‘Is Trump right about anything?’. A learned friend of mine posted to me this question today. And it bears thinking about. When i write here i generally try and explain concepts or understand things in such a way as to beat some kind of rough sense into the world. While engaged in this pursuit it may not clear to you, dear reader, exactly what my feelings on Donald J. Trump are.

I loathe him. Not merely the cut-price P.T Barnum tribute act he puts on when he is on stage but his entire spiritual and intellectual being. I simply do not and will not believe that there is a single thought of any human usefulness lurking within the emaciated husk he is pleased to call his mind. The very idea that he could occupy the same office as Johnson, Eisenhower, FDR, Teddy Roosevelt, Cleveland, Madison, Adams, Jefferson and Washington is a vile sacrilege. But is he wrong about everything?

Sadly the answer is no. Politics would be much easier if we could confine all vice to our opponents and all  virtue to ourselves. Unfortunately this is wrong, even now. For even as i sit here watching Trump’s obese Orange bulk standing on stage, protruding like a fat middle finger to all the patriots and public servants who have come before him, he is not wrong about everything.

Trade

I’m not opposed to free trade. Having offered that act of supplication to the Neo-liberal consensus, let me state the obvious. A lot of people have lost out from free trade. The economist Schumpeter talked about ‘creative destruction’ being an integral part of Capitalism. Business are out-competed or outmoded, and are replaced by new structures. While i believe this to be true, its  a hard argument to make to a 50 year old Steel worker who is out of a job andn living in a community with already high unemployment. Trump is right to say that more must be done to bring new business to areas devastated by the slow death of the ‘old economy’. He lies about what he will do, but his belief that this is a problem is not wrong.

Investment 

The United States has an infrastructure problem. Successive governments have failed to invest in roads, bridges, railways, ports, water treatment plants and so on. Trump has stated frequently that he thinks the country needs such investments to compete on the global stage and increase efficiency. I think he is right about this. I  have yet to see any detail, but America does indeed need renewal and modernization of its infrastructure. So he is also not wrong about that.

Wages

The U.S. federal Minimum Wage is abysmal. Most states are little to no better. Some of them, as well as some cities have started raising the mandated minimum wage. Trump has made some encouraging noises on this issue. He seems to say (depending on which contradictory statement you take) that he will raise the federal minimum wage, but by less than Clinton. Even if it only raises it by a few dollars and hour, that would translate to a great improvement both in the economic prospects of the country and the lives of millions of workers. So i think Trump is broadly right about wages, in that we need to increase the minimum in some  way. While to outsiders this might sound axiomatic given the scenario the U.S. finds itself in, in Republican circles this is wildly fringe. Many of them don’t believe in a mandated minimum wage at all. So give Trump some credit here.

Terrorism

With this one is hall have to tread carefully. Don’t misunderstand me, i am not talking about his proposal to halt all Muslim migration. Or his noxious exhalation regarding the torture of the families of terrorists. The irrational doctrine espoused by many on my own side on this issue is a constant source of anxiety to me. Clinton, Obama and others are seemingly terrified to call a spade a spade and state the obvious connection between the doctrine of radical Islamism (Wahabism, Islamic Fundamentalism or whatever else you choose to call it) and the acts carried out by its adherents. Terrorist attacks carried out by such persons, according to Clinton, are almost always because of poverty, disenfranchisement and other concerns disconnected from their religious faith. I believe this is a necessary component of the problem, but not a sufficient cause. Trump, on the other hand, is quite up front that our fight is with the theocratic and violent minority within the worlds huge Muslim population. So he is right about that. Unfortunately i give him little to no credit for this, as i think he is motivated by racism, xenophobia and belligerence rather than a sober appreciation of the ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis.

 

Migration 

Trump often says that a country must have secure borders. In this regard he agrees with the orthodoxy extant since at least the Treaty of Westphalia. I think there is a pretty strong argument that people who live and work in the country should be known to the government, especially in these times of insecurity and concern about the capacity of individuals to wreak havoc. He has even said he would be in favor of a large legal migration program. My problem is that this would happen after he has deported tens of millions of American residents, the partents of children who are citizens, to their countries of origin. So while i agree a nation must secure its borders and control the flow of migration, as well as institute some form of identification for those here (so they can get drivers licenses, go to hospitals, take out insurance and so on) i do not agree that this should be used as a mere smoke-screen to justify what i consider anti-Hispanic bigotry.

 

So no, Trump isn’t wrong about everything. If he was i very much doubt we would be talking about him. Donald Trump may be a broken and poorly functioning human, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Because even a broken clock is right twice a day.