The Economist sees the light . . . er . . . darkness
The day after the 2020 election, I pointed out that Trump would be back. In contrast, most of the media wrote him off after January 6. But once a country becomes a banana republic, it’s hard to go back. If Trump were to die tomorrow, another authoritarian demagogue would replace him.
The Economist has a new article entitled:
Why do Democrats keep helping Trump?
The charges in Manhattan have boosted his political prospects by restoring him to his favourite role
They point to the deterioration in America’s political culture:
It could be hoped, once, that the challenge to decency posed by Mr Trump would bring out the best in America. Instead, Mr Trump has made zealots and quislings out of Republicans while inflaming and dumbing down Democrats and polarising, which is to say corrupting, the news media. He promises to make America great but he keeps making it worse, and he is far from done.
Exactly. History suggests that authoritarian nationalism doesn’t end well. The worst is yet to come.
PS. It’s in Biden’s interest to face Trump in 2024. But it’s not in America’s interest. Bragg is helping both Biden and Trump (and hurting DeSantis).
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11. April 2023 at 14:45
Should former presidents get a free pass on crimes they’ve committed?
11. April 2023 at 16:49
Biden would do far better against DeSantis. Not because DeSantis is a worse candidate than Trump, but because Trump couldn’t help himself from sabotaging DeSantis if Trump loses the primary. Just look at what Trump did to Republicans in Georgia.
11. April 2023 at 18:48
“Should former presidents get a free pass on crimes they’ve committed?”
They all have so far, why stop now? I mean compared to Kennedy parking his girlfriend at the bottom of a creek, this is pretty small potatoes.
Just as Republicans did with Clinton, Democrats are digging for any reason however small to prosecute. It’s pointless and stupid.
Now, OTOH, if it comes to pass that they develop a strong case to prosecute for treason, OK, you have my attention. But some hush money payment to a hooker? Please. All they’re doing right now is showing how much they fear him.
11. April 2023 at 18:52
I’m not sure American politics has ever been sane, but one way it’s definitely gotten worse is Fox News. Nixon never resigns for Watergate if he had had Fox on his side, while today Thomas is off the Supreme Court without Fox. Propaganda and media manipulation are a key component of banana republics. Perhaps people would just seek out the nationalist content they desire if Fox hosts weren’t giving them what they want, because of the zeitgeist (or whatever)? Maybe, but a lot don’t and so it’s probably impossible to recreate the networking effect that Fox has and authoritarian nationalists could never coalesce around a singular source and messaging.
11. April 2023 at 21:52
Foosion, No.
Kangaroo, You said:
“But some hush money payment to a hooker?”
That’s not a crime. The “hooker” should be prosecuted for extortion.
Trump committed other crimes, but this isn’t one of them.
Dale, Fox News is also a symptom.
12. April 2023 at 00:37
Scott, if you are of the assumption that politcal culture has deteriorated, it would be interesting to hear from you of why this has happened.
After all, all these decades the US had:
* a free press
* Democracy and elections
* checks and balances
So what went wrong and when?
12. April 2023 at 04:47
Notice how Sumner continues to scream authoritarian nationalism, and tell us about Trumps horrible crimes. Yet, again, he provides us with no evidence.
Not once has he mentioned Bidens laptop, or clintons emails.
As the apparatchiks like Sumner often sing with glee: “there is one rule for thee and another for me.”
It should be clear from his incessent trump posts, that his sole objective, and his very purpose for living, is to only attack one man.
But why? Hmmm
To understand we just need to look at his policy proposals:
Pack the court.
Destroy the electoral college
Give more power to supranations
Give more power to Washington
Create a CDBC
More business regulation
Folks, this is the same guy who screams Russia horrible, Russia evil, and tells us that Donbas’s desire for self determination after the 2014 coup is all manufactured by the KGB, which means he thinks all of those videos and independent journalists who confirm the shelling are all part of a grand Russian conspiracy. He thinks Putin just woke up one day and decided to attack, and Ukraine is a princess. If you think otherwise, he calls you a “putin puppet”.
