The American economy is the envy of the world – The Economist, Oct. 19, 2024

by Vijaya Chandrasoma

The November presidential election, a mere two weeks away, still remains deadlocked.

The Trump campaign keeps gloating that Trump has the confidence of the American electorate on two key issues – management of the economy and immigration.

This week’s Economist follows its headline as shown above with the sub-head that the American economy has left the economies of other rich countries in the dust.

Economists agree that during the last four years, the economy has performed remarkably well. The Biden/Harris economy has achieved a record job growth of 15.7 million new jobs within four years, the highest new job growth for a presidential term in history. Wages are increasing faster than prices – the annual inflation rate is now at 2.2%. The Federal Reserve Board reduced interest rates by half a point in September, and is expected to reduce rates another half point in November.

The Biden/Harris administration has created a dream economy that, so far, voters seem reluctant to celebrate.

On the other hand, most economists agree that another Trump term, with the main thrust of his economic policies based on increased tariffs, will only bring about higher prices and “ruin the economy”.

And Trump leads on the economy?

So we are left with Trump’s favorite subject. Immigration, the brown-skinned menace, which is invading America and poisoning the blood of white America.

In a recent campaign rant, Trump lied that “Kamarla” has imported an army of illegal aliens from the worst dungeons of the prisons and mental asylums of third world countries to prey upon American citizens. Immigrants who are “poisoning the blood of the people” and “ruining the fabric of the country”.

According to Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, these legal immigrants are not only making hamburgers and Haitian goulash of the pets of the residents of Springfield, Ohio. They have “conquered” entire communities in states like Ohio and Colorado. Trump has vowed to “rescue” the communities from these invaders.

Conquests by “the most violent people on earth”, completely unbeknownst to the residents of Springfield, Aurora and other communities targeted by Trump, who have been living in harmony with their immigrant populations for decades.

All the while, these vile immigrants are “stealing” the jobs of Americans, who will not dream of plucking apples for hours under the blistering hot California sun, paid half the minimum wage by unscrupulous employers. And doing all those farm, janitorial and domestic jobs many Americans deem infra dig. Menial, often back breaking jobs, that keep food on their superior white tables, their buildings and pools clean and their children and grandparents looked after.

The absence of immigrants to do these menial jobs would cause the near-collapse of the American economy, if Trump carries out his Project 2025 plans of internment in concentration camps and mass deportation of an estimated 20 million legal and illegal immigrants.

The argument that Trump prefers immigration to be an issue of which he can take political advantage rather than a problem to be solved seems to be finally gaining currency with American non-cult voters. The bipartisan border security bill, authored last February by one of the most conservative of Senators, Republican Senator Lankford of Oklahoma, and endorsed by 75 of the 100 Senators, was shot down by Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, on the instructions of his Fuhrer. Donald Trump did not want any efforts made to solve the problem, as it would give the credit to the Biden administration for addressing the problem on a bipartisan basis before the election.

According to Senator Lankford, the proposed bill would have implemented a huge number of immigration control tools to help the government to finally mitigate, if not eliminate, the currently unacceptably large flow of illegal immigrants across the southern border, while easing the path for the entry of legal immigrants.

There is a very good reason Trump is carrying out this anti-immigrant strategy. This is his last, desperate Hail Mary pass, to make white supremacist natives of European ancestry fearful that their privileges are being eroded by these brown-skinned immigrants. After all he has succeeded in playing on these fears and transforming the old Republican Party, the party of family values and law and order, into a cult of white, Christian, America First nationalists. Their devotion to Trump is Godlike, their votes assured.

There is a similar number of sane Americans, Never Trumpers, who have recognized the dangers to democracy Trump presents, and will vote for him under no circumstances.

Then there is a sliver of the electorate of undecided voters, who are gradually beginning to lean towards the Democratic camp as Trump’s rhetoric gets increasingly unhinged and violent. This recent trend has driven Trump to desperation, and forced him to invent a brand-new enemy, the enemy within.

VP Kamala Harris ventured bravely last Wednesday into the lion’s den, Fox News, for an adversarial interview which she knew would be conducted for an audience of one. Donald J. Trump.

The lion was Brett Baier, a Fox anchor, who was hostile from the beginning, constantly over talking and interrupting Harris. His questions were designed to expose that VP Harris was not articulate enough, not strong enough to handle the toughest job in the world.

Baier implied that her presidency would be just a continuation of the Biden presidency. to which she responded that she represented a different generation of leadership, that “my presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency”. She would bring fresh ideas, based on her life experiences and her professional experiences.

As President Biden said last Tuesday, “Every president has to cut their own path. That’s what I did. As Vice-President, I was loyal to Barack Obama, but I cut my own path as president. That’s what Kamala’s going to do. She’s been loyal so far, but (as president) she’ll cut her own path”.

When VP Harris made reference to Trump’s recent comments referring to Democrats as the enemy within, Baier played a section of a video clip, showing Trump insisting that he isn’t threatening anyone.

In that clip, Trump said, “They’re the ones doing the threatening. They do phony investigations. I’ve been investigated more than Alphonse Capone was”.

VP Harris immediately caught the subterfuge. She said, “With all due respect, that clip is not what he has been saying about the enemy within. (Baier has since apologized for his “mistake” of switching clips).

