Politixia
Neo-Nazis and the Impotence of Trumponomics
Paul Krugman, with so many others, still don’t really get it whether that be Trump and what’s left of his MAGA cult movement or the AfD’s big win in Germany.
No, ‘crude economics’ doesn’t come close to explaining what just happened in Germany as the neo-Nazi, strongly pro-Putin AfD has taken power in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt (similar to an American state) any more than it does in the US and for Trump/MAGA.
In fact, any kind of ‘economics’ doesn’t come close to truly explaining what happened in Germany any more than it does here in America. The only ‘economics’ which interests Trump is limited to his own.
That hard Right ‘economics’ continues to be debated is, however, the perfect distractor for true hard Right political objectives.
Far-right win leaves Germany’s Merz shaken as AfD plots path to power
The anti-immigrant, pro-Russia AfD won nearly 44% of the vote, an outcome that underlined the deep unpopularity of Merz’s ruling coalition and also triggered alarm among Germany’s neighbours, France and Poland, and elsewhere.
However, the party — which wants to deport immigrants, halt support for Ukraine and restore ties with Moscow — fell short of an absolute majority in the state legislature, winning 39 of the 83 seats, and hopes to poach individual conservative lawmakers.
I’ve long respected Krugman but, as with so many other liberal economists and politicians, he still doesn’t get Trump/MAGA, the AfD or aligned movements. Consider back to Brexit for a moment; a Putin pushed White Supremacist European International assisted process. Brexit was a flagrant economic con framed and driven by virulent anti-immigrant angst. The NHS is still waiting for the hundreds of millions of pounds Boris Johnson promised would result from Brexit.
Brexit was, instead, all about virulent racism and anti-immigrant angst then just as Trump/MAGA and the AfD are now. Neither give any more of a damn about the economy than did Hitler. The common theme is that all knows/knew how to use the economy, intense economic inequity, depression/recession, false economic promises and performance politics as distractions. The hard Right takes advantage of an economic breakdown for the purpose of racist, anti-immigrant objectives often with antisemitism – all for political power.
The other part of this and what has helped sustain Trump and the European far Right, is sad white terror over coming and unavoidable demographic shifts. This is also reflected in the absurd virulently anti-semitic and anti-immigrant ‘Great Replacement Theory.’ Remember in Charlottesville when white supremacists were chanting “they will not replace us?”
The huge numbers of deportations by the Trump administration have explicitly targeted brown and Black persons to include anyone looking remotely Hispanic. It is part of an brazenly inhumane, unconstitutional and nonsensical attempt to further ‘whiten’ America.
The (Stephen Miller) immigration policy is evil, inhumane and a full out lie. ICE isn’t targeting the ‘worse of the worse’ or those who might truly be grifting off of or a threat to our nation but, instead, is hiring them to target so many decades long residents who work, produce and pay taxes in the US.
They are targeting grandmothers, landscapers, nurses, dads dropping their child off at preschool and those who have helped rebuild dying communities (See: Springfield, Ohio). They are targeting advanced medical and science research specialists who have (had) made America a leader in medical science and technology. And they are murdering both US citizens and the undocumented alike. This is the opposite of building American structural or economic strength
The AfD has long promoted “remigration,” a highly contentious term in itself focused on forcibly deporting immigrants from Germany while returning Ukrainian refugees to areas deemed safe. Ukraine is far from ‘safe’ but, relatively speaking, is still far safer than is Haiti.
Taking out a large portion of a nations and community’s workforce, from job producers and business owners, medical professionals, caregivers and scientists to workers in critically important sectors which commonly overwork and underpay, is not exactly economic brilliance. In the US, Ag sectors and home builders have been among the hardest hit and hurt as their skilled and unskilled employees alike have been deported. Manufacturing is only a side show
That Trump doesn’t give a rat about and has no understanding of the national or international economy (from trade deficits and financial policy to tariffs) should be painfully obvious. Yet, this ongoing non-debate about Trumponomics continues as demonstrated in this Substack by Krugman. It’s all but a distraction driven in the US by which sector is able to adequately compensate (bribe) Trump.
Trump has paid out BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars to END alternative energy contracts with a focus on wind and solar. In the meantime, China continues to increase its internal alternative energy production by massive wind and solar projects while becoming a major exporter of the technology. This as Trump and his Big Oil and Big Coal sponsors generate profane short-term profits while doing even more immense climactic damage
With all of the distractions, I wonder how many Americans are even so aware.
Think about major wildfires in the US and the drying up Colorado River to the horrific catastrophe in Tibet/Nepal. That water is not an inexhaustible resource is not well understood. Despite all being driven by human caused climate breakdown and global warming, Trump is padding Big Oil profits by paying BILLIONS to END desperately needed alternative energy projects.
Instead, just try to imagine the huge economic and manufacturing boost a robust alternative energy policy, strategy, funding, and industry would be for the US. But not only does the Trump Administration not give a damn, it is taking us backwards while dramatically compromising the future of the American economy
And it is doing so, primarily, as a distraction for violent anti-immigrant policy and White/Christian Supremacism. Trump 2.0 is for the racism, not economics, which many in his MAGA movement are only now becoming aware. In the US, it is a primary distraction to keep pushing the Christian Nationalist and eugenic Project 2025 combined with gaining still more political power and self-enrichment.
The European Right is no different. Its excuse is a massive economic con but is also primarily focused on and targeting virulent racism and anti-immigration despite the economic and human damage it creates.
None of these hard Right movements on either side of the Atlantic give a rat about economic fallout and consequences.
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