But lo and behold, once again, when you meander through the negative epithets he leaves us with no substance. He provides us with no evidence. It is all hot air.
He appears to call Trump a tyrant because he doesn’t like populists. He doesn’t like RFK Jr and Desantis for the same reason. In short, he doesn’t like Americans, and particularly, he doesnt like anything that impedes his goal of a one world NATO.
Sumner’s vision involves Global top down governance. He loves supranationals, and this of course is why he supports a “one-world-nato” and why he supports any method to achieve this objective including packing the court with radicals if that is what it takes to establish a one party CCP style state.
Like most historical tyrants, if a populist stands in the way of his philosopher king utopia, comprised of apparatchiks working for a one-world-nato, then he will spend his time calling them “nationalists” and “authoritarians” and when he runs out of adjecttives he will combine the two words he heard on CNN “authoritarian nationalist” and try to fearmonger his way to power.
History is replete with examples of thugs attempting to centralize power, and Sumner’s band of destructivist radicals are on the march.
12. April 2023 at 04:50
At least Trump will get a trial so that he can prove his innocence! 😀
12. April 2023 at 05:03
Scott,
I agree with the first half of your post but not the second half. If Trump doesn’t win the nomination, it will be someone just as authoritarian. That’s where the party is now. DeSantis has been running to Trump’s right, so it’s unclear why people think he is a savior for democracy.
I disagree in your last statement. It is in America’s interest for the Republicans to lose a couple more elections so they can become a normal party again- I hope. So what’s in Biden’s interest is also in America’s interest.
It’s also worth remembering that this election will be determined by a percentage point a few states (even if the popular vote isn’t close). A conviction could make the difference. Republicans would control the Senate now if it wasn’t for Trump.
12. April 2023 at 05:09
Yeah, I must say there is something odd about calling for a one world government, or in his case a one world nato, along with open borders, packing courts, and the curtailment of guns and speech and voter ID’s, and if that wasn’t odd enough, to try and arrest your political opponent, and claim he’s Adolf Hitler.
Not to mention, he called for 10M chinese to come to America to teach us how to be better engineers (he really did say that), and claims that we shouldnt investigate any chinese students with ties to the CCP. Also, he wants us to let TikTok do whatever it wants and let the CCP purchase all of our farms because you know….nothing will ever go wrong when a totalitarian country owns your food supply.
But remember Trump is the real threat, not Scott’s insane proposals. Dont keep your eye off that orange man. Because orange man bad. =/
12. April 2023 at 06:11
I’ll assume you’re correct – I don’t know any better. But I would ask why endless non-troversies were effective in creating Clinton fatigue but won’t be similarly effective for the other guy?
12. April 2023 at 07:36
Lizard, There’s money to be made in the betting markets if you are correct.
Vienna, I’m not sure, but it’s happening over much of the world. It began in Italy.
bb, You misunderstood me. I don’t support DeSantis, who is currently trying to copy Trump. But Trump is the worst of the bunch, by far.
“Republicans would control the Senate now if it wasn’t for Trump.”
I agree.
12. April 2023 at 08:28
I think the concerns over the effects of this first indictment are way, way overdone. There are potentially a few more much more serious indictments to come, and Trump could be in prison soon.
Also, the idea that a local DA should consider the national political implications of an indictment is absurd. It’s not part of the job, and it certainly isn’t within his/her realm of expertise to make such decisions. The laws should be enforced, unless ordinary prosecutorial discretion suggests otherwise.
And prediction markets don’t look great for Trump in a general election right now, though of course, even being within 11 points seems much too close.
12. April 2023 at 10:41
That quote from the Economist is hilarious. Anyone who thinks deterioration in American politics began with Donald Trump, likely doesn’t have much independent thought.
People forget, as soon as he was elected, the democratic establishment IMMEDIATELY went into trying to invalidate the election. The Clinton campaign, worked with the FBI, to launder fake intelligence documents in an attempt to rewrite history . Say what you want about Trump being uncouth, but god, don’t any of you people see the bigger problems here.
