For decades, political leaders have unconditionally accepted the premise that technological advancement and globalization are not only economically beneficial, but also that the American people are primary beneficiaries.
While the former is empirically true on a macroeconomic scale, the average working class American has reaped little to no reward from GDP growth. Free trade agreements, outsourcing, union dissolution, automation and tax cuts have instead allowed American corporations and executives to consolidate this wealth creation at the expense of American laborers.
As a result of conducive policy, corporations have handsomely rewarded investors and executives with record profits, but average hourly wages, adjusted for inflation, have remained flat since 1978.
At the same time, living expenses have spiked, and so despite working more hours, flat wages and higher living expenses have forced middle income Americans to take on debt to supplement their income. Even though the stock market is in its longest bull run in U.S. history and unemployment is its lowest since 1969, 40 percent of Americans could not cover a $400 emergency expense.
Add in a taxpayer bailout of the financial sector, millions in executive bonuses amid mass layoffs and the American people see the political and economic power disparity between them and the establishment elite.
Americans are rightfully upset in a society so rigged by an establishment elite. In retrospect, it’s clear why President Donald Trump won and former U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders resonated so well with voters. They posed themselves as an affront to the establishment, and they channeled voter vitriol toward a rigged political system into a populist movement.
I understand the angst and the frustration of the Trumpians and the Berniecrats. Maybe hurling obscenities and expressions of moral indignation are cathartic for populist voters, but at the end of the day it’s all just political posturing. Populist voters have subscribed to a self-destructive ideology of uncompromised radicalism — whereby grossly oversimplified policy is overshadowed by emotive feelings of injustice.
These feelings of injustice, however, inadvertently put novice or unqualified government officials in positions of power. At best, this creates government paralysis and incompetency. At worst, this leads to outright corruption and tyranny, the likes of which we’re seeing play out today.
Consider that Trump’s campaign promise to “drain the swamp” has not even remotely been kept. The Department of Defense is now run by a former Boeing executive, the Department of Health and Human Services is run by a former pharmaceutical lobbyist, the EPA is run by a former coal lobbyist and the Interior Department is run by a former NRA lobbyist. Seven former lobbyists have held positions at the HHS, 11 have held positions at the EPA, nine have held positions at the DOTDOT and 21 have held positions at the Energy, Labor and Commerce departments.
In total, there are 164 former lobbyists serving in the Trump administration. The “swamp” has only gotten deeper.
The Trump experiment in populism is a lesson, but the recent election of counterparts on the left makes me think that this country is a speeding toward a cliff. When radical ideologues grind the gears of government to a halt for an extended period of time, our country will sputter at a very important juncture in world history.
We are dangerously close to abdicating our position at the head of the liberal international order created post-World War II to ensure global freedom and democracy. Our internal discord and political obstructionism cedes global influence to a spreading authoritarianism once contained to China and Russia but is now in countries such as Brazil and Poland.
Populist policies are putting our Republic on a pathway to Roman destruction. The fact that an immigration policy involving building a physical wall on our southern border, which in spite of being so horrible that even Fox News host Chris Wallace has to call out its baseless justifications, is shutting down our government is deeply concerning.
Moreover, considering that the newly elected democratic socialists, a counterpart to the tea party Republicans, ran on a platform to topple capitalism, which is as equally ridiculous as a physical wall on our southern border, may be signaling our country’s imminent demise.
The neo-socialist platform is so left-wing that even conservative “boogeywoman” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Elizabeth Warren don’t support a socialist economic system whereby the government controls the means for production. In fact, even the liberal utopias of the Nordic countries have free market economies.
The scary reality is that these populists are taking positions of power within our government as they have been for a decade and seemingly for decades to come. These charlatans never miss a TV interview or a Twitter spat, but so help us all when they turn sound bites into policy. My hope for this nation is that we put an end to the madness and restore some sense of normalcy.
Patrick Gagen is a 21-year-old mass communication and finance senior from Suwanee, Georgia.