WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO LOSE? LOTS
Trump keeps asking that question. This year, change is not your friend.
What do you have to lose? Donald Trump keeps asking African Americans. But really that’s his question to all of us. The premise of his campaign is that our country is so weak, and our leaders are such losers, that we should put all our money on Trump the wild card, the savior. Trump made that explicit the other day by christening himself “Mr. Brexit.” He’s the candidate of disruptive change, exciting and unsettling and the ride of your life.
Trump may be asking “what do you have to lose?” as a rhetorical question, but there’s an answer to it, and that answer is “an enormous amount.” I’m not even talking about the temperament issues that unnerve so many in both parties as they contemplate Trump in charge of nuclear codes, the military and relationships across the globe. Let’s look purely at economics and other indicators of national health.
The stock market continues to set new records during President Obama’s tenure, and only George H.W. Bush presided over a bull market for a greater percentage of his time in office. The jobs report for July, released Aug. 5, was so positive that conservative economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin called it “strong across the board.” Republican leaders were silent rather than issuing their usual negative responses.
RETURN OF TRICKLE DOWN
House Speaker Paul Ryan did take to Twitter that day to bemoan what he called Obama’s legacy of “broken promises, a stagnant economy, growing global threats and an anxious nation.” But the tweets were about the administration’s prematurely named “Recovery Summer” of 2010. They were jarring on a day the Labor Department reported 255,000 new jobs, rising wages, rising labor force participation and a 4.9% unemployment rate.
Not all the statistics are stellar. Growth in the gross domestic product has been disappointing and, until now, participation in the workforce has lagged. Older workers are having trouble finding their place in a labor market transformed by technology, globalization and the Great Recession. The recession took a terrible toll on black household wealth.
Yet black Americans, like all Americans, would stand to lose plenty under President Trump. They’d have to put up with his inaccurate stereotyping of African Americans and hostility to the Black Lives Matter movement. From a pocketbook standpoint, his protectionist views could trigger trade wars and higher prices. And he’d revive trickle-down economics, a major contrast to Obama policies that have directed resources to low-income rather than high-income Americans.
Do we really want to trade these gains for a guy whose new tax plan is a boon for the wealthy, the national debt and lenders like China? As acerbic liberal Jason Sattler (aka @LOLGOP) put it on Twitter, “Trump is offering ‘change’ the way a high-impact collision with a tree offers your car ‘customizing.’ ”
Not to overdo the analogy, but Brexit was a perfect example of rocking the boat out of sheer frustration — and then being stunned by the outcome.
BREXIT FALLOUT
The value of the British pound has plummeted. There’s talk of companies moving from London to Dublin, Frankfurt and Paris to keep maximum access to the European Union market. There is, inevitably, “a certain chilling effect on investment” due to uncertainty, David O’Sullivan, the EU ambassador to the U.S., told the USA TODAY Editorial Board this month. Scotland is again weighing secession from the United Kingdom. O’Sullivan said the Brexit vote could even disrupt relations between Ireland and Northern Ireland, where the border became a non-issue once both were in the EU.
This is the year of feeling threatened, of wanting to “take our country back,” whether that country is the U.K. or the U.S.
Trump and Ryan are not the only Republicans trying to sell a narrative of America the pathetic. Even as Bill Clinton was praising his wife onstage at the Democratic convention, Marco Rubio sent a fundraising email that originated in an unrecognizable reality. “Obama’s vision for America has been a disaster,” wrote the unsuccessful presidential candidate, now running for re-election to the Senate. “And yet, Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton actually want to continue the failed policies that have weakened our great country and our citizens.”
Disaster. Failed. Weak. These are the words that propelled Trump to the GOP nomination. He says he’s the only one who can fix things and “it won’t even be that hard.”
Maybe that’s because America is already in pretty good shape.