Trump is the symptom of people on the right, being brow beat for 30 years and people on the left wonder why he’s popular. People voted for him because his message was “they hate me, because they hate you” and that is absolutely correct.
Mitt Romney was a womanizing sexist who wanted to put black people back in chains and was living in the cold war era (media narrative).
George W Bush was a war criminal who was mentally challenged and unfit to hold office and massively corrupt (media narrative).
John Kerry was a war veteran who might be the smartest human being on the planet (media narrative).
Barack Obama IS the smartest, coolest, and kind hearted human being to ever walk the earth (media narrative).
@Dale/Scott- there is literally no difference between what Fox news does on the right, and what CNN/MSNBC do on the left. If you can’t see the symmetry, I feel sorry for you. At least many of the Fox news pundits are admittedly “conservative” and don’t pretend to be unbiased in their approach. Can you really tell me with a straight face, you think CNN “The Most Trusted Name in News” takes a central stance on any issues?
@Michael Sandifer – I can’t tell if your comment is a joke or not, so I apologize if it was a joke. You don’t see an issue with an opposition party, attempting to make up an untested legal theory to go after the head candidate of the opposing party on charges that even members of their own party think are insane? Like, have you looked into the charges of the case at all?
“The idea that a local DA should consider the national political implications of an indictment is absurd”. That has to be a joke right? That is LITERALLY what he did by taking on the case. He even said, that was his goal… to prosecute Trump. A district attorney’s job is NOT to identify a person, and try to find a crime to charge that person with – it’s to pursue charges when a crime is alleged. The DA is basically saying, we think a misdemeanor occurred (but the statute of limitations has passed), but because we think it occurred while carrying out a felony, we are going to move forward with the case. They don’t even allege what the felony is. This legal jump has never been made before, but it seems that the right time to do it, would be to go after the leader of the opposition party… Banana Republic is right.
If this was a case against anyone else on the planet, not named Donald Trump, it would absolutely get thrown out.
12. April 2023 at 13:01
Tom M.
I’m not qualified to determine how solid any legal case is. However, if some experts on criminal law have commented that the charges are appropriate and it’s not unusual for such charges to be brought in the state of New York.
I see no reason to allow Trump to get away with fraudulent accounting entries, with the intent to violate additional laws, be they federal, state, or local.
12. April 2023 at 13:06
Generally, I can’t take anyone seriously who thinks Trump is being unfairly targeted by prosecutors. He got away with far more than anyone else would, just because he was in the Oval Office. That same office didn’t protect Bill Clinton from a civil case that didn’t even survie summary judgement.
The idea that a sitting President cannot be indicted is ludicrous, and the Justice Department is very much responsible for any diminished sense of legitimacy in prosecutions due to such delays.
Also, how silly is it to have a policy that sitting Presidents can’t be charged, even with respect to crimes for which there are statutes of limitations?
12. April 2023 at 19:22
Who wrote Trump off after Jan 6? Any media that said that was living in a bubble.
Jan 6 was like Christmas for me. I loved seeing Washington desecrated after all the leftist shit we took for years. After entire year of hide in your closet unless your protesting in the streets. Felt like the bad people were getting what they deserved that day. Jan 6 was just a peaceful protest they didn’t even kill anyone.
12. April 2023 at 19:35
There’s no fraud there. Trump can’t defraud himself with his own money. As Scott said the hooker was extorting him which is a crime. I’d love to see what the Dems would do to shut up Kamala Harris former sugar daddy if he started running tabloid news during an election.
And I love the commenters here already declaring any Desantis or other GOP candidate as just as bad. Yes we get the message. Why do you think we pick the biggest asshole if we are going to get called awful names no matter who we pick.
