Both Political Parties Need to Create Hope

Reading way too much about the state of the election campaign I uncovered a glimmer of truth.  Many Trump supporters want change in Washington D.C.  And even though Trump is campaigning on more trickle down economic and tax cuts for the rich, they believe that an outsider is needed to bring about change in policy that is not working for them.   They don't connect the dots between globalization and automation that have lead to their economic stagnation and that trickle down economics will not have any effect on those trends.  What Trump does not connect on is breaking  trade agreements and disrupting manufacturing doesn't undo the effects of automation or supply chains and he will not be able to help these people with his policies.

I have long written that I don't have a solution, but I know there are think tanks out there with people who understand how policies effect people and there must be some good ideas there.

I can see RedStateVt fuming that I am advocating more income redistribution, but that is not the case.  The dependency economy is one of the things that people are angry about, even those who benefit from it and rely upon it.  People want to work.  Many of the most angry, however, don't want to move to find work.

So there must be something done about job creation and wage stagnation and the distribution of employment around the country.  That would involve state policies perhaps more so than federal policies.  But something must be done to create hope, because when you don't have hope, you allow a tyrant to stoke fear and gather votes.

Two columns this morning provide insights around this.

David Leonhardt on how stagnation creates anger

David Brooks on the damaged psychological make up of Trump



And just when I thought I could get on with my day, I read the following on how unfit the current GOP is to lead any part of the government.

No Profiles of courage in the GOP

Populism Explained

The link is a fairly long read, but it boils down to politics runs on money and people with money like winners and don't like losers.  It quotes Adam Smith's belief that one should identify with the unfortunate and illustrates that when the unfortunate become sufficiently numerous and grieved, they want others to hurt like they hurt.  Even if the solutions (or lack thereof in Donald Trump's case) will not help them.

Link to Column on insights another watching of the Deer Hunter created

Sometimes Clarity Comes in the Fog of Waking Up

Learning that the U.K. voters have decided by 52% to 48% to leave a United Europe, and then reading that the Spanish Socialist government is threatened by a party to its left, and then contemplating the angry support of both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, I came to epiphany that the elite leaders of almost every country in the world are paying the price for corruption and implementing policies that favor the rich over the middle class.

While logic tells me that globalization and technology are the driving forces behind this reduction in economic opportunity for the middle class, the middle class focus on trade agreements and migration/immigration means there is room for populist politicians to take advantage of this.

As a member of the intellectual elite by education, but not birth, I have to accept some responsibility for this but I am not sure what the alternative is.  Free Trade has enriched the world.  Free Trade and globalization have created the upper middle class around the world.  Immigration is what has made the U.S. and the U.K. more competitive economically than countries that are not open to immigration.  The angry populists are not open to those arguments and I really fear what damage a governing angry populist government might do.