Trump is no savior or saint. He isn’t a Hitler either, but there are many things to be skeptical about. The most important, however, you will never hear from the mainstream news because Trump’s biggest policy flaws are always versions of the same ideas that the media defends as part of a bipartisan power network that we are unlikely to escape anytime soon.
You may hear about his Israel stance from the mainstream left, of course, but no one in Washington can do anything about that unfortunately, so it only pushes idealists to third parties. And we all know what happens to third parties in the U.S.: they are used to further divide us over niche ideological lines.
Yet, with so many idealists in this country, why hasn’t anyone used third-party/idealist figures to win an election in so long before Trump? Israel is part of the story and why we don’t see Cornell West or Jill Stein on Trump’s dream team. But that can’t be the whole story. This can’t be the first time this kind of thing could have worked, no?
Indeed, it has actually been a while since the right kind of power could align as it has this time. The historical Left’s mission of complete revolution left little room for being brought into the corridors of power, but the power of labor did force capital into another kind of compromise in the post-war period. Eventually, that power was destroyed with the neoliberal revolution, and their idealism was watered down enough to become ideological covering in liberalism’s new era of neofeudalism.
But as far as radical cabinet members, FDR had Wallace, but he got pushed out in the end. FDR had some power of his own, enough for such a radical choice, but not enough to keep him, especially with failing health. Could Harris have brought RFK Jr. into her campaign? No, she had no real power. Could Bush Sr. have brought Perot in and saved his reelection campaign?
He was CIA after all; but no. Not worth it. They win either way. No point. Trump, however, has a different kind of power. His power comes not from a single network that he is beholden to, but to several that he can play off of each other. By bringing in his “dream team”, he just increased the power of idealists everywhere if they can learn to work together.
He also increased his own by tapping the power of what has happened in the last few years, the power of a left/right coalition of countercultural discourse that cares less about political identity and ideological purity and more about talking things out on the internet, and by doing so, changing global discourse.
This has enabled someone like Trump, someone with enough of his own power, to recognize an opportunity to increase his bargaining position, but by doing so increase ours. Indeed, this is why we all win when this happens: when we make deals and work together, we get more wiggle room in this system that can otherwise turn even the top dog into a mere puppet.
Right now, we seem to have some kind of seat at the table. But that table is full of the enemies of all us, that is, of all people other than these few that are so blinded by their power that they are willing to do more than compromise—they are willing to sacrifice all ideals for power. Where does Trump fall on this spectrum?
It is quite clear he has made many moral sacrifices for power, but at this point, it is in his interest to do what he can to do some good for us. The problem, of course, is he also has to do good for a lot of shady people, so it depends on our power, and this depends on our coherence and vigilance.
