $7 Trillion net added from the federal government. But, our Congress is spending far too little and spending way too late.
Unless Congress and the President deign to see the light, we have no way to prevent a depression.
That was April, yet Congress and the President still have not seen the light.
So you will suffer, sadly, needlessly, disgracefully. We will have a depression. The blame is directly on the shoulders of Congress and the President. You trusted them. They failed you.
The program could pay for comprehensive, no deductible, no-coinsurance, no-limit, no out-of-pocket costs of any kind insurance, without levying a penny in federal taxes.
Instead of that, America, the wealthiest nation on earth has this:
‘Focused on survival’: Millions of laid-off Americans still living without health insurance
Alexis Keenan·Reporter
Fri, September 25, 2020, 3:12 PM CDT
With hundreds of thousands of Americans filing new unemployment claims every week, sobering evidence of the difficulties faced by laid-off workers is showing up in the estimated number of U.S. adults now lacking health insurance.
Since the onset of COVID-19 in mid-March, workers who lost employment-based healthcare insurance (ESI) far outnumber those who gained coverage, either through a public or private option.
Approximately 4.6 million to 5.6 million workers who lost job-based coverage since March are now uninsured.
It’s common for those who have lost job-based insurance to go without it. Unless you have a serious health issue, insurance is just not on the priority list.
Medicaid eligibility largely depends on the state where the laid-off worker resides, and is based on current monthly income.
In states that have expanded Medicaid, those with current monthly income less than 138% of the federal poverty level are eligible. For a family of 3, the limit is approximately $2,500 per month. For an individual, the limit is approximately $1,466 per month.
In states that have not expanded Medicaid, eligibility is limited to parents with minor children whose median income is below 40% of the federal poverty level, or whose annual income did not exceed $8,532 for a family of three in 2019.
ESI is designed to seem like a wonderful perk. In most cases, the employer seems to pay most or all of the premiums, and you, the employee, usually are guaranteed coverage, even with pre-existing conditions.
Except:
The employer really doesn’t pay. He’s just a go-between. When hiring, employers calculate the cost of employees to include all costs(salaries, perks, office space, expense accounts, etc.) The reality is, the employee pays for everything, with the only benefit being the tax benefits for running the costs through the employer. Salaries could be higher if the employer didn’t pay for healthcare insurance.
Most insurance plans charge according to experience, so the employers pay more for “expensive employees” (older employees and those with expensive medical conditions.) That is one reason why you “expensive employees” have more difficulty finding jobs. Employers quietly discriminate against you.
If you lose your job, you may have difficulty finding healthcare insurance, or if you do, it probably will be at a high cost at just the time when your income has disappeared. So the “free” ESI is a pair of golden handcuffs (that you really pay for).
Especially, if you are in your 50s or older, the terror of losing your healthcare insurance, at just the time in your life when you will begin to need it most, can leave you completely at the mercy of your employer.
And that is the whole point.
America’s rich write America’s laws, including tax laws.
In 2018, the IRS allowed you to deduct medical expenses that exceeded 7.5% of your adjusted gross income.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2019, all taxpayers may deduct only the amount of the total unreimbursed allowable medical care expenses for the year that exceeds 10% of their adjusted gross income.
You aren’t able to claim both an itemized tax deduction with your standard deduction. Essentially, your medical deduction needs to be significant, along with other itemizations, to give you a great deduction.
For the current tax year, the standard deduction is worth $12,000 for single taxpayers and $24,000 for married taxpayers filing jointly. If you’re filing as the head of household, it’s worth $18,000.
Get it? For a business, all medical expenses are tax-deductible. Businesses pay taxes on profits. But,, for you individually, medical expenses only are deductible after they go above 10% of your adjusted gross income or your standard deduction.
If, for instance, your income is $50,000, the first $5,000 of your medical expenses isn’t tax deductible.
Side note: The so-called “standard deduction” is not a deduction. It is the amount you can’t claim if you wish to itemize your expenses. The higher the “standard deduction,” the less you can claim as a deduction for expenses.
The above paragraph about standard deductions really should read, “For the current tax year, single taxpayers can’t take the first $12,000 expenses as deductions. Married taxpayers can’t take the first $24,000, and heads of households can’t take the first $18,000.”
That means the vast majority of Americans can’t take any expense deduction at all. By contrast, businesses can deduct almost all their expenses.
It’s just another con job by the rich.