12. April 2023 at 20:52
Scott,
I was surprised by how few of the Trump picked midterm candidates who lost in 22 wanted to contest their loss, even nominally. The only one who did was Kari Lake, and Doug Mastriano (candidate for Governor of PA, lost to Shapiro) was organizing bus rides to the Capitol on January 6. Do you think that particular Trump behavior of attempted coup d’etats will continue after Trump fades away? It seems to me there’s an existing cultural expectation of behavior that most republican officials adhere to that prevents them from organizing their own “let’s destroy democracy” attempt.
13. April 2023 at 05:37
Tom, Politics is a helluva drug.
Sean, You said:
“I loved seeing Washington desecrated after all the leftist shit we took for years.”
Yeah, after 4 years of Trumpian lockdowns and soaring crime in America, it was time to blow off some steam.
“Jan 6 was just a peaceful protest they didn’t even kill anyone.”
LOL, you been watching Tucker Carlson?
Andrew, I do think Trump is worse than the typical GOP politician. Heck, he’s the worst politician in US history, so how can he not be worse?
But the GOP is moving toward nationalist authoritarian demagoguery, and that won’t change. Look at how different DeSantis is from the libertarian leaning guy of a few years back. He’s the future of the party, not Mitt Romney or Jeb Bush.
13. April 2023 at 06:41
I love how Scott always retorts to go news comebacks. When I watch about maybe an hour of fox news mostly from twitter clips a year and spend most of my consumption at marginal Revolution or slatestarcodex
13. April 2023 at 07:28
Sean,
What’s funny is, you don’t seem to realize how obviously anti-American you are. To sane people, people like you are traitors, and represent a grave danger to the country and republican government in general.
13. April 2023 at 07:32
The Republican Party now reminds me of the Democratic Party of the early 90s, which was drunk on power and living in its own bubble, due to widespread gerrymandering. Democrats were out of touch with most Americans, arrogant, and very corrupt. They couldn’t help themselves when it came to political overreach, and it helped cost them control of Congress and many states.
The difference is, the Republican Party is far worse, and they’re now digging their political graves. Their insane positions on abortion alone are costing them dearly, as is their cultish devotion to Trump. The Republican Party is dying, and the smart insiders know it, which is one reason they’re adopting authoritarianism, because they know they can’t win many fair elections anymore.
13. April 2023 at 07:45
@Michael Sandifer
I completely understand that you do not understand the legal merits of the case. That’s pretty obvious, but if you’re going to make an “appeal to authority” argument, you have to realize the actual authorities on this, most of the legal practicing world, looks at this case as being purely political and has very little to no merit. Even the legal analysts on CNN / MSNBC say as much and they are BARELY capable of understanding the law.
I suggest to read even an entry level explanation of what the charges are…because not only are these charges unusual for the state of new york, a case built this way has NEVER been brought forward… ever… so yes, it is unusual.
The Federal government refused to charge Trump on the campaign finance violation, that New York State is trying to use, to justify bringing their case forward. Proving intent, in the legal landscape, is basically impossible. Absent them having a recording of Trump saying “I want to break the law and these laws as well”, this is a joke and the legal world knows it is.
For a guy who “He got away with far more than anyone else would, just because he was in the Oval Office”, I find it sad that the democratic party can’t actual articulate or come up with anything better than “maybe he made a campaign finance violation”… It would make me laugh if it wasn’t so pathetic.
13. April 2023 at 07:52
@Scott – It certainly is… we may as well make it entertaining and get people like The Rock and Tom Cruise to run for office. If we’re going to make it a joke, let’s make it a good one.
13. April 2023 at 08:02
Tom, I was referring to your addiction.
13. April 2023 at 08:19
@ Scott
I mean… says the guy who can’t help posting about Trump despite so many more interesting things going on in the world.
I get it, you get clicks from the posts.
For someone who historically cried multiple times about threats posed by global nuclear war, I LOVE how incapable you are of making a single post criticizing the current administrations utter incompetence in international relations.
Trump is “the worst politician in US history”, I kind of understand that, since you seem like a person who think’s the world started with the election of Trump as president.
13. April 2023 at 11:37
Tom M.
