الديمقراطية المعطلة في أميركا

May 31, 2017 Jeffrey D. Sachs

نيويورك ــ كان هذيان الرئيس الأميركي دونالد ترمب ضد اتفاق باريس للمناخ الذي أبرم في عام 2015 نتاجا لجهله ونرجسيته جزئيا. ولكن هذا الهذيان يمثل أيضا شيئا آخر. فهو انعكاس للفساد العميق الذي يعيب النظام السياسي في الولايات المتحدة، التي لم تعد وفقا لتقييم حديث "ديمقراطية كاملة". فقد أصبحت السياسة الأميركية أشبه بلعبة تديرها مصالح الشركات القوية: خفض الضرائب لصالح الأغنياء، وإلغاء القواعد التنظيمية لصالح كبار ملوثي البيئة، وحروب وانحباس حراري كوكبي لبقية العالَم.

في الأسبوع الماضي، بذلت ست دول من مجموعة الدول السبع الكبرى جهدا شاقا لإقناع ترمب بقضية تغير المناخ، ولكن ترمب قاوم بشدة. اعتاد الأوروبيون واليابانيون على التعامل مع الولايات المتحدة باعتبارها حليفا في قضايا أساسية. وبعد وصول ترمب إلى السلطة، بات لزاما عليهم أن يعيدوا النظر في هذه العادة.

بيد أن المشكلة تتجاوز ترمب. إذ يعلم من يعيشون في الولايات المتحدة من خلال تجربتهم المباشرة أن المؤسسات الديمقراطية في أميركا تدهورت بشكل ملحوظ على مدار العقود القليلة الماضية، وربما بدءا من ستينيات القرن العشرين، عندما بدأ الأميركيون يفقدون الثقة في مؤسساتهم السياسية. فقد أصبحت السياسة الأميركية على نحو متزايد فاسدة ومستهزئة ومنفصلة عن الرأي العام. وترمب مجرد عَرَض، وإن كان عَرَضا صادما وخطيرا، لهذه الوعكة السياسية العميقة.

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Jeffrey D. Sachs

Writing for PS since 1995
352 Commentaries

Jeffrey D. Sachs, University Professor at Columbia University, is Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He has served as adviser to three UN Secretaries-General, and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary-General António Guterres. His books include The End of Poverty, Common Wealth, The Age of Sustainable Development, Building the New American Economy, A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism, and, most recently, The Ages of Globalization.

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Julius Klein Jun 30, 2017

I think this is the biggest pile of C$%P I ever read, yes the USA political system is broken, but Trump didn't break it, it was well broken before. Who is going to fix it - the Clintonites?? Please. The us will have an armed insurrection in the future in my opinion, which is why the Dems are in a hurry to disarm the populace. We have 3 enemies within: Big Business, McMedia and Big government, each of which does work for the other. Trumpnis a scourge of all of them hence why the system is trying to rid him like disease. Trump is for sure a flawed messsenger, but the 3 houses of the unholy should not ignore the damn message.
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Nirmalan Dhas Jun 13, 2017

The United States of America has emerged as a nation state controlled by the Dominant Dualist Perceptual Paradigm and its concomitant Dominant Dualist Development Paradigm AND its emergence as such signals the increase of a global HORIZONTAL struggle between this Dualist Perceptual Paradigm and an emergent Unitive one that horizontally splits not only Nation States BUT EVERY SOCIAL INSTITUTION including THE FAMILY!..It is no longer part of the global civilization of the species Homo sapiens and the species need no longer look to this state for leadership and orientation. It has in effect become a rogue state...committed to a dark nightmare formerly known as "The American Dream" that promises nothing other than the rapid demise of the species and the destruction of the planet that gave it life and sustains it.