Getting back to Medicare for All, if the federal government funded a comprehensive plan that covered all your hospital, doctor, equipment, and long-term care costs, not only could your salary be higher, but your employer would not “own” you. Losing your job would be far less traumatic.
The federal government already has done the hard work by creating Medicare for All (over 65), so the functional problems have been solved. It would be a simple matter to reduce the qualifying age to 0, and to eliminate deductibles and co-pays.
Except, that is not what the rich want. They want to widen the Gap between the rich and the rest, and one sneaky way to do it is via employer-provided healthcare insurance.
“COVID-19 transmits primarily through the air by droplets. Stop the droplets and you stop the transmission. The incubation period is 14 days. If everyone wore a mask, even just a simple cloth mask, the virus would cease to be transmitted in two weeks.
“We wouldn’t have to wait for a vaccine or a cure. We all could go back to work.”
The easily understood reasoning was:
If you inhale just one viral particle, you won’t get sick. It takes a larger viral load to make you sick.
If I wear a mask, most of my viral droplets won’t reach you, and
If you also wear a mask, those few droplets that do travel all the way to you, will be intercepted by your mask.
Thus you’ll actually inhale so few, if any, of my virus-containing droplets (and vice-versa), and the viral load will be so low, our immune systems will be able to deal with them.
This does not require a degree in rocket science or even in viral science, neither of which I have. It is clear, easy, simple common sense, most of which I have learned from my wife.
Wear a cloth over your face, and less of your spit won’t travel as far, nor will the other guy’s spit, and les of his spit won’t get to you.
Really, is that so hard?
But at the time, mask-wearing was derided as unnecessary, un-masculine, unproven, and un-American as it supposedly interfered with our God-given freedoms, i.e. freedoms to infect other people, freedoms to get sick, freedoms to overwhelm hospitals, and freedoms to die. (To conservatives, all freedoms are “God-given” — carrying guns, or shooting protesters — those sorts of freedoms.)
Subsequently, we have learned the President knew about the way COVID-19 is transmitted, and how serious it is, but he didn’t want to “panic” people. (He prefers to bigot-panic “white, suburban housewives” that given the right to vote, criminal blacks and Latinos will move into the suburbs, looting, burning, pillaging, and raping said housewives).
Future Darwin Award Winners: Only supporters who would appear in TV footage of the event, had to wear masks
Now, it’s a long, long time from May to September, and incredibly, mask-wearing is still controversial, at least among Trump followers, who not only don’t wear masks, but demand that others not wear masks, either. (Presumably, these are the same people who don’t cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze, or who insist on smoking in restaurants and airplanes, or who lick other people’s spoons.)
But belatedly, science is beginning to catch up with common sense, and overcome Trumpian nut-case politics:
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is once again stressing the importance of masks in the coronavirus pandemic, calling them “more guaranteed” to protect against COVID-19 than a vaccine.
CDC Director Robert Redfield testified before Congress on Wednesday and emphasized to lawmakers that face masks are the “most important, powerful public health tool we have,” urging “all Americans” to “embrace” them because doing so could bring the COVID-19 pandemic “under control.”
“I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against COVID than when I take a COVID vaccine,” Redfield said. “Because the immunogenicity may be 70 percent, and if I don’t get an immune response, the vaccine is not going to protect me. This face mask will.”
Well, wearing masks may, or may not prove to be more protective than vaccination, but this much I absolutely, positively can say: Wearing masks is more protective than any non-existent vaccine.
So, until a safe, proven vaccine is developed and given to everyone, there is only one, sensible alternative — the one Trump advises against.
These comments from Redfield come after President Trump, who for months resisted wearing a face mask in public, claimed during an ABC town hall on Tuesday that despite what public health experts have said, “a lot of people,” such as “waiters,” think masks are “not good.”
Well, there you have it: Trump’s oft-spoken “a lot of people:” In this case, waiters. (“A lot of people said (Russian bounties) are a fake issue.” “A lot of people think Edward Snowden is not being treated fairly.” “A Lot of people say George Soros is funding the migrant caravan.” “A lot of people’ say there were spies in my campaign”)
By the way, I ate at a restaurant today. Though we were outdoors, our mask-wearing waiter — smarter than Trump –took our orders while standing several feet away. We also work masks.
Redfield told Congress on Wednesday, “We have clear scientific evidence: [masks] work, and they are our best defense.”
