Welcome friends!
I was reading an article by old school conservative pundit George Will the other day about President Trump’s much ballyhooed tariffs and trade protections ostensibly for the benefit of certain segments of US industry just to see what the ivory tower wing of the conservative movement made of it. I must confess I had stopped reading Mr. Will regularly some time ago after I concluded he was simply incapable of talking straight, which in my estimation is a problem he shares with most other conservative pundits I’ve encountered. For some reason or other I thought I’d have another go. Still kicking myself because as per usual it got me a tad riled up and not in a good intellectually challenging sort of way. Of course isn’t that the point of much of conservative punditry? To “make lib-tard heads explode” in the dynamic albeit juvenile vernacular of the conservative troglodytes one tends to find on comment streams on the web? Not really expressing anything real or genuine or helpful. Not in good faith in any sense of the word. Just trying to be an ass for shits and giggles and typically succeeding at it quite well indeed. Most of Mr. Will’s discussion seemed perfectly fine and covered some well-recognized issues associated with tariffs and trade protection, which is the sort of thing one might expect from the free market as panacea crowd. I thought for a moment I had made it through the dark forest with my head intact but just at the end Mr. Will concluded President Trump must really be a liberal or progressive Democrat. This despite Mr. Trump being the darling and unchallenged champion of the conservative Republican political machine, receiving a rapturous reception from the mixed nuts at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference), and doing best politically in the most traditionally conservative areas of the country such as rural communities in the Midwest and Deep South. I appreciate Mr. Will apparently has some funny notions of What Conservatism Really Means floating about his head but when it comes to the real conservatism practiced here in the USA by most real people who consider themselves conservatives I must conclude or I suppose affirm my previous conclusion the man simply doesn’t know what he’s talking about. However, as does sometimes happen, even the silliest and most inane of arguments sometimes get the old brain cells firing once again or a few of them anyway. Let’s contemplate for a moment what might be causing Mr. Will’s apparent confusion.
As I discussed in my previous post on this issue (Conservative Ideology and Socialism Two Ways from September 28, 2017) I believe the traditional free market as panacea / natural rights / small government take on this issue is free trade and the free movement of labor is great and when it comes to the fate of particular groups of workers such as for example American workers whatever happens should happen. According to some misguided but possibly well-meaning conservatives this is meant to be either consistent with nature’s plan for humanity (without or without the intent of a supernatural planner such as Mother Nature or the old bearded man in the sky) or ethically optimal as per the findings or more accurately perhaps some common misinterpretations of the findings of neoclassical economic theory the logical flaws of which I’ve now pointed out in so many posts I’ve become weary of doing it although I’ll do it again eventually for those who missed it the first several times and can’t be bothered to look up old posts, which by the way you can find under the label of economics in the subject list if you’re interested. Under this traditional conservative free market theory if American workers lose out to foreign workers that’s tough beans. If American businesses relocate overseas that’s tough beans. They’re not American workers’ nannies OK? If American workers are destined to die they should get on with it and reduce the surplus population. For some reason these old time traditional economic conservatives just can’t fathom why the only people who really go for this sort of thing are other equally confused amateur right-wing social philosophers and economists on the one hand and supercilious rich people on the other. Very difficult to carry elections in a democracy based on that sort of theory although they’ve certainly given it their best shot over many years, which probably explains why they’ve started to chafe at the very idea of democracy with some casting envious eyes toward the Chinese system of market-oriented political authoritarianism. When President Xi of China declared his intention to become the new Emperor of China or I guess the correct term would probably be President for Life our own President Trump enthusiastically supported the move and said he thought the USA should probably do something similar presumably with Mr. Trump playing the title role here in the USA.
Liberals of course are famously interested in how their fellow humans are faring and hence tend to not be very attracted to conservative social and economic philosophizing (although I have met a few so-called “neoliberals” who appear to be as confused by the admittedly very misleading social ethics expressed in economic theory or let’s say some common misinterpretations of economic theory as any conservative). As such liberals have typically been stuck with the unenviable task of actually thinking of something useful to do about struggling American workers with no help at all from conservatives. (I was rather amused the other day by an online commentator clearly from the right side of the aisle who suggested liberals should hurry up and fix the homeless problem because conservatives were starting to lose patience. I thought it was pretty funny given conservatives now control every facet of the US government. But it does point I think to a fundamental truth of American political life. When liberals see problems they try to fix them. When conservatives see problems they express their anger and dissatisfaction those problems exist. Liberals think of solutions and work to bring them into reality. Conservatives whine, pout, posture, then block whatever liberals try to do.) The best liberals have come up with thus far is to use government taxation to help out struggling Americans either through direct redistribution, which I understand is economically speaking generally the cheapest and least intrusive approach although politically speaking is typically the most infeasible in that it will invariably elicit outraged claims of “socialism run amok” from conservatives, to indirect redistribution through social safety net programs and policies or even using tax dollars to simply hire people to do things not being done or done adequately on the market because of any of the numerous ways real markets can prove less than entirely optimal. The big advantage of the tax and spend approach of course is that it’s systematic and economy-wide. Although presumably some sort of means testing would take place and hopefully the tax system would be graduated or progressive so the real burden would be spread equitably and thus I suppose economically struggling people would necessarily be differentiated in some way from non-struggling people we certainly wouldn’t be in a situation of saying something like poor coal miners in West Virginia should send some money to poor ranchers in Wyoming or what have you. Of course this sort of thing has always set conservative passions aflame again on the hard-headed side because they perceive Uncle Sam touching them for money and on the wooly-headed side because it interferes with the ostensible optimality of the free market.