You don’t exactly strike me as someone with relevant legal expertise, so your superior tone just makes your already suspect claims even less credible.
I do know that people go to prison for campaign finance violations and accounting fraud, so there’s no reason a sitting President shouldn’t be held equally accountable. Same goes for former Presidents.
13. April 2023 at 13:14
Michael,
I’d like to recommend two different legal podcasts I frequently listen to, both of which are skeptical of the indictment, one of which is conservative. The conservative one is Advisory Opinions, put out by The Dispatch and hosted by Sarah Isgur and David French (they have an ongoing joke about David being a guest, ignore that). They’re conservative, but thoughtful, and I’ve found their discussions of legal issues to be quite insightful. The second is Serious Trouble, hosted by Josh Barro and Ken White (aka Popehat). I’m not sure how much is available publicly, as I’ve got a paid subscription, but their discussions have been excellent.
The big problems with the Manhattan indictment, to the best of my non lawyer understanding, relate to its need to tie the falsification of records to other, presumably not yet charged crimes. That presents some serious problems about whether or not you can even do that. Also, one of the crimes they seem to intend to tie it to is a federal campaign finance violation, requiring intent to break the law by not reporting something as a campaign expense. But there are tons of reasons one wouldn’t want a porn star to tell the world about your affair, and the prosecutions witness that it was campaign related is Michael Cohen. Y’know, the felon.
Anyway, the podcasts and writings by those people are great, David has an op/Ed in the NYTimes on this that’s excellent, I highly recommend all of it.
13. April 2023 at 15:25
Sometimes I think Scott just post Trump stuff to get comments and see if anyone is still reading him. While he has some great ideas that have not been properly adopted by the Fed the core ideas are the same as a decade ago.
14. April 2023 at 07:02
Tom, You said:
“I LOVE how incapable you are of making a single post criticizing the current administrations utter incompetence in international relations.”
I have criticized Biden for not doing enough to help Ukraine, and for his hostile policy toward China. I supported Biden on Afghanistan. But what’s the alternative? The guy who wanted to pull the US out of NATO in his second term? How much support would he be giving Ukraine?
I also find it amusing that you don’t even seem to know that Fox News basically admitted to being a fake news organization, just making stuff up, in recent court documents. Do you even pay attention to what’s going on in this country? They admitted they are faking the news to please their viewers. Maybe CNN people are also faking the news, but I think it more likely they are delusional leftists that really believe what they say. So no, the two networks are not at all comparable.
I find that when people are members of a personality cult, they generally don’t have enough self awareness to understand that they are members of a personality cult.
I’ve been completely correct about Trump from the beginning, which must drive his supporters nuts.
Andrew, I didn’t spend much time looking at this issue, but I had the same impression as you. Maybe there’s a small technical violation, but linking it to campaign finance laws is a stretch. I hope I’m wrong; I’d love seeing Trump behind bars. But I don’t expect it to happen, even in the more serious cases (like Georgia.)
14. April 2023 at 08:11
@Scott
Yeah Afghanistan was a huge victory for Biden. I think maybe a good alternative may have been to just keep a small contingent of US troops there. Seemed to be working completely fine but I guess the political win of getting to say he abided by his campaign promise is worth turning the country back into a hellish nightmare. Great message to send to the rest of the world as well. Their are STILL US citizens in Afghanistan that can’t get out, many being held by the Taliban – it’s embarrassing and honestly pathetic. This should make you embarrassed and ashamed more than some racist, misogynistic, orange haired man.
You make it seem like because Trump was hard on NATO this somehow meant the US/NATO was in a weaker spot. But since Biden took office – Afghanistan has fallen apart, Russian invaded Ukraine, China is signaling it is ready to invade Taiwan, Europe is moving away from US interests. The World certainly seems like a much more stable place now…
With respect to Fox News, they are clearly a fake news organization, I didn’t say they weren’t. I just said that if you think CNN / MSNBC are different, you’re fooling yourself.