During the hearing, after Trump earlier this week claimeda COVID-19 vaccine could be ready in just three or four weeks, Redfield predicted that one could be “initially” available in “very limited supply” in November or December. But in terms of when a vaccine could be “generally available to the American public,” Redfield said this could come in “late second quarter, third quarter 2021.” Brendan Morrow
In summary, we told you in May what Redfield is telling you in September. There are four takeaways from this post:
It often is claimed, people vote with their wallets.
In 1992, James Carville, President Clinton’s strategist, famously said, “It’s the economy, stupid,” and those words have come down through the years as the mantra for successful politics.
The idea is if you promise people jobs, money, and success –“a chicken in every pot” (1920’s Republican slogan) — you will win.
Ambition, greed, and compassion are strong motivators, appealing motivators, motivators that often work.
But I suggest there is an even stronger motivator, and that is bigotry. The most powerful human emotions are anger and fear — the ultimate survival emotions — and bigotry appeals to both.
Franklin Roosevelt’s famous “date which will live in infamy” speech was based on bigotry — anger at, and fear of “The Japanese Empire.” It was meant to stir up hatred of Japan and the Japanese people, and it succeeded so well that subsequently, Roosevelt was able to round up and sequester thousands ofAmerican citizens whose only crime was to be of Japanese descent.
Hitler, of course, used bigotry to justify the most terrible and gruesome acts. Hatred is not bounded by reason or compassion. The German people were able to sleep at night.
Bigotry often masquerades as economics and safety. “The Mexicans will take your job.” “The Jews own everything.” “When the blacks move in, they will destroy your house values.”
Most people deny being bigots, so if you ask someone why they hate, they will give you a reason, not the real reason, but a reason.
When Trump talks to white, suburban housewifes, he makes a blatant overture to bigotry:
“Westchester was ground zero, OK, for what they were trying to do,” Trump said on Monday, in an interview on Fox News with Laura Ingraham, referring to Mr. Biden and his fellow Democrats. “They were trying to destroy the suburban, beautiful place. The American dream, really. They want low-income housing, and with that comes a lot of other problems, including crime.”
It’s all a lie, of course. Democrats Obama, Clinton, Johnson et al didn’t “destroy the suburban, beautiful places.” In fact, suburbs have prospered over the years.
But like Hitler and other bigots, Trump tries to paint a vivid picture: Hoards of wild, untamed blacks and Mexicans, pillaging and raping and turning your neighborhood into a slum. And if you have a tendency to bigotry, this provides a perfect excuse for your beliefs.
Trump cannot cause you to become a bigot. He only can appeal to you if you already are a bigot. No one is born a bigot. Bigotry is a learned disease.
Here are excerpts from an article in “The American Conservative.”
After Trump Loss, ‘Deplorables’ Will Be The Democrats’ First Target
Blame the president for leaving his core supporters at the mercy of the opposition’s cultural and economic revolution
Robert M. Merry, September 7, 2020.
If President Trump loses his reelection bid in November, as appears likely, the greatest victims of his presidency will have been his own constituency—the Americans who have given him his consistent but sub-par approval rating of between 39 percent and 43 percent throughout his tenure.
And when the new Democratic regime takes over, those people will become its target of choice.
We know who they are: largely white, more male than female, generally older than 45, largely blue collar, educated through high school but not much beyond, agitated particularly by U.S. immigration policies of the past few decades, with widespread feelings that their financial standing in the country has been increasingly constricted.
Note the fear-loaded, anger-inducing words: “First target,” “cultural and economic revolution,” “victims,” “target of choice.” These are not words of logic. They are not thoughtful words. They are words to incite the torch-carrying, pitchfork-carrying mob gone mad.
And remember, the words are directed at Joe Biden, a man who has spent many years in public office, 36 as a U.S. Senator and 4 as the Vice-President of the United States. There is nothing in his history to indicate he seeks a “cultural and economic revolution” (whatever that means). But to bigots, facts mean nothing.
Resentful people, who believe their poor circumstances have been caused by “THEM,” need someone to blame — the rich, the criminal, the blacks, Mexicans, Democrats, unpatriotic, gays, and anyone of a different religion or no religion at all. In short, everyone but US.
So, illogically, they vote for a man who expresses hatred for “THEM,” despite the man being one of THEM: A rich, criminal, former Democrat, irreligious, draft-dodging, multiple adulterer. So long as he expresses fear and hatred for “THEM,” that is sufficient.
