Trumped?

What the Donald achieved in the business world is now evident in American politics. He has successfully executed a hostile takeover of the Republican Party. He used his wealth, personality, notoriety and leverage to wipe out all the competition and bully the party establishment into submission. And now the party and the right wing media are clicking their heels and kowtowing. He may even overwhelm Hillary given his momentum and the accelerated rate at which former enemies are rallying to his side. 

 

The USA has just witnessed a modern marvel of unprecedented political engineering. Instead of being trumped by powerful Republican opponents, Donald has triumphed over them, the party and perhaps even the nation. Hillary's inability to make palpable gains in her state-by-state campaign belies a serious lack of liberal support. And liberal support is all it takes to capture the Presidency. Everyone agrees there are more liberal voters in the US than republicans and conservatives and independents. All she has to do is smile to aggregate black, Latino, women and other minority votes. Instead, she is losing one contest after another to septuagenarian socialist candidate Bernie Sanders. Given the prevailing set of state electoral rules however, Hillary continues to gain the all important delegate votes in spite of Bernie's popularity. 

 

The more sagacious of the American pundits are already begining to scrutinize the demographics of Sanders' popularity. He has mesmerized white youth, women and huge pockets of the middle class with his promises of free higher education, income redistribution, lower taxes, universal healthcare and what amounts to a seriously expanded welfare state. The impact of this sea change in political demography will not kick in until after the current election. However, those who pay no attention to it are likely to become its victim. One major element to public opinion Bernie has captured is the disdain for the super rich and their alliance with political leaders of all political colors and levels. He has made it abundantly apparant that entry into the privileged 1% club of America's wealthiest is near to impossible and the only way to gain access to manifold wealth is to re-structure Washington DC by excising crony capitalism. This means expanded access to privileged financial information, expelling lobbyists, limiting congressional terms of office, and imposing even more severe regulations on banking institutions and executives. 

 

Strange as it may seem, the USA is at once warned against the prospect of a tyrant and dictator in the form of Trump on the one hand while being cautioned into not becoming a welfare state like those of Europe on the other. The likelihood is that neither will result, but it would be prudent to keep close tabs on both of these propensities.