Out Of Darkness ... Light? That Donald Trump possesses an enormous ego is indisputable. The question is: will that ego be better served by becoming one of America’s truly great presidents – or one of its very worst?
LET’S BE OPTIMISTIC about President-Elect Donald Trump.
Optimistic? Seriously? Yes, seriously.
Oh, I know that America’s late-night liberal chat-show hosts
are all hyperventilating at the prospect of President Trump. And, yes, I’m
aware that the global Left is competing furiously in the self-flagellation
stakes. Because, of course, Trump’s victory was all about them and their
failure to retain the loyalty of white working-class males. (Although, quite
how the Left hoped to do that after nearly 40 years of heaping unrelenting
economic, social and cultural humiliation on Caucasian proletarian masculinity
defeats me utterly!) But, if you’ll just bear with me, I’ll try to outline why
a Trump presidency could end up okay.
Let’s begin with the comments of ex-pat Kiwi businessman
turned big-time American corporate CFO and Washington insider, Chris Liddell.
On TVNZ’s Q+A current affairs show,
Liddell commented that Trump’s victory marks the definitive end of the era of
untrammelled free-market capitalism.
According to this former CFO of Microsoft and General
Motors, rising inequality and the hollowing-out of the Western middle-classes
are trends that the global political class (and the corporate interests they
represent) can no longer ignore. Trump’s victory, said Liddell, equals “Brexit
x 10”.
Or, as Bob Dylan used to say: “The times they are
a-changing.”
“Oh, come on!”, I hear you say. “Optimism is one thing, but
peddling pure fantasy is another.”
Fair enough. Let me, therefore, draw your attention to the
response of Democrat Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader of the US House of
Representatives, to Trump’s election-night promise to launch a massive
programme of infrastructure renewal.
The Republican and Democratic parties, she said, will be
forced to “come together and find common ground”. She also reminded the news
media that a massive programme dedicated to rebuilding America’s crumbling
infrastructure was one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest election promises. If Trump
sends an massive infrastructure bill to the House, then there can be little
doubt that the Democrats will vote for it.
Which is all very well, but what about the Republicans? Is
it really credible to suggest that the party which implacably resisted every
economic and social reform advanced by the Obama Administration is suddenly
going to embrace his much-maligned “Stimulus Package” as their own?
A better question, perhaps, is what will become of them if
they don’t?
What must never be forgotten is that Trump comes to the
White House carrying less political baggage than any presidential candidate
since Dwight Eisenhower. His billionaire status enables him to operate without
recourse to the squalid back-room horse-trading that has turned-off so many
American voters.
It’s a situation ideally suited to a successful populist
leader. Having run against “The Establishment” and won, Trump now needs to
demonstrate what his victory means in legislative terms. The very best way to
do that is take up a position bestriding both the Democratic and Republican
parties. By demanding bi-partisan support for his plans to restore American
greatness he will be offering himself a win-win proposition. If the Democrats
refuse to play ball, they will merely reinforce their estrangement from
“Heartland America”. If the Republican Party balks at Trump’s Keynesian
solutions (which, ideologically-speaking, they are bound to do) then Trump has
them over a barrel – a pork barrel.
A Republican congress foolish enough to resist Trump’s
programme will prove to the American people that it wasn’t Barack Obama who was
the problem, or even the godless Democratic Party. An obstructionist Republican
majority will demonstrate conclusively that Washington’s problems are
ultimately traceable to the Republican Party itself.
If this eventuates, then Trump’s options are twofold.
Either, he reaches out to Nancy Pelosi and the new Senate Minority Leader, and
makes America great with the votes of Trump Republican loyalists and the
Democratic Party. Or, he turns to his “base” and asks it to deliver him a
pliable congress at the earliest opportunity – the Mid-Term Elections of 2018.
This latter course would allow Trump to do what nobody else –
Democrat or Republican – has been able to do since 2008: purge the Republican
Party of its extremist, Tea Party, element. The consequent drawing together of
the two major parties would restore to the Legislative Branch the
bi-partisanship it so conspicuously lacks: that willing co-operation among
legislators which the framers of the US Constitution deemed essential to the
success of representative government.
Such a course of action would, naturally, earn Trump the
bitter enmity of his fellow One Percenters – who would almost certainly attempt
an end-run around both the Executive and Legislative Branches by appealing to
the Judiciary. What better reason could Trump have for appointing a string of
intelligent and independent Supreme Court Justices?
That Donald Trump possesses an enormous ego is indisputable.
The question is: will that ego be better served by becoming one of America’s
truly great presidents – or one of its very worst?
This essay was
originally published in The Press Of
Wednesday, 16 November 2016.
