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December 6, 2016

Mr. Trump: No Democracy Please, We're Americans

Scott Stockdale

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"No democracy please, we're Americans", seems to be the message from multitudes of Americans, the corporate media, the political establishment and the rich and powerful lobby that influences government policy.

The November 9 edition of the Washington post reported:

“Vigils and protests against Donald Trump spread from coast to coast early Thursday as crowds burned effigies of the president-elect, blocked highways and warned of wider backlash — underscoring the difficult task Trump faces in uniting a fractured country.

“Protests were reported in cities across the nation, from major metropolitan centers like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, to smaller cities, such as Richmond and Portland, Ore. Dozens of demonstrators were arrested.”

It didn't seem to matter at all to these people that Donald Trump was elected in a free and fair election: a system of government many people have given their lives to defend and many people throughout the world can only dream of.

But then again, with the corporate media fanning the flames of resentment because their candidate lost and, they find Mr. Trump may expose the political corruption in Washington, these people protesting in the streets have been given what they believe to be a modicum of moral authority to continue to oppose a democratic election.

And it's not just in America that the media is disregarding the outcome of a democratic election.

In the November 10 edition of the Guardian, Jonathan Freeland said: David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, spoke for many when he wrote “The election of Donald Trump to the presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the constitution, and a ... sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy ... It is impossible to react to this moment with anything but revulsion and profound anxiety.”

These are weasel words that mean nothing without details. “Spoke for many” - and how many is that?”

Does he seem to be suggesting the majority or at least a significant percentage of the Americans feel this way?  Is there any evidence for this or is it just conjecture of a man not happy with the result – a sore loser?

Doesn't this kind of rhetoric lead some – enough to form crowds across the nation - to believe they have to do something, such as take to the streets, to save their nation from a democratically elected president?

Opposition is needed and important but all opposition must be by legal means.

In Canada, National Post columnist Jonathan Kay weighed in, in the November 9 edition of the newspaper, calling President-elect Trump “a rank demagogue who has disgraced America and contaminated conservative politics internationally.”

Meanwhile, in the same edition of the newspaper an article states: “An Iposos poll last week (first week November) concluded that 70 per cent of Canadians disapproved of Trump's victory.

But the same poll found that 77 per cent of Canadians would consider voting for a candidate who ran on a Trumpian platform of stricter immigration controls, skepticism over free trade and a tough-on-crime measures.”

Paul Craig Roberts notes in an article on the website the Institute for Political Economy:

“Liberals, progressives, and the left-wing (to the extent that one still exists) are aligning with the corrupt oligarchy against president-elect Trump and the American people.”

Could it be that “it's the economy stupid,” as, ironically, former President Bill Clinton was so fond of saying?

Although the U.S. economy has made tepid improvements since the 2008 financial crisis, wages have stagnated, while the stock market continues to make new highs because the American government gave $3 trillion to the banks; and the money went into the stock market: it didn't trickle down to the rest of the economy.

Moreover, it didn't trickle down under Reagan or any other president for that matter.

Is it all that surprising then that a candidate who railed against trade agreements, immigration, a “rigged system,” and the Washington insiders who rigged it, should be popular among the ninety something per cent of Americans who have not benefited from the $3 trillion of their money that their government gave away?

While the corporate media likes to focus on President-elect Trump's inappropriate behaviour - which is indeed inappropriate - Trump focused on issues that many people feel have a real impact on their daily lives: mostly the economy which has left them behind.

Candidate Trump is the first to promise to add new taxes of 35 per cent to any American company taking away manufacturing jobs from the U.S. (to increase their profits) and bringing products back to the U.S. to sell.

Along with his opposition to this outsourcing, candidate Trump proposed to scrap free trade agreements if they hurt American workers.

He also defied the long-established powers-that-be in America with his attacks on the corporate media for its blatant bias and the rich and powerful lobby – Wall Street banks in particular – which backed Hillary Clinton.

Why wouldn't these policies resonate with many of Americans?

No matter how much the corporate media puffed up Mrs. Clinton's record as Secretary of State, many Americans can't see what their government has accomplished -at great cost to them - in wars in Syria, Iraq and Libya.

Trump spoke for them when he declared these wars under the two previous administrations were a senseless waste of blood and treasure.

This was a new perspective difficult to find in the corporate media, but it appears that candidate Trump was saying what many Americans were thinking.

With regard to the alleged threat posed by Russia and China, while the corporate media continues to fan the flames of confrontation, in line with the policy of the two previous U.S. Administrations – both in thrall to the armaments industry – candidate Trump said he wanted peace with the nuclear powers. 

But the military/security complex needs an enemy for its budget.  Not surprisingly, the majority of Americans care about peace, not the budget needs of the military/security complex.

Because their jobs just aren't there like they used to be, while at the same time the country has 11 million illegal immigrants, it's not surprising that many Americans agreed with candidate Trump when he promised to enhance the border security with Mexico.

After the corporate media has bombarded them for years about the “War on Terror”, featuring the arch-enemy “the Muslims” – it's like the cartoons featuring good guys and bad guys, that Americans have been watching since childhood - is it any wonder that many Americans agreed with candidate Trump's proposal to enhance security against Muslims?

President-elect Trump got elected because so many Americas have had all they can take from the self-dealing oligarchy.

The vast bulk of America has seen its economic prospects and that of its children and grandchildren decline for a quarter century, while the stock market continues to register record highs.

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