CNN knowingly lied about a high school kid to destroy his life because they knew it would play well with their base. CNN/Fox News/ MSNBC, none of these outlets provide news coverage, they provide entertainment. It’s all a circus.
14. April 2023 at 13:34
Tom, Like I say, politics is a helluva drug. If you can’t get out of that epistemic bubble, nothing I say will make any difference.
16. April 2023 at 09:43
You say: “It could be hoped, once, that the challenge to decency posed by Mr Trump would bring out the best in America. Instead, Mr Trump has made zealots and quislings out of Republicans while inflaming and dumbing down Democrats and polarising, which is to say corrupting, the news media. He promises to make America great but he keeps making it worse, and he is far from done.”
According to the dictionary, a “quisling” is a traitor who collaborates with an enemy force occupying their country. This is a poor word choice; clearly, the republican party is not collaborating with an enemy force, unless you consider your own citizens an enemy. I presume you are referring to the January 6th crowd as “terrorists” for trespassing, but that doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense. And even if you prefer that type of political exaggeration, then there is an old saying you should keep in mind: “one man’s terrorist, is another man’s freedom fighter”
Additionally, it’s almost certain that political right has inflamed the radical left, as much as the radical left has inflamed the right. The authors statement is obvious. But the idea that one party is responsible for “dumbing down” another party is simply incorrect. Nobody has that type of power over someone else, so the author is wrong….dead wrong.
Precisely which policies of Trump make America “worse?” Trade? Well, that’s just your opinion. You don’t really believe that someone disagreeing with you is a dictator do you? Because if you do, then that is pretty scary. We had substantial tariffs for the first hundred and fifty years of our nation and we didn’t have a problem accumulating wealth.
However, what does make America worse is radical left wing politics that seek to destroy the individual in favor of some poorly defined, wholly subjective, grand utopia. That’s the greatest threat to America. Just look at California. Look at Philadelphia, Chicago, or anywhere else where radical policies have been implemented. Look at the old soviet union; look at Hitlers left wing socialist Germany; look at Mao’s China; the left’s policies are as nasty as nasty can be.
Not liking Trump is one thing, but suggesting his policies will destroy America, trying to impeach him, now arresting him, is just in keeping with the history of the left; this is what the left does when it gains power.
your concerns are wholly unworthy of attention. There is only one totalitarian threat in America, and it’s the woke left. The right will fight it; if you want to call the political right zealots for defending themselves from the radicals on the left, then I’m sure they will happily accept that adjective. If you want to call them “terrorists” for defending their liberty, then so be it. For many, they are freedom fighters.
17. April 2023 at 00:52
That’s not a crime. The “hooker” should be prosecuted for extortion.–Scott Sumner re Stormy Daniels
I wondered about that. It looked like blackmail to me, yet no one said so. I mean, no one. Daniels’ lawyer was Michael Avenetti, now behind bars (or close to it).
I understand the low regard people have for Trump. He deserves low regard on many levels. But…when someone is blackmailed…is not a spade and spade?
Scott Sumner may be the only person in America who said what I think. That makes me feel uncomfortable.
17. April 2023 at 05:58
Jane, I don’t think that political commentary is exactly your forte.
Solon, I don’t believe that the US enforces laws against blackmail very often. Recall the Dennis Hastert case?
17. April 2023 at 17:36
SS–
I do not know the stats on blackmail charges. Seems like a rarity.
In addition, the way Trump handled the Stormy situation, by essentially buying rights to the story and burying it, probably makes blackmail charges impossible legally, since he was never technically blackmailed.
But journalists’ first commitment is to tell the truth, even if non-PC, or favoring an ogre like Trump, or politically inconvenient.
Trump was getting blackmailed, shaken-down, by Stormy Daniels and Avenetti. Avenetti kept the money btw.
This does not make Trump a great leader. It is a reflection on how Trump was treated by media.
27. April 2023 at 13:37
Trump is really back ahead in the polls on the GOP candidacy. I find it amazing that Scott has once again been completely vindicated. Keep it up, Scott.