We begin with kvetches. Complaints. Grumbles.
From dear readers…
‘Anyone who opposes Trump is anti-American.’
— G.M.
‘Listen, you are smart enough to know that if you keep banging the president, a lot of us are leaving. You have to get it through your liberal head that Trump is far better than the other choice and we see that.’
— John B.
‘You have no faith in President Trump or his desire to make the country greater. You must think that Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, and AOC are on the right track to make this country great again with their brand of corruption and socialism. Well, I could not possibly disagree with you more. I completely detest what they have done and are trying to do to this country with their ‘dark state’ opposition.’
— William H.
‘Liberal bias’
Dear Readers took offence. They accused us of having a ‘liberal bias.’
Of course, they may be right.
We thought we had a traditional conservative bias.
One of our earliest careers was at a taxpayer advocacy group. We came within a handful of votes of launching a constitutional convention and forcing the government to add a ‘balanced budget’ amendment to the Constitution.
Since then, we have hardly ceased denouncing Big Government, Washington, the Deep State, Clinton, Bush, Obama…the Empire…the Fed…the fake money…the waste…the deficits…the chicanery, claptrap, and lies that keep ‘the system’ — with all its insipid entertainments and hollow pretensions — in business.
But a bias is not something you buy ‘off the shelf.’ Like a weed at night, it takes root without your consent or knowledge. It is ‘software’ that you don’t build or install; instead, it comes to you as part of your culture and your DNA.
One element of this software, deeply etched, is the idea of ‘bias’ itself. That is what the Dear Reader mail confirms.
If we criticise Mr Trump as a failure and fraud, we are clearly not biased towards him. So…we must be biased against him.
And who is biased against Trump? Liberals! Therefore, we must have a ‘liberal bias.’
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Empty suit
This, of course, has been our point: that this ‘us versus them’ software limits our thoughts. There are only two possibilities — for or against, pro or contra. So, if you think Mr Trump is a jackass, that is proof of a bias in favour of the other team.
And there is more proof. Dear Readers say we didn’t criticise Mr Obama so harshly. And yes, it is true. We didn’t.
We saw nothing in Mr Obama to criticise. He never pretended that he would buck the system or turn things around; and he didn’t try. He was an empty suit. Criticising him would be like kicking a lame dog or making fun of a retarded kid. Where was the sport in it? What was there to gain?
Ah…but Mr Trump…the Great Disruptor. Here was an outsider, a man who didn’t mind confronting the elite and mocking their precious codes.
When he slouched into town, a bright star was seen by millions…high above Flyover America. A messiah, they said to one another, is given unto us.
Occasionally, it seemed like Mr Trump might actually be the saviour they sought. He seemed to understand how the insiders had corrupted the system and how they needed to be brought to heel.
He would balance the budget, he said. He would pay down the debt. He would bring home the troops. He would pop the ‘big, fat, ugly bubble’ on Wall Street.
Yes, he said outrageous and moronic things, too, but there was hope: Perhaps he only appeared to be an idiot to get the idiot vote, which is always decisive in American politics.
Act of national stupidity
But now…after two years…you don’t need a ‘liberal bias’ to see that Mr Trump will not ‘make America great again.’ The insiders are still getting richer. The feds are becoming more powerful. And the country is falling further into debt.
And what will happen when the next debt crisis comes?
That’s where Mr Trump and the ‘liberal bias’ element — both ‘us’ and ‘them’ — will come together in a great act of national stupidity.
They will stand before the cameras and fight over walls, shutdowns, trade wars, energy policies — and other irrelevancies. But they will lock arms and march over the fiscal cliff…together.
Here’s former Fed Chief Alan Greenspan, making the same point, at Bloomberg:
While American politicians on both sides of the aisle have been mostly silent as the US deficit swells toward $1 trillion and beyond, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says the lack of attention won’t last.
‘This is an extremely imbalanced situation,’ Greenspan, who led the Fed from 1987 to 2006, said in a phone interview. ‘Politically, budget deficits really don’t matter. What matters is the consequences.’
Deficits don’t matter to Ms. Pelosi or AOC. They don’t matter to Mr Trump, either. He is, after all, a ‘low interest guy’ and the ‘King of Debt.’ (His words).
But they matter to you, dear reader, because of the consequences — which you will have to suffer, one way or another. And that’s where the ‘us versus them’ won’t help you. The crisis ahead is bipartisan.
The liberals are always in favour of more spending. More taxes on the rich. More debt.
And now, with their new Modern Monetary Theory — a logically correct, but thoroughly idiotic and ultimately disastrous, approach to public finances — they feel liberated to spend, spend, spend.
Once upon a time, you could count on the ‘conservatives’ to oppose them. But they were the ones who just approved a $1.2 trillion deficit — in a booming economy.
And now…all they both need is a crisis. Then, if there is any residual good sense — in either party — it will evaporate quickly.
The next downsweep of the credit cycle will cut stock market prices in half, and set off a recession.
That will get their attention!
And neither a liberal bias nor a conservative bias will prepare you for it or protect you from it. That is why the ‘us vs them’ is so damaging. In foreign policy, it leads to war. In domestic policy, it leads to blindness and bankruptcy.
Red or Blue…?
Forget it.
Regards,
Bill Bonner