AMERICA'S BREXIT MOMENT

Americans are having a Brexit moment, giddy on election night for having given the political establishment the middle finger, only to awaken mornings later wondering, “Oh my god, what have we done?”

In voting for Trump and a Republican-controlled House and Senate, the working middle class unthinkingly has voted against its own interests and forthe interests of the very rich – let me count the ways:

·      Obamacare repealed – more uninsured, less access to health care for the middle class (poor get Medicaid), more avoidable deaths, more medically induced bankruptcies

·      Dodd-Frank repealed – another financial panic in the making, granting bankers license to take imprudent risks with high leverage in volatile markets. Eventual crashes in housing and stocks. No bailout – this time depositors’ funds converted into equity in failed banks.  Bad for the middle class. Benefits rich, market-wise short sellers.

·      Lax regulation: financial, environmental, worker safety – all bad for the working class finances, health and wellbeing.

·      Immigration toughened – bad news for the Hispanic immigrant poor and working classes persecuted by authorities. Hostility toward U.S. Muslims becomes politically acceptable.

·      No hike in minimum wage: low-wage workers remain poverty-stricken despite having full-time jobs.

·      Less government funding for education -- diminished opportunities for poorly educated workforce, causing U.S. international competitiveness to flag. Heavy student debt burden.

·      Taxes cut– good news only for the rich as tax burden continues to shift from the rich to the rest as it has for 3 decades. Corporations continue to garner an increasing share of national income benefitting management and shareholders, while paying a decreasing share of government revenues.

·      Military spending increased – good news for defense contractors’ management and shareholders – bad for consumers deprived of resources diverted into producing non-consumable armaments.

·      Widening federal deficits ensue – generational injustice: today’s tax cuts are tomorrow’s tax increase on Gen X and then Millennials.

·      Inequality of wealth/income perpetuated: contributing to a reprise of the Panic of 2008 and the Great Recession.

·      Trade War – bad for workers in the U.S. export and related sectors.

·      5-4 Conservative majority in the Supreme Court as listed by NY Times Editorial Board:

o   Fewer people have rights

o   Women do not have reproductive choices

o   Lawmakers make it harder for minorities to vote

o   Religious people are free to disregard laws protecting people they don’t like

o   American politics flooded with unlimited money

o   Reasonable gun restrictions are struck down

o   Corporate interests prevail over those of consumers

o   Basic environmental regulations are turned back.

Bottom line: despite differences between the unorthodox and uncouth president-elect and the Republican establishment – returned to Congress virtually intact – they are in general agreement on all the aforementioned policy initiatives with consequences detrimental to the general population and favorable to the rich -- what did Republicans expect, electing a self-serving billionaire president and a Republican Congress funded by Big Money? Americans may well wonder if, like Scalia electing Bush in 2000, whether FBI Director Comey elected Trump in 2016.

There is also the heightened risk of:

·      Escalation of religious war between hostile Muslim jihadists and equally hostile Christian evangelicals and their respective allies. All the jihadists have to do is provoke Trump with another 9/11-style attack and he can be counted on to vengefully counter-attack, escalating the conflict, converting more Muslims to jihad at home and abroad, widening the divide and heightening the violence between Islam and the West. Bad for the vulnerable poor and middle class unable to afford gated communities and guarded premises to protect them from home-grown-terrorist attacks. Bad for U.S. Muslim minorities. Bad for U.S. military personnel ordered into the fray. Bad for Muslims on the receiving end of Trump’s over-reaction.

·      Putin emboldened to nibble at the borders of NATO – risks putting U.S. troops in harm’s way to confront the Russians.

·      Escalation of Cyber Warfare -- puts Internet-related functions at risk of institutional dysfunction with potential for serious economic and social disorder.

The one consolation for the Democratic opposition is that this time when the wheels come off the wagon, there will be no ambiguity about which party to blame for the nation’s woes, like in 1932, setting up an eventual reversal of the political pendulum in favor of liberal solutions. Meanwhile, America, assume the position.