As the 2016 Presidential election grinds to its dreary, embarrassing end, I worry that in our desire to forget its most depressing -- Trump's attitudes towards women -- and trivial -- his inability to stick to a message -- dynamics, we will forget the very important lessons which the Trump candidacy -- and in some cases Trump himself -- have to teach us about the future of American politics.
And those who do not learn from history are at least more likely to be condemned to repeat it. So the less you can stand to think about this election, the more you ought to seek its lessons.
Here are six that have struck me:
- The rebellion against trade and globalization that Trump has leveraged was the predictable consequence of policy choices by the establishment wings of both parties. The collapse of manufacturing and blue collar jobs is not an inevitable result of globalization -- Germany proves that. Trump is wrong when he says that the trade deals negotiated by the US were stupid -- they were actually skillfully tilted towards the interests of banks, multinational companies and holders of globally lucrative intellectual property like drug companies. But he is right to blame these trade agreements for much of the economic pain suffered by blue-collar America.
The current public faith that a CEO's lack of political experience is an asset, because he is not tainted by "corrupt" politics, stands reality on its head. American politics is corrupt, but it is a corruption born of the relationship between money and politics, not self-generated among politicians. So a billionaire CEO may well know how the system works -- Trump has milked it to a fair-thee-well in building his brand. But his or her (President Fiorina?) moral instincts almost certainly lack the necessary outrage at the notion that American politics should be dominated by the rich and successful. Donald Trump is an extreme example, but only an example, of the reality that most CEO's do not live in, or comprehend, a "one person, one vote" system.