Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
The Economist editors take aim at Trump and issue dire warnings for America and the world
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/02/05/1630110/-The-Economist-editors-take-aim-at-Trump-and-issue-dire-warnings-for-America-and-the-world?detail=facebookThe Economist editors take aim at Trump and issue dire warnings for America and the world
By VTGenie
Saturday Feb 04, 2017 · 10:23 PM EST
There is no mincing words: this is a radical cover for a magazine that is not exactly known for its radicalism.
The main editorial gets right to the point (my emphasis throughout):
WASHINGTON is in the grip of a revolution. The bleak cadence of last month’s inauguration was still in the air when Donald Trump lobbed the first Molotov cocktail of policies and executive orders against the capital’s brilliant-white porticos. He has not stopped. Quitting the Trans-Pacific Partnership, demanding a renegotiation of NAFTA and a wall with Mexico, overhauling immigration, warming to Brexit-bound Britain and Russia, cooling to the European Union, defending torture, attacking the press: onward he and his people charged, leaving the wreckage of received opinion smouldering in their wake.
They also astutely describe the transition of Trump the candidate to Trump the Pr*sident, particularly his use of outrage to both inflame and inspire his supporters.
His grenade-chuckers-in-chief, Stephen Bannon and Stephen Miller, have now carried that logic into government... Every time demonstrators and the media rail against Mr Trump, it is proof that he must be doing something right. If the outpourings of the West Wing are chaotic, it only goes to show that Mr Trump is a man of action just as he promised. The secrecy and confusion of the immigration ban are a sign not of failure, but of how his people shun the self-serving experts who habitually subvert the popular will.
Trump’s politics of conflict extends, of course, to foreign policy, and that is where they see serious problems looming.
Americans who reject Mr Trump will, naturally, fear most for what he could do to their own country. They are right to worry ..., but they gain some protection from their institutions and the law. In the world at large, however, checks on Mr Trump are few. The consequences could be grave.
Without active American support and participation, the machinery of global co-operation could well fail.
…
Because habits of co-operation that were decades in the making cannot easily be put back together again, the harm would be lasting. In the spiral of distrust and recrimination, countries that are dissatisfied with the world will be tempted to change it—if necessary by force.
…
A web of bilateralism and a jerry-rigged regionalism are palpably worse for America than the world Mr Trump inherited. It is not too late for him to conclude how much worse, to ditch his bomb-throwers and switch course. The world should hope for that outcome. But it must prepare for trouble.
Without active American support and participation, the machinery of global co-operation could well fail.
…
Because habits of co-operation that were decades in the making cannot easily be put back together again, the harm would be lasting. In the spiral of distrust and recrimination, countries that are dissatisfied with the world will be tempted to change it—if necessary by force.
…
A web of bilateralism and a jerry-rigged regionalism are palpably worse for America than the world Mr Trump inherited. It is not too late for him to conclude how much worse, to ditch his bomb-throwers and switch course. The world should hope for that outcome. But it must prepare for trouble.
Okay, American press. Now it’s your turn.
6 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
