One side has the right leader and the wrong diagnosis. The other side ahs the wrong leader and the right diagnosis.

Josh Marshal at Talkingpoints memo writes:

Is it desperation? The themes and instincts of the anti-Semitic radicals and extremists his campaign stews in? A “global conspiracy” of the political elites, international finance and the media who have “robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth and put the money in the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities.”

But this is the same critique as given by the progressives, especially the progressive left.

The one percent manage the economy so that they have grown richer and, the rest, the bottom 80 0r even 90% have been losing out for decades. The one percent created the conditions ripe for a strong populist leader, and we got Trump who play acts the role. But the other Republican candidates did not take on the role because they really represent the small town millionaires, not the unemployed.

But the one percent is blaming the rural right beer drinking know-nothing idiocies, the desperate – who do not really exit in large numbers: but the disaffected do and instead of being taken seriously are caricatured by  the one percent.

The reason this is important is because we do have to take their grievances seriously or  the system will turn uglier and collapse or turn authoritarian. In face it is not clear whether Clinton or Trump would move closer to the path taken by Mussolini in Italy in the 1920’s. Remember the early Mussolini was the candidate of the corporations and the government. it took him a while to become the fascist Mussolini (I’ have read Dennis Mack Smith’s  critical biography.)

So we have

Clinton is with the one percent – and encapsulated in a steely ambition whose real humanity can be surmised, but why earn half a billion dollars since secretary of state? As one critic said, “What was she selling?” I would like to think she is better, much better, than just the lesser of two evils. I would like to believe that we are lucky to have a president who is so smart, so experienced and so capable. But I am not sure. Part of the problem is that the mainline progressives tend to come from the professional class who have more of a stake, they feel, in the success of the one percent than of the 90%.

And Trump, the braggart oaf who does see that the left-behinds are angry and he can lead, but who is prone to violence and other ego-centrist dangers, and has no reason to protect the one percent as a class, so he stacks and voices the serious concerns of the red state majorities (and the blue state minorities). I agree with those who have said that he did not expect to get this far and is just winging it.

Clinton represents the only legitimate power (barely legitimate), and Trump represents the only diagnosis  that cuts to the core of privilege, of the one percent and its manipulation of the finance system, taxes and corporations – and the supporting press to the mainstream .

In fact we can say that the Mainstream is the one percent, and the left behinds are the trump supporters. That adds up to about fifty percent of the voters. Clinton is the competence we need, Trump has the diagnosis that is real (as in the quote at the top). The idea that Trump’s diagnosis might be anti-Semitic might be real, but it is being used to break down his diagnosis.

One side has the right leader and the wrong diagnosis. The other side has the wrong leader and the right diagnosis. We are drawn in to criticising how bad the trump voters are rather than seeing how right they are on core issues Bt seeing them as white supremacist misogynist nationalists we miss the important part of the message to be read in their desperation and have been side tracked from criticising the policies of the one percent to indulge in self congratulations of our own.

Since this will not get sorted out  till long after the election, get ready to ride through the ensuing chaos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

. So what to do? We mostly think that Clinton must win, and then what? I suspect she ignores me domestic stuff and becomes the foreign policy war leader.