This obviously sets up a bit of a political dilemma for conservative politicians wanting to feign an interest in struggling American workers. How to reconcile the cold cold heart of traditional economic conservatism with the need to prevail politically in a society-based (in this case nation-based) political system using the egalitarian one person one vote rule (although goodness knows in every other respect kowtowing to the moneyed class like a coolie kowtowing to the Emperor of China)? That’s a tough one. President Trump is trying his best and I’m not sure traditional conservatives like Mr. Will really give the man his due. You think it’s easy? You try it! On the one hand he’s working furiously to shut down the liberal approach to addressing social welfare issues by reducing taxes, making the tax system less progressive, and reducing or eliminating social safety net programs so he’s certainly implementing traditional conservative ideology in that respect. However, realistically he can’t just leave it at that and expect to keep his fake populism intact. He has to at least be seen trying to do something to help economically struggling Americans workers. What he has clearly chosen to do is play different groups of workers against one another both internationally and domestically. Make no mistake about it trade protections that arguably help one segment of US industry inevitably hurt some other segment of US industry. Whichever group of workers pleads their case most piteously (or in the case of their respective CEOs I suppose whoever offers up the most goodies) will apparently receive presidential patronage. Mr. Trump will then be able to pose for photo-ops as the Great Benefactor of American Labor or really of that particular group of workers in that particular industry at that particular moment anyway. It’s actually quite a good idea from a realpolitik or propaganda perspective. So many groups of workers to play off against one another. So many CEOs desperate to make a deal and get the inside track. So many photo ops. So many opportunities for empty political grandstanding highlighting his faux concern for the American worker. Indeed the non-systematic President as Big Man element that apparently so bothered Mr. Will is I expect the main element recommending the approach to the consummate old time political demagogue Mr. Trump. And the beautiful thing for conservatives, the thing always most dear to their hearts, is they don’t have to pay a dime in the way of taxes. Their great bugbear, the potential of democratic government to intervene in what they see as their own financial affairs, will have been effectively neutered. Henceforth conservative government will presumably interfere exclusively in the affairs of the various groups of workers who come to them hat in hand hoping for special consideration like peasants of old. The Beast of Democracy finally tamed and domesticated by the corrupt fat cats of the traditional conservative moneyed elite.
One suspects Mr. Trump most likely picked up some pointers on this approach from his good friend Tsar Vladimir of Russia. Yes, from what I’ve read Mr. Putin is a great practitioner of this sort of political gamesmanship and grandstanding. The situation of workers in Russia in general may be going to hell in a handbasket but the Tsar always has time to show up at some random manufacturing plant in Hicksgrad or wherever to fix a little problem with someone’s timecard or what have you and strike some stirring poses for the cameras in a hard hat or overalls or I suppose in some cases shirtless. Hero of the Russian Worker. Apparently the numbskulls of rural Russia eat that stuff up although one can’t tell for sure since one suspects elections in that country are not entirely above board and their government is famous for its disinformation capabilities and campaigns honed over many years of authoritarian communist administrations. One suspects President Trump believes the average American must be every bit as gullible as the average Russian particularly given his frank admission of how much he loves uneducated voters.
So what are we to do? That at least is an easy one. Fight the conservative beast on the intellectual field of battle. Fight the anti-social confused claptrap of old time traditional economic conservatives like Mr. Will. Fight the fake socialist political conservatism of duplicitous double-talking politicians like Mr. Trump. Fight for transparent, well meaning, honest, genuine liberalism. Fight for the future of America.
References
Trump delights in executive swagger. His tariffs show it. George Will. March 7, 2018. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-delights-in-executive-swagger-his-tariffs-show-it/2018/03/07/d01b7c18-2179-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c_story.html?utm_term=.3108a38dcd4e.
