President Trump's Fascist Tariffs
The silence here is deafening.
Ayn Rand refused to endorse Ronald Reagan's campaign for the Presidency, even though it would have seemed on the surface to have been consonant with her philosophy. Of course, the support of the Christian Right nicely highlighted Nancy Reagan's consultations with astrologer Joan Quigely.
So, too, here with President Trump, do we see a President who talks some rightwing key words about America, but who is a pragmatist. His range-of-the-moment "tweets" betray his psycho-epistemology. As with the pragmatists of a century ago, President Trump's policies do not occasionally turn "practical" by increasing personal liberty and recognizing the basis for individual rights. Rather, they turn consistently to expanding the power of the government in response to "demands" from "the people."
Fascism is a populist political system. Based on Hegel's theory of the Ideal, fascist propaganda appeals to nation, family, work, and tradition. "Make America great again" was the expression of that in the 2016 campaign. The tariffs are just one of the inevitable outcomes.
On the surface, at first, you will pay more for a wide range of material goods in order to subsidize inefficient businesses. The easy claim is that those firms have Washington connections. Nucor's president, John J. Ferriola is one of President Trump's advisors. He also serves on several boards for steel producers. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J....)
It is a little more complicated than that (of course) and (no surprise), it even includes Russian-owned firms operating in the USA.
"Steel plants owned by non-American companies such as ArcelorMittal account for a large chunk of total U.S. production, with the Luxembourg-based company’s plants alone representing about 16 percent, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
Other foreign companies operating in the U.S. market include Moscow-based Evraz Plc, whose executives attended the White House event on Thursday, as well as Brazil’s Gerdau SA, whose shares rallied along with homegrown producers U.S. Steel Corp. and Nucor Corp." -- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...
(And in other news... President Trump called for the death penalty for drug dealers: See "Rebirth of Reason" here for CNN link and brief discussion --
http://rebirthofreason.com/cgi-bin/SH... )
Ayn Rand refused to endorse Ronald Reagan's campaign for the Presidency, even though it would have seemed on the surface to have been consonant with her philosophy. Of course, the support of the Christian Right nicely highlighted Nancy Reagan's consultations with astrologer Joan Quigely.
So, too, here with President Trump, do we see a President who talks some rightwing key words about America, but who is a pragmatist. His range-of-the-moment "tweets" betray his psycho-epistemology. As with the pragmatists of a century ago, President Trump's policies do not occasionally turn "practical" by increasing personal liberty and recognizing the basis for individual rights. Rather, they turn consistently to expanding the power of the government in response to "demands" from "the people."
Fascism is a populist political system. Based on Hegel's theory of the Ideal, fascist propaganda appeals to nation, family, work, and tradition. "Make America great again" was the expression of that in the 2016 campaign. The tariffs are just one of the inevitable outcomes.
On the surface, at first, you will pay more for a wide range of material goods in order to subsidize inefficient businesses. The easy claim is that those firms have Washington connections. Nucor's president, John J. Ferriola is one of President Trump's advisors. He also serves on several boards for steel producers. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J....)
It is a little more complicated than that (of course) and (no surprise), it even includes Russian-owned firms operating in the USA.
"Steel plants owned by non-American companies such as ArcelorMittal account for a large chunk of total U.S. production, with the Luxembourg-based company’s plants alone representing about 16 percent, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
Other foreign companies operating in the U.S. market include Moscow-based Evraz Plc, whose executives attended the White House event on Thursday, as well as Brazil’s Gerdau SA, whose shares rallied along with homegrown producers U.S. Steel Corp. and Nucor Corp." -- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...
(And in other news... President Trump called for the death penalty for drug dealers: See "Rebirth of Reason" here for CNN link and brief discussion --
http://rebirthofreason.com/cgi-bin/SH... )