They are nationalist in outlook, not globalist, with strong feelings of traditional patriotism of the kind that guided their parents and grandparents.
Yes, they will overlook his draft-dodging, his tax-cheating, his four-star-general-insulting, his comments about those who die for their country as being “losers” and “suckers,” so long as he keeps expressing hatred for the people the bigots hate and fear.
Many of them don’t much care for Trump as a person. A Pew Research Center study during the 2016 primaries revealed that fewer than half of Trump supporters ascribed any favorable traits to him. Many didn’t consider him well informed, admirable, or even honest.
But, based on their consistent support for the president over the past four years, it seems that they view him as standing between them and an emerging Democratic coalition, whose policy prescriptions pose an economic threat to them and would otherwise marginalize them in American society.
And those are the key words — “marginalize them in American society.” Trump’s supporters are made to believe the GOP, the party of the rich, together with the rich man who passed a tax cut for the rich, and who has appointed rich incompetents who only try to line their own pockets — that man somehow will lift them from marginalization, while the Democrats, the party of the poor, will marginalize them.
Yes, there is no logic in bigotry, and it is so sad to see people who would benefit most from the implementation of the Ten Steps to Prosperity (below) — a liberal initiative — vote against their own best interests, to further be enslaved by a GOP, a Trump, and Trump’s rich, pack of convicted crooks.
They see the Democratic Party lurching to the left and know that, should the Dems take complete power over the federal government in January, it will go even worse for them than it has over the past quarter century.
U.S. borders will become more porous, largely through executive action. Asylum policies will be loosened up. Pro-immigrant legislation, such as free medical care for illegals, will serve as an enticement for greater illegal entry. A path to legal status, or even citizenship, will be pushed through.
All this will devastate wage rates, thus harming the economic wellbeing of the Trump constituency. It also will serve over time to generate millions of new Democratic voters who will overwhelm the beleaguered white middle-class.
Keep in mind that the immigrants are consumers, whose buying provides more jobs, not fewer, and better jobs because immigrants are less educated than “the beleaguered, white, middle-class.” Immigrants take the lowest, meanest, least remunerative jobs, not the jobs the white, middle-class wants.
And free medical care for the illegals also is free medical care for “the beleaguered white, middle-class” — a benefit the GOP consistently has fought. Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, poverty aids — those dreaded liberal initiatives — would be much more beneficial to the white middle-class if the Democrats were not hobbled by Mitch McConnell and his GOP Senate.
Even today, the Democrats wish to pump $3 trillion more into the economy, the vast majority of which would benefit Trump’s followers. The GOP says, “No.”
The Democratic elite will resuscitate the free-trade policies of recent decades, thus reviving the deterioration of industrial America that Trump sought to reverse.
Trump’s efforts largely consisted of ending existing trade agreements and replacing them with almost identical trade agreements, destroying any hope of international trust and cooperation, and importantly, levying tariffs on imports — tariffs that are paid by “the beleaguered, white, middle-class.”
As the world’s former moral, political, and economic leader, America under Trump has become just like Trump: A selfish, dishonest nation whose word means nothing on the international stage, and whose “America first, America only” policy prevented us from even being able to condemn Iran for breaking a treaty we alread had broken.
The further evaporation of working-class industrial jobs will deliver another financial blow to his constituency. A likely return to humanitarian interventionism, meanwhile, will lead to new foreign wars, sap the nation’s resources, stir internal frictions, and pull the sons and daughters of Middle America into the maw of conflict.
To “sap the nation’s resources” Trump has begun a war — a trade war — paid for by his followers, as is the Wall which was not paid for by Mexico.
The evaporation of industrial jobs was caused not by immigrants, but by computer automation, and was inevitable. Rather than curse the darkness, America’s leaders should have provided the finances and education necessary to help “the beleaguered, white, middle-class” benefit from this new reality. Trump could have done that, but he didn’t.
Machines now do the mind-numbing, repetitive, brainless industrial jobs Trump’s followers are told to desire. Is that what they really want for their children and grandchildren? Helping people to again become coal miners does them no favors. It merely destroys hope. It is Trump’s dystopian vision.
Trump supporters can see the shape of things to come when they witness Black Lives Matter protesters accosting people in restaurants and bars, yelling “silence is violence” into their faces and demanding gestures of support.
