Trump is the symptom of a great malaise, but he is only in part the problem. The GOP has long ago lost its way and sold out to bug business, intolerant conservatives and religious zealots among others. The Democrats are schisming between pro-populist leftists and pro-corporate centrists and even some hard-core right wingers. The nomination processes for both major parties are either dysfunctional or corrupted and rigged. The electoral system has been bought by concentrated capital or disabled by public relations firms and their deep-pocketed clients. The electorate has been atomised by fear, envy, hatred and greed and has been coopted by rigid ideological adherence, vicious ideological differences which disable compromise and blinding self-interest without the buffer of enlightenment. Into this vacuum of electoral power are stepping disillusioned and very angry populists and cynical, opportunistic demagogues of all stripes and political leanings. The electorate's anger is dictating their electoral choices rather than their minds tempered by civic duty and focused by a sense of public welfare. Democracy in America is morphing into a grotesque, publicly displayed, kabuki theatre which masks the growing plutocracy and oligarchy which really calls the shots these days. A fast growing surveillance state and a nascent police state are cycling up to speed just in case the electorate shakes off its divisions and paralysis and begins to act in concert in order to reform the dysfunctional system which protects the interests of the few at the expense of the many. President Trump's election was just one sign of the massive instability which is building up in the US Federal political system, much like the increasing wobbles in a slowing toy top as its spin slows and it approaches teetering collapse.
The second great danger is that this growing mess so disgusts voters and discredits democracy that the electorate and political elites begin to contemplate or viscerally react and then try to replace democracy with more authoritarian forms of governance; or they turn away from public institutions in favour of out-sourcing matters of state to top-down, private, for-profit interests which will exploit the American people for the benefit of their shareholders.
America is at an historical crossroads politically these days and the political decisions Americans make over the next 2-6 years will reverberate for generations I reckon. So think hard, choose carefully and consider running for public office if you can.
Cheers?
Evilroddy.
