Populism

Article by Ben Doolin on Mar. 16, 2017

 

The word itself is interesting.  Literally it means ‘for the people’ and is relatively new when used in reference to modern politics.  The irony is that we now have a new word to describe government ‘for the people’ when that is supposed to be what it’s always been.

The first major event associated with populism was Brexit (Britain voting to leave the European Union).  That was followed shortly after by the election of Donald Trump.

In both cases, it was the result of The People not being heard.  In the UK, Muslims were flooding the nation at the EU’s orders and what followed was a massive increase in assaults, rapes and murders.  The order to allow the immigration came primarily from a single person, Angela Merkel who isn’t British and went against the wishes of her own people in forcing the issue.  I expect her to be a victim of populism in the near future.

The Populist uprising in the US started eight years ago with the election of Barack Obama.  The list of things that Americans have to be pissed off at is extremely long but a few of the more important points include the fact that the wealth of the Elites grows exponentially while half of the nation has a negative net worth, there are over 100,000,000 working age Americans not in the labor force, real wages have been stagnant for decades, the national debt doubles with each new president, the NSA spies on everyone and the nation is now a militarized police state.

So, The People went for the most radical option available to them, a one term black senator.  They got fooled…  twice.  Obama was possibly the most statist president ever.

Trump is just an extension of that same ‘rage against the machine’ that got Obama elected.  He’s the most radical option, he’s not a politician, he didn’t have to sell his soul to get elected and he understands business.

Probably the most important point is that the Elites hated both Brexit and Trump.  Logically, what’s bad for them is good for The People since politics is a zero sum game…  but at this point, I don’t think The People care what happens to themselves as long as the Elites get screwed over.

One promising outcome of Brexit was the ‘over the top’ fear mongering about economic collapse that didn’t happen.  At the moment the UK is doing better than before the election.  Similar is true in the US where markets hit all time highs after Trump’s win.

That is a very clear confirmation that The Elites have no issue lying to get what they want.  While that is plainly obvious to anyone that looks, many before either didn’t care or didn’t want to know.

That is a solid indicator that fear mongering will not work to block a populist actions in the future.

An important lesson from populism is that centralized control is a bad thing and should be blocked or undone.  I expect the EU to crumble in this manner.  One by one, I expect them to drop out, most likely Greece, Italy and France first.  My guess is that somewhere around four or five leaving, and the rest will just dissolve the union.

This will be an excellent precedent for the U.S.  There are already secessionist movements in Texas and California.  As soon as one state manages to leave, I expect a whole bunch will follow, making it worse for those that are left behind.

It’s my hope that as people see that decentralization is the correct path, it will continue with counties seceding from states, cities seceding from counties…  and finally individuals seceding from cities.

 

 

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