“You and I both know that he has talked about turning the American military on the American people, he talked about going after people engaged in peaceful protest. He has talked about locking people up because they disagree with him. This is a democracy, and in a democracy, the President of the United States, in the United States of America, should be willing and able to handle criticism without saying he will lock people up for doing it. This is what is at stake”.

Trump has frequently stated that, as president, he will use military force to “handle” these “communists, Marxists, fascists”, who are also law-abiding Americans. He even named former Speaker, Nancy Pelosi and California Congressmen as prime examples of his creation of the enemy within. They were the most vocal of those who prosecuted Trump for his crimes after he lost the presidency in 2020. Including the insurrection of January 6, 2021. A day of infamy for American democracy, which Trump describes as “a day of love”, an event to be celebrated.

VP Harris more than held her own at this hostile Fox interview. She came across as being decent, reasonable and in complete command of the facts. A most competent President of the United States.

The United States, the greatest democracy in the world, has always been afflicted with voter apathy, with a great percentage of eligible voters not taking advantage of the most precious right of a democracy – the right to vote. The 2020 presidential election had the highest-ever voter turnout, with approximately 66% of the voting-eligible population casting their ballots – the highest percentage for any national election since 1900.

The alarming fact is, even with the highest voter turnout in US history, over 80 million (33.9%) of eligible voters stayed at home.

A recent CNN talk show had a snap poll of its viewing audience: which of the factors of hope and fear are likely to influence the decision of a voter. The host, Michael Smerconish, posed the question:

“So who are we? Are we the nation of boundless optimism and enormous opportunity? Are we the exceptional and indispensable beacon for the world? Or are we and our fellow Americans angry, depressed, pessimistic, fearful? Are we beaten down by inflation and the presence of millions of immigrants pouring across our southern border?

“These two visions of America, one bright, one dark, are increasingly the proxies for the two candidates, Vice-President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump”.

The poll, admittedly an inaccurate attempt to formulate voters’ opinion by polling under 100,000 viewers, closed with almost 60% of those who responded that fear is the more potent election emotion.

Vice-President Harris, whose campaign has projected a future of “boundless optimism, enormous opportunity” and joy, has also begun to play to the fears of the American voter. She talks of the dark dangers presented by a second term of Trump, with his self-confessed promises of overturning the constitution and becoming a dictator “for a day!”

These are real dangers that she projects, of which all sane Americans should be terrified. She is not alone. Many senior politicians, both Republican and Democrat, have been projecting these dangers to democracy the nation will face if Trump wins a second term to the White House. Many of these had worked in senior positions in the Trump administration during his first term.

None more chilling than a statement from General Mark Millie, who worked as Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking military officer in Trump’s administration. Veteran reporter, Bob Woodward, quotes Millie in his latest book, War, released last week:

“He (Trump) is the most dangerous person ever. I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is now the most dangerous person in the country.

“A fascist to the core”.

General Millie also fears of being recalled to uniform and court-martialed should Trump defeat Kamala Harris and return to power. Trump’s plans to recall and court-martial other retired senior officers, and imprison political opponents have also been forecast by his former secretary of defense, Mark Esper.

It must be emphasized that not only hard-core members of the MAGA (Make America Great Again) cult are fascists. Those moderate Republicans, who support Trump in spite of his fascist rhetoric, who realize the threat to democracy he presents but put their jobs before their country, are also fascists, by definition. Just like the moderate Germans who supported Hitler and the Nazis in the 1930s, who drove past the concentration camps holding their noses to ward off the stink of burning human flesh. Make no mistake, they were also Nazis, however convincingly they pleaded their innocence after the war.

The USA under Trump is beginning to smell awfully like Germany in 1933.

Vice-President Harris has also turned the tables on Trump on the mental/physical disability issue. She has released her medical records, which Trump has refused to divulge. Harris was emulating a plan used by Trump when Biden was at the head of the Democratic Party ticket, when he ridiculed the 81-year-old Biden’s mental acuity and physical stability.

Summarizing a detailed letter from US Army physician, Dr Joshua Simmons, VP Harris is in “excellent health….She possesses the physical and mental resiliency to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency”.

An octogenarian two decades older than his opponent, Trump had earlier called the vibrant Harris “mentally impaired and unstable”, an obvious projection of his own declining mental and physical stability, currently verging on the cusp of psychopathic dementia!

He “excelled” himself at a town hall event in Pennsylvania last week, presided over by puppy-killing Republican Governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem. Two men fainted during the event, and Trump’s immediate compassionate reaction: “Would anybody else like to faint?” While the afflicted men were receiving medical attention, Trump got the Disc Jockey to play Pavarotti’s rendition of Ave Maria! Twice!

Then he cut short the Question-and-Answer segment, the most important part of the event, saying, “Who the hell wants to listen to your questions?” (translation – I have no answers to your questions), instructing the DJ to continue playing his favorite music. The DJ started with the gayest of songs in America, “Y.M.B.A.”, to which Trump “danced”, followed by 39 full minutes of “swaying”, a performance that prompted comedian Jimmy Kimmel liken to a “manatee struggling in seaweed”.

Trump wrapped up the meeting, to the great relief of a suffering audience, reminding them to make sure they voted on January 5.

The November presidential election, a mere two weeks away, still remains deadlocked.