They can’t miss the implications of protests turning into violent riots, with property destroyed, businesses obliterated, downtowns turned into war zones, even violence perpetrated on innocent people with the wrong views—all while police forces in cities throughout America, hobbled by anti-police zealotry (or intimidation) on the part of liberal local officials, stand by and watch.
Portland is not everywhere, but it is far more interesting to the television networks than pictures of the many thousands of people all over America, quietly protesting against racial bigotry.
Instead, he blames the victims and adds fuel to the class-warfare fire. Given two ways to deal with unfairness in American society — penalize the rich or lift up the poor — Trump has chosen a third way: Beat down the poorest.
What went wrong? Trump went wrong.
He built his constituency by exposing to America the fundamental political reality of 2016—namely, the widening chasm between Middle America and its bicoastal elites of big media, government officials, think tanks, big tech, burgeoning financial institutions, the federal deep state, and mavens of popular culture.
He pulled his voters together into a tight knot of political support born of fear and intimidation and self-interest.
But then he couldn’t build on it. He could never take his 43 percent support and find a way to add another 10 percent by devising policies designed to operate on the political margin.
Trump identified a real problem — the Gap between the rich and the rest — and because he is a psychopath, he has not led us away from the Gap but right into it. His real policy has not been “America first” or even “America only.” His real policy has been “Trump only.”
That as many as 43 percent fell for it, is a credit to his personal charisma, a common feature of psychopaths.
(In the Robert Hare Checklist of Psychopathy Symptoms, #1 is:GLIB AND SUPERFICIAL CHARM — the tendency to be smooth, engaging, charming, slick, and verbally facile. Psychopathic charm is not in the least shy, self-conscious, or afraid to say anything.)
A well-crafted grand strategy on immigration probably could have served the purpose, had there been sufficient compromise involved.
A success on the health care issue would have helped.
A big factor could have been a foreign policy success fulfilling the president’s promise of reducing America’s military footprint overseas.
A use of language and a comportment signifying a sense of national unity, at least to the point of creating a majority coalition, could have helped tremendously—and would have been easy to do.
But Trump couldn’t do any of it. The result was that he couldn’t get beyond his core constituency and hence probably can’t be reelected. That likely will leave that core constituency in the lurch as the nation continues the politics of rancor, recrimination, and abuse under a new Democratic regime.
He couldn’t do any of it because he is a psychopath. He had no grand strategy on immigration or anything else. (Hare Checklist item #13 LACK OF REALISTIC, LONG-TERM GOALS — an inability or persistent failure to develop and execute long-term plans and goals.)
He had no success with health care because it didn’t affect him personally. He simply has no compassion for the sick. (Hare Checklist item #8 CALLOUSNESS and LACK OF EMPATHY — a lack of feelings toward people in general; cold, contemptuous, inconsiderate, and tactless.)
He had no foreign policy success because no one can trust him to live up to a commitment. (Hare Checklist item 15. IRRESPONSIBILITY — repeated failure to fulfill or honor obligations and commitments; such as not paying bills, defaulting on loans, performing sloppy work, being absent or late to work, failing to honor contractual agreements.)
He caused national disunity because he has Hare Checklist item 10. POOR BEHAVIORAL CONTROLS — expressions of irritability, annoyance, impatience, threats, aggression and verbal abuse; inadequate control of anger and temper; acting hastily.
If Trump loses, his core constituency will not be left in the lurch. In fact, a Democratic White House and Senate would be the best thing that ever happened to “the beleaguered, white, middle-class.”
They will have free, comprehensive health care, jobs well above the ditch-digging, brainless jobs Trump wants them to have, education for their children, and better Social Security benefits.
And the violent protests, which really are protests against Trump’s violent police state, would end. Trump preaches violence, and his violence always begets more violence. Then he blames the protesters for what he has wrought.
The beleaguered, white, middle-class need only to ignore the siren song of a man and a party — Trump and the GOP –that uses them and takes from them, but cares nothing for them.
Bigotry works because it appeals to our fundamental emotions of fear and hatred, but bigotry is self-consuming, and those who follow Trump are being led into the darkness.
Gap Psychology describes the common desire to distance oneself from those “below” in any socio-economic ranking, and to come nearer those “above.” The socio-economic distance is referred to as “The Gap.”
Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.Implementation of Monetary Sovereignty and The Ten Steps To Prosperity can grow the economy and narrow the Gaps:
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 