The Man for the Job

The world marches backward, from time to time, with deep, largely undetected under-currents that shape our political thoughts as well as our markets. They shape the candidates and the voters too.

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Wednesday, November 27^th, 2024

Bill Bonner, writing today from Baltimore, Maryland

A torrent of opinion claims Donald Trump will be the death of our democracy.

Salon:

Will Trump try to end democracy? Yes...

"Dictator's Handbook" authors say a second Trump term will be dreadful — but he can't push US into autocracy

This from Atlantic:

Donald Trump has won — and American democracy is now in grave danger

Yet while the election itself was clearly on the level, what comes next may not be. Having won power democratically, Trump is now in a position to enact his long-proposed plans to hollow out American democracy from within.

The opinionators give the man almost supernatural powers. According to them, he can change the way a nation of 330 million people functions — its rules... its habits... its customs and its sense of what is right and what is wrong.

But Mr. Trump is the reflection of a major shift in the Primary Political Trend. He is not the cause of it.

Yesterday, driving into the office... all of a sudden, police sirens sounded... what seemed like dozens of them... on both sides of the highway. What was going on? Had WWIII broken out? Had the Russians landed in Annapolis? Nope. A pick-up had driven off the road. No one was hurt.

Still, lights flashing, horns blowing, and handguns at-the-ready... a whole squad of first responders roared down the road... each trying to be the first to respond.

“When did the local police get so muscled-up,” we wondered. This was not Andy of Mayberry, on the job. These were military-grade cops ready to handle an alien invasion.

But all over the world, governments — local as well as national — are lifting weights. The BBC:

US weapons sales abroad hit record high in 2023, boosted by Ukraine war

The US government directly negotiated $81bn in sales, a 56% increase from 2022, the state department reported. Poland bought Apache helicopters for $12bn, and also paid $10bn for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (Himars) and $3.75bn for M1A1 Abrams tanks, the department said in a report for the US government's fiscal year that ended in October. It also spent $4bn on Integrated Air and Missile Defence Battle Command Systems.

"Arms transfers and defence trade are important US foreign policy tools with potential long-term implications for regional and global security," the state department said in its annual memo released on Monday.

Bodybuilding and bullying by public officials are not Donald Trump’s doing. They are in the ‘air du temps.’ Everybody seems to want to kick someone else’s butt. Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris, did her best to imitate a butt kicker.

But Donald Trump has spent his entire career rehearsing for the role. He’s been named in more than 3,500 lawsuits. He’s a real fighter, in other words... just the man for the top job... when pugilism is in style.

There are periods when civilization expands – by voluntary exchanges and consensual innovations. There are other times when the politicians and elites take over…with controls, sanctions, regulations tariffs, taxes – great campaigns to make the world a better place…and war.

The world marches backward, from time to time….with deep, largely undetected under-currents that shape our political thoughts as well as our markets. They shape us, too... our candidates and the voters who elect them.

A petty thief may hold you up at gunpoint. But the elites have much more effective ways. Much of what we describe as ‘public policy’ is really just another way of robbing one group for the benefit of another. It is what you get when you are on the downswing of the Primary Political Trend.

Then, cometh the fighting spirit, cometh the fighter. Mr. Trump was not selected for his coherent economic views. Nor was he chosen for his deep knowledge of technology, the Constitution, or global affairs. The voters selected him because they are in the mood for a fight... and he’s a fighter.

Regards,

Bill Bonner