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‘Make America great again’ will meet systematic woes
‘Make America great again’ will meet systematic woes
By Su Tan
Source:Global Times Published: 2016/12/22 22:33:39
Less than a month before taking office, US President-elect Donald Trump keeps hitting the headlines and unnerving the whole world with his reckless rhetoric and unruly tweets that hint at an extremely uncertain future. With his boastful style, his campaign slogan "make America great again" has swept the world.
But can he? President Barack Obama was hailed by his followers almost as a savior during his election, but his eight years in office at some point turned out to be "No, we can't" because his hands were tied by the faltering American system. It is this ailing and chaotic system that enabled Trump to win out as he is good at using deep disagreement among voters for his own benefit, but this doesn't mean that Trump will be better off than his predecessor and able to make an enormous difference. At least throughout his presidency he will be barraged with questions from the elites battered by his victory and by unrelenting media questions from both in and outside the country.
Even after Trump courted The New York Times with an unusual visit to its headquarters in late November, the newspaper soon declared to Trump that "We can't just get along." On Wednesday, Paul Krugman wrote in The Times that "American democracy is very much on the edge." He was concerned that "the process of destroying democratic substance while preserving forms is already underway."
The US democratic system was designed so that elites govern and the public balances the governance through the electoral system.
But in recent decades, the widening wealth gap and inequality, financial and political turmoil and intense partisan struggles have created deep rifts between the elites and the public. The government is captured by powerful interest groups. The elites no longer care about what is right and good for the country. As Krugman said, toeing the party line and defending the party's rule are all that matters now.
Evidently the working class is furious, and elected Trump in protest. But switching to a new president will hardly make things better if the underlying problems in the American system cannot be uprooted. Unfortunately, Trump does not have a plan to solve them. Francis Fukuyama made this very clear right after Trump's victory.
Obama encountered big setbacks in pushing his major initiatives such as gun control, migrant reform and Obamacare. Trump is not immune to the ills. We must be realistic about how volatile the situation could become.
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1025228.shtml
