On bended knee, the pampered and privileged “liberal” bourgeoisie has resumed its well known ritual before Donald Trump and the ultra-rightists. They are now Trump supplicants hoping to capture his “soul” by being very, very nice to him. That fascist and racist violence is on the rise around the country because of the way Trump campaigned is no big deal to these folks. They don’t feel that. Not their problem.
“At Lunch, Donald Trump Gives Critics Hope” wrote Thomas Friedman in the Nov. 22 New York Times following a meeting at the newspaper headquarters where the publisher, editor and selected reporters had an hour long on-the-record chat with Trump. Their number one priority seemed to be not to anger the raging narcissist. They also went off-record when Trump requested.
In the interview Friedman asked Trump if he would have an “open mind” about the possibility that climate change was real. Not wanting to upset Donald too much, Friedman actually made the case about climate change by warning Trump that his luxury golf courses might be underwater. Trump blew him off but said he would keep an “open mind” and thus the weaselly Mr. Friedman could proclaim that “Trump Gives Critics Hope.” It’s a very low bar with these establishment elites.
In the interview with Trump, the Times reporters and brass did not even ask about, much less challenge, Trump’s plans to deport 3 million people immediately. They didn’t ask about his plans to attack the core rights of Muslims or about the plans to create a Muslim registry. Nothing about building the wall and making Mexico pay for it. It was a groveling, insipid affair. Trump also made it clear that he is backing away from his much touted plan to create jobs by restoring the country’s crumbling infrastructure. No big deal, next question.
They even published a photo of Trump in their lobby, waving to a large crowd (maybe the Times staff?), all looking like fans, snapping pictures on their phones.
Trump, Clinton, NY Times and Wall Street are part of the same club
Trump, as is completely obvious to anyone paying attention, actually knows nothing. The ignorant billionaire bully is used to getting his way with politicians, media outlets, reporters and his standard for determining whether they are “nice” or “nasty” is how much they overtly flatter him or, conversely, challenge his positions.
The NY Times team played badminton with Trump on these issues. What concerned the Times publisher the most was the fate of Hillary Clinton. Would Trump follow through with his campaign pledge to reopen the investigation into Clinton? He pleaded in so many words “Please, Donald for the sake of the country don’t prosecute Hillary.” To which Trump, of course, said: no problem and expressed how bad he felt for the Clintons. “I don’t want to hurt the Clintons, I really don’t. She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways.”
Donald is actually one of their friends. Hillary was at the front row of his latest wedding, he liked to play golf with Bill, he consulted with Bill before announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination. In a master stroke of political genius (that’s a joke) the Clintons felt that promoting Trump and other extremists inside the Republican primaries would allow her to win. That worked out well (still joking.)
Trump, the Clintons, the NY Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger are all part and parcel of the same club of New York City plutocrats.
For the past year Clinton and Trump have attacked each other in unprecedented ways for modern U.S. presidential politics. He said that she was crooked and his adoring crowds chanted back “lock her up.” Clinton, for her part, literally called Trump a puppet of a foreign government. All that was show. They are really part of the same small club. They have been bit players and understood as such by Wall Street and the professional managers of the real state power apparatus.
The big bourgeoisie on Wall Street consider Clinton a traditional bought-and-paid-for politician and they consider Trump to be what he is: a relatively small time real estate capitalist, an inveterate hustler and a particularly insecure rich kid whose main goal throughout life was to be endlessly reassured even by fake flattery. Now that he is in charge of the White House, his political critics from within the American bourgeoisie have made it clear that they want to be on his team, to give him friendly advice since he has no foundational knowledge of his own. They want to guide him through his unexpected presidency.
The liberal bourgeoisie prefers Trump to the hundreds of thousands of progressive workers and youth who have been marching night after night in a show of solidarity with the immigrant and Muslim community who are the targets of the Trump White House and of the fascists who were emboldened as a consequence of his ultra-right wing campaign strategy. It is critically important that this remarkable street protest movement be imbued with militant opposition not only to Trump but to the real power in America. That is, the capitalist class that has imposed its destructive neo-liberal globalization model on society while plunging one generation after another into foreign wars that are designed to strengthen the position of U.S. capitalists throughout the world.
