President Trump Is A Wake Up Call, But Not For The Reasons You Think

Joe Quinn
Sott.net 

The fact that Donald Trump was elected President of the USA is largely irrelevant. What is relevant is the conditions that allowed for him to be elected President of the USA.

So what drove Americans to vote for either Trump or Hillary in this week's US presidential election? Ask the mainstream media, or any Hillary supporter, and they'll probably tell you it was issues like liberal values and social justice. They'll also tell you that Trump supporters were motivated primarily by racism, sexism, and hatred. In reality, Trump voters were just as concerned about social injustice. In fact, this is the issue behind most popular votes around the world these days. And ironically, Trump voters were arguably more concerned about social justice than the liberals who voted Hillary because the social justice that drove millions to vote for Trump is very different to the 'social justice' that concerned Hillary supporters.

Here we need to note the clear distinction between the working-class 'rednecks' in the USA, and some of those in a more upwardly mobile financial position. Most people who voted for Trump were the 'rednecks' and they did so because they are feeling the negative effects of 8 years of the Obama government's 'liberal' economic and foreign policies that have continued unchanged since the 'conservative' Bush years (you might wonder why that is and how it works - hint: the president isn't the 'decider', by a long shot). Those policies coincided with the 2008 'crash' and the bank 'bailouts' that saw millions of American homes repossessed and many traditional manufacturing job losses, both of which disproportionately affected the poor.

It was precisely this marginalization of the most vulnerable in society that was behind the Brexit vote in the UK earlier this year. Both the British people's vote to leave the EU and American people's vote for Trump were not primarily votes for racism or xenophobia but votes against the neoliberal status quo under which the poor saw their living standards drop further and everyone saw war and death abroad increase.

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"So for all those who voted for Hillary because they are worried about fascism coming to America, I have news for you: Donald Trump isn't it. When fascism comes to America, it won't be in the guise of a crass demagogue espousing regressive policies, it will come wrapped in the flag of 21st-century 'liberal' and 'progressive' ideals, espoused by a government that slaughters millions of foreigners in the name of freedom and democracy and yet enjoys the fawning adoration of a gaggle of self-centered, self-important wannabe humanitarian do-gooders. So don't kid yourself, American fascism isn't looming on the horizon because of President Trump; it's been your bread-and-butter for decades."

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