At the discussion club yesterday, we talked about why the rich people all voted for Biden and not Trump. My answer is that Trump and Biden are identically neoliberal on the economy but being for Trump means branding yourself as déclassé, a prole. That’s what it ultimately came down to. Trump used a rhetoric that appealed to the proles. Biden uses a rhetoric that appeals to the fancy people or wannabe fancy people. But the actual economic measures both put in place were exactly the same.
13 responses to “Déclassé”
-
There is an important difference: Trump’s energy policies kept energy cheap, which is the foundation of any modern economy; Biden’s energy policies took America in under a year from a net exporter to a desperate importer of energy. Everything in a modern economy depends, ultimately, on energy, such that any increase in real energy costs ripples through the economy, causing higher prices art every point, and squeezing out marginal activities that don’t have the slack to absorb it. While we may shake our heads at $6/gallon gas, the guy who cuts lawns in our neighborhood is going to have to raise his prices, which will cause some of his customers to stop using his services. Eventually, he goes out of business. For example.
As academics might say, the lived experience under Trump was vastly different than the lived experience under Biden.
-
Certainly true. We have forgotten how good things were under the glory days of Trump (compared to how they are now…)
LikeLike
-
Trump started the lockdowns, the stimulus payments, the “free” testing, etc. All the stuff that gave us the current inflation rates. Biden continued all that aggressively, but let’s remember that the initial transfer of our money to Pfizer, Facebook, Netflix, Walmart, etc started with Trump.
LikeLike
-
-
-
-
I mean, the guy has been in jail since 1977, due to gross FBI misconduct. How many presidents have not had the balls to pardon him now? Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden… there’s a bipartisan agreement never to do anything to tick off the FBI.
LikeLike
-
I never heard of him so I have to Google.
LikeLike
-
-
-
-
-
-
Trump was a genius in conning millions of poor proles into believing he had their best interests in mind.
His four years was all about keeping the status quo, cutting taxes for the rich, keep the stock market booming.
LikeLike
-
You can say the same about Biden if you substitute “proles” with “centrists” or “moderates ” Did you hear about his race-conscious banking bill? If that’s moderate, I don’t know what’s extreme any more. It’s a playbook for redoing the 2008 collapse, among other things.
LikeLike
A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
Leave a comment