The American Libertarian Bobo | The Press

You cannot want more than the customer, especially when you are not a citizen of the country concerned. The Americans chose Donald Trump, disgusted by inflation, immigration and overly formatted speeches. Good luck, guys ! We’ll talk about it again in four years.

Now, we can perhaps also see this as a sign that our neighbors are on the verge of bursting an abscess in their country, this libertarian sore which has been growing for a long time in the United States.

At its source, the libertarian vision advocates a society based on the absolute primacy of individual rights and freedom of choice plus plus. The proponents of these ideas are opposed to liberals which favor, for example, state intervention in the economy.

The new American leaders, supported by a Congress of the same blood type or almost, could be tempted to realize this latent desire at home, this philosophy claimed by Elon Musk, for example, or Jeff Bezos.

This doctrine, dear to the American economist Milton Friedman, could now have the chance to prove itself, to demonstrate that it could make these people happier.

Remember that Trump could reserve an important role for Elon Musk in his next government.

In the most radical form of a libertarian society, the state is coercive, even illegitimate, if not illegal.

It introduces itself needlessly into the lives of citizens, meddles in the economy by obstructing economic liberalism, which itself, by magic, would be self-sufficient, self-regulating, naturally distribute material well-being and, consequently, happiness.

We can simplify by summarizing this way of seeing as follows: as little government as possible in our lives, I do what I want with my money, let the State let go of me with its taxes and the redistribution of wealth, and that the poor start to work harder, because they are lazy, obviously!

Well, Donald Trump did not openly campaign with these ideas in his mouth, of course, otherwise he would not have been elected, but the electoral carnage of last Tuesday gives him all the power to profoundly modify the role of the American state.

He will be encouraged to act in this way by capital which, being what it is, does not care about the future of the world as long as its taxes and tax burdens are reduced even further, first and foremost those of the Trump companies.

This election result will also erode the precepts of the rule of law, some of which are likely to take the edge off, at least as far as Trump and his friends are concerned. It will be interesting to observe the resilience of the American justice system.

I will not repeat to you the possible eternal conservative party at the Supreme Court of the United States with the replacement of two octos justices by dashing quinquas, and the despair to come for how many American women regarding abortion.

Otherwise, as far as free trade is concerned: enough! Finished. Hello again the tariff barriers and a return to economic isolationism, an old American protectionist vice which we thought had disappeared, but whose illusion still makes the good fellow worker enjoy.

However, if the formula worked in the past, it is less certain today with an organized euro zone and economic giants like China and India.

This autarkic economic nationalism is almost impractical in a globalized financial system. The United States will still need non-American lenders who could dictate a certain way of trading contrary to Trump’s promises.

Furthermore, statistics have never proven in history that Republican presidents have performed poorly in the area of ​​economic management. An urban fable, but a persistent mirage.

They have rather accustomed us to increases in deficits because certain economic theories of the American right have never been proven true, at least in the short term.

And the Republican Party has never in the last century provided a right-wing Frank Delano Roosevelt who brought this country out of poverty, or even a Bill Clinton who balanced the state budget during his years in office.

In fact, the economic records of Republican presidents in recent decades are not necessarily stellar. Barack Obama and Joe Biden, for their part, pulled this country out of major economic crises.

Let’s also bet that the United States is in for four extremely turbulent years in terms of social cohesion. The opposition will be in the streets, which is always a bad omen, especially with a leader who risks becoming much more reactionary than during his first mandate.

The most worrying will undoubtedly be the treatment of health and education issues.

The abolition of Obamacare is on the menu and it will become even more impossible to be poor and sick.

As for education, you have to have visited a public school as I have already done in Philadelphia to see the sickening inequality in this country regarding the right to a quality education. I haven’t heard anything about Republican desires to improve the situation.

Finally, of course, racism and sexism were on the agenda during this campaign, without doubt.

But we can never say it enough, it is extremely risky to believe that we can win an election by playing our buttocks, locked in a jar or an echo chamber. This is exactly how you lose control of the political agenda.

Whatever anyone says, Trump understood that one.

Between us

On this Remembrance Day, the book by a guy from Quebec, Frédéric Smith: Quebecers in Normandy: from D-Day to the liberation of Paris. In this work, the result of colossal research work, we follow Quebecers involved in the Normandy landings and their progress or their death on French soil.

Quebecers in Normandy: from D-Day to the liberation of Paris

Frédéric Smith

Boreal

328 pages

A second, which was recommended to me by the great chef François Cardinal, where you will read, among other things, about Donald Trump’s behavior in crisis management, which will not necessarily help you sleep better: The Situation Room : The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisisby George Stephanopoulos.

The Situation Room : The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis

George Stephanopoulos

Grand Central Publishing

368 pages

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