This does not of course apply to individual citiizens of the United States of America. Individual Federal states may want to secede and they must be supported...Individuals and institutions and organizations may wish to continue to link up with the emerging Unitive Perceptual Paradigm and its Unitive Developmental Paradigm, and they must be welcomed and assisted...the EMERGENCE and gradual SUPERSESSION of the Dominant Dualist Perceptual Paradigm must be recognized and facilitated...and all those who share this perception should be helped to link up over the face of the planet to generate a GLOBAL NETWORK to jointly perceive possible futures and guide the planet to sustainability and resilience through the generation of a sustainable and resilient global civilization...we are witnessing the supersession of DVAITALOKA and the emergence of ADVAITALOKA....

It is a time of happiness and opportunity...and a time of great celebration amongst all those who have been watching and waiting and patiently and tirelessly working to facilitate this great shift in perception throughout the world...our lives and work have not been in vain....and yet it is also a time of sadness and of saying goodby to people who have chosen to throw in their lot with the past and its old destructive ways...along which they have chosen to continue walk in TRIUMPH with their great and pompous leader DONALD TRUMP!!! a most fateful and fitting symbol of the egotism and narcissistic self worth, authoritarianism, cult of personality, sexism and economic exploitation that has grown wildly over the past 15,000 years.
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Sean Mac Jun 10, 2017

The era now, the darkest reign of Lying Trump, makes any previous reigns look almost sunny and bright. Lying Trump is a living corpse without a soul. It is stifling to see this menace in our very eye.
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Barry Rosenfeld Jun 6, 2017

Honestly, Prof. Sachs, when wasn't the US political system corrupt - at all levels of government. One could make the case that between 1933 and 1968 the degree of corruption seemed to moderate, but soon returned to its usual level. It isn't T-Rump or the Koch-suckers, who are only the latest in a long line of examples in which "public policy" has been employed for the benefit of the rich and well connected. Business interests never had trouble using government for their own benefit.
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Joseph Zorzin Jun 5, 2017

A true democracy won't have an electoral college that allows the person with the fewer votes to rule. And a true democracy won't allow ANY money into the election cycle or very little (as is the case in much of Europe). Also, if I'm not mistaken, didn't Jeffrey Sachs advice Russia how to become a capitalist nation? So, isn't he partially responsible for THEIR oligarchy/plutocracy?
- Anthony DeAngelis Jul 25, 2017
  
  Good thing the USA is a Republic and not a Democracy.
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Gunnar Eriksson Jun 4, 2017

First we should remember that the same capitalist groups invested heavily and supported both Mussolini and Hitler, prolonging the Great Depression in the US (Even reimbursed by US taxpayers for losses after the war).
Second; The trumps are Mercer people that has added racism and the persecution of The Other as primary tools (Mexican, foreigner Moslems, anybody that is not Us)
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Peter Burgess Jun 3, 2017

While it is easy to be critical of President Trump based on his views about almost everything, it is much more difficult to be constructive about what really needs to happen in order to Make America Great Again while also Making the World a Much Better Place.
There are some very important lessons to be learned from US policies post WWII ... like the Marshall Plan in Europe and the rebuilding of Post War Japan ... like the GI Bill and Federal Government support for new housing ... and the funding of research ... and the building of infrastructure like the Interstate Highway System ... and yes, going to the moon! Tax rates were high, but the country prospered until the 1970s ... GDP grew, profits grew and wages grew!
After the oil shock of the early 1970s when the OPEC cartel was able to increase crude oil prices from around $3.50 a barrel to around $13, a very energy inefficient US economy went into a tailspin. It was only by massive increases in prices that products could continue to be made profitable, and this resulted in catastrophic inflation rates. In the early 1980s inflation was reduced without losing profitability by a massive amount of outsourcing to places like China which made for a profitable strong corporate economy while starting down the road to a broken US social economy. This dimension of the US broken economy has not been addressed by either the political leadership of the left or the right in 40 years ... and frankly, not by academic leadership either ... nor those who have been able to use the system with all its quirks to become tech billionaires!
I argue that we have to have better metrics ... dumping the GDP measure and using something like the GPI (Genuine Progress Indicator) ... using double entry accounting not only to do accounting for the transactions that impact financial capital, but for transactions that impact ALL the other capital (human, social, natural, physical, intangible as well as financial) and we need measures other than money for all these capitals. We should be enabling a flourishing sustainable no growth full employment economy that is being optimized for ALL people not merely those that own the money and control the (purse) strings. This is a systemic problem, and its needs a systemic solution ... something that is essentially 40 years overdue!
Peter Burgess http://truevaluemetrics.org
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robert chadis Jun 3, 2017

re paris bit, coaloilswine need all the money they can get to buy ads to fool foolish voters in 2018.
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Drake Wauters Jun 3, 2017

Consider future US presidential elections cancelled. At the rate the GOP is turning the US in to a monarchy, they could never live to see a "blue" king with these absolute unchecked extraconstitutional powers.
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Robert Bruce Jun 3, 2017

I think the rabbit hole goes a lot deeper than Jeffrey Sachs is suggesting when he blames just the Koch brothers and American oil interests. After all an overwhelming majority of large US businesses have come out to support the Paris Agreement, and abandoning it simply doesn't make sense for the USA. Fossil fuels only account for around 6% of US GDP, and even then America is still a net importer of fossil fuel. The net gains and jobs from becoming a World leader in renewable technology would easily outweigh the costs of decarbonisation.

To expose the real villain in this piece we need to find a country that has far more to loose from the Paris agreement. Russia is the Worlds biggest single Fossil Fuel exporter, accounting for 75% of all Russian exports, 25% of their GDP, and 70% of government revenues. Take fossil fuels out of their economy and Russian GDP falls down the World league table to the same level as Indonesia. Putin was too smart not to become a signatory to the Paris Agreement, but he has yet to ratify it - a point that few commentators have noted. Meanwhile his strategy to get Trump elected and pull the plug on COP21 has finally delivered, and best of all seemingly no-one in the West seems to even suspect what went down. If you want to know who is pulling the strings on the most corrupt president in history just follow the money. You can be sure Putin is toasting Trump tonight.
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Fred Richardson Jun 2, 2017

Jeffrey, Come on: The last word in the title is correctly spelled "Demockracy". Nothing new.
A smaller issue: You say "America’s democratic institutions have deteriorated markedly over the last several decades, beginning perhaps as far back as the 1960s...". By the late '40s, we Exceptionalists were already treading hard on this track.
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Louis Stouch Jun 2, 2017

No doubt Sachs is referring to the Princeton study concluding we are now an Oligarchy published some 2 years ago

My question is, why did you not write this article when OBAMA was President? No need to answer Sachs, but your BIAS is showing.
As for Paris, this from the Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. No wonder the rest of the world Is ticked off:

https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2017/06/statement-us-secretary-commerce-wilbur-ross-withdrawal-paris-climate

Today, President Trump took one more important step towards restoring the primacy of American workers and American businesses by unshackling them from the terrible deal that is the Paris Climate Accord. That deal imposes little responsibility on the world’s largest emitters, while costing the U.S. economy three trillion dollars in reduced output, six million industrial jobs, and three million manufacturing jobs. That amount of economic carnage is unjustified, and so we welcome this long overdue action in defense of the American people.
- Sean Mac Jun 10, 2017
  
  C'mon. Obama's presidency was not perfect, but it is much better than this liar.
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Ted Peters Jun 2, 2017

Why is it mean-spirited to believe that society at large benefits and advances far more from an emphasis on policies that promote free enterprise rather than an ever expanding government? What could be more cruel to human beings than having to live in societies run by political bureaucrats who tend to suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorders and who have no tolerance for different opinions. Was the Soviet Union mean-spirited? Mao's Chine? Fidel's Cuba? Maduro's Venezuela? And why must being an ally mean simply capitulating to the other at the expense of your own people. Hell... Obama went so far as to do this with our enemies. Will that seem mean-spirited to the Sunnis in the Middle East when Iran has nukes?
- Louis Stouch Jun 2, 2017
  
  Ted. He is a Professor. He doesn't do, he lectures.
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j. von Hettlingen Jun 2, 2017

According to Jeffrey D. Sachs, America's democracy is "broken," because corporatocracy - an economic and political system controlled by corporations or corporate interests - is the name of a "corrupt, cynical" game in US politics. Campaigns for presidential and congressional candidates are funded by corporate companies, which help elect those, who serve their interests. And the corporatocrats also ensure that gullible voters - brainwashed by far-right media outlets they financed - cast a ballot for their candidates.
Due to low turnout, participation has hovered between 48% and 57% in US presidential elections since 1980. Republicans benefit hugely from the abstention of nonvoters, who are more economically liberal than their GOP peers - supporting government health insurance and more federal spending on schools etc. Apart from voter apathy in the face of two unpopular candidates in the 2016 presidential election, political marginalisation of ethnic minorities and social groups was another reason that propelled Donald Trump to power. He has been terrorising the country and the world with mendacity, fraudulence, ignorance, incompetence etc,
The author says Trump’s "policies embody mean-spirited priorities that are widely backed" by the GOP in Congress: "slash taxes for the rich at the expense of programs to help the poor and working class; increase military spending at the expense of diplomacy; and allow for the destruction of the environment in the name of 'deregulation'.”
Trump's latest move - withdrawal from the Paris agreement on climate change - is more damaging to America, than to the planet, because politically the US is isolated, while the rest of the world demonstrates an extraordinary unity and steps up its efforts to reduce global warming. As green economy is booming, driven by plummeting renewable energy costs, there is hope that climate change doesn't get out of control.
The author points out that people who either own or run energy companies - they happen to be "mega-poulluters" - have invested much political capital into advancing their goals, donating hundreds of millions to campaigns. Once elected, their stooges "gut the federal programs for education, training, the environment, civilian science, diplomacy, housing, nutrition, and other urgent civilian priorities." This creates a vicious cycle of voter suppression - especially in Republican strongholds, because the poor - facing an array of newly-enacted barriers to the ballot box - are being disenfranchised.
Given the uncertain future awaits Trump regarding investigations into his campaign team's dealing with Russia, climate change is the last thing on his mind. He is soon 71 and there is nothing he can do to overcome his ignorance. Most people say his rationale doesn't make sense - the US had been taken advantage of. The Paris agreement would “punish” Americans by instituting “onerous energy restrictions” that would stymie economic growth. He claimed that meeting the accord’s greenhouse gas emission standards would cost the United States close to $3 trillion in lost gross domestic product and 6.5 million industrial jobs. He also lied about the agreement being unfavorable to US interests that other countries were laughing at America. However his withdrawal apparently can’t actually be finalised until near the end of Trump’s term - if he sits it out. Much depends on his political fate, which may not be as certain as his supporters anticipated. A lot can happen between now and 2020, and his successor can always repeal the withdrawal.
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John Landrum Jun 1, 2017

PS provides me with the best humor of my week from the leftist likes of Jeffrey Sachs, bona fide left-wing Goofball! Let’s review a few of his banalities.
1. “Powerful corporate interests”, “tax cuts for the rich”, “de-regulation of mega-polluters” and, of course, “global warming”. All “dog whistle” phases that energize the lefties world-wide. Good work, Jeff.
2. Climate Orthodoxy is the one I love best. The world comes to end in a few years without the Paris Agreement! Right? No, very wrong. If fully followed by all parties to the letter, the computer models tell us it will reduce temperature rise by .7 degrees centigrade! Yippee! Let’s not forget “the models” have only been wrong for the last 30 years, but no matter to the Orthodox Climate Priests. And finally, the models are NOT SCIENCE. Science is “the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.” Computer models do NOT OBSERVE and they do NOT EXPERIMENT. They only guess at an outcome.
3. Next stop is the effort to “deprive more than 20 million people of health care”. Please get serious. ObamaCare has failed miserably by all measures. The adults now must fix it. Repeal it and start over.
4. Sachs bemoans any change in Agriculture Department rules to reduce the number of people on food stamps – the Obama expansion to create more free food and promote more dependency on government largess. Since 71% of Americans are currently over-weight, that means 71% of those 48,000,00 getting Food Stamps are also over-weight since they are an accurate sample of the US population. 34,000,000 people getting food subsidies and over-weight! No problem for the left.
5. As to the incredibly inaccurate statement that “American overwhelmingly want to stay in the Paris Climate Agreement”, Jeff just gets the 2017 Pinocchio Award for the year’s biggest fib!
6. And we were all waiting for the “dark money” and the Koch brothers insults. Those awful “mega-polluters” and behind the scenes manipulators who, by the way, did not support Donald Trump in the last election. PS: Jeff always point to a Nazi connection. Blow that dog whistle!

So, what lesson does Mr. Sachs leave us with? As an American leftist, he believes that the US should be governed by identity politics; political correctness; weaponized victimhood; environmental orthodoxy and, of course, the cultism of diversity. Once more, good work Jeff!
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John Landrum Jun 1, 2017

PS provides me with the best humor of my week from the leftist likes of Jeffrey Sachs, a bona fide left-wing Goofball! Let’s review a few of his banalities.
1. “Powerful corporate interests”, “tax cuts for the rich”, “de-regulation of mega-polluters” and, of course, “global warming”. All “dog whistle” phases that energize the lefties world-wide. Good work, Jeff.
2. Climate Orthodoxy is the one I love best. The world comes to end in a few years without the Paris Agreement! Right? No, very wrong. If fully followed by all parties to the letter, the computer models tell us it will reduce temperature rise by .7 degrees centigrade! Yippee! Let’s not forget “the models” have only been wrong for the last 30 years, but no matter to the Orthodox Climate Priests. And finally, the models are NOT SCIENCE. Science is “the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.” Computer models do NOT OBSERVE and they do NOT EXPERIMENT. They only guess at an outcome.
3. Next stop is the effort to “deprive more than 20 million people of health care”. Please get serious. ObamaCare has failed miserably by all measures. The adults now must fix it. Repeal it and start over.
4. Sachs bemoans any change in Agriculture Department rules to reduce the number of people on food stamps – the Obama expansion to create more free food and promote more dependency on government largess. Since 71% of Americans are currently over-weight, that means 71% of those 48,000,00 getting Food Stamps are also over-weight since they are an accurate sample of the US population. 34,000,000 people getting food subsidies and over-weight! No problem for the left.
5. As to the incredibly inaccurate statement that “American overwhelmingly want to stay in the Paris Climate Agreement”, Jeff just gets the 2017 Pinocchio Award for the year’s biggest fib!
6. And we were all waiting for the “dark money” and the Koch brothers insults. Those awful “mega-polluters” and behind the scenes manipulators who, by the way, did not support Donald Trump in the last election. PS: Jeff always point to a Nazi connection. Blow that dog whistle!

So, what lesson does Mr. Sachs leave us with? As an American leftist, he believes that the US should be governed by identity politics; political correctness; weaponized victimhood; environmental orthodoxy and, of course, the cultism of diversity. Once more, good work Jeff!
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d clark Jun 1, 2017

American Jeffrey Sachs may be a great economist, but when he talks of America having a “broken democracy” because of Trump, he is on the same footing as any other American citizen. Sachs is all over the map in the article, but a few points. 1) Lobbyists are of all kinds, including heavyweight environmental/climatechange lobbyists, who pet their eager international politician targets in sparkling fresh-air mountain resorts as well as in 6-star restaurants. 2) Sachs still believes that “global warming/climate change” is a problem and is upset that Trump has not climbed on the bandwagon. 3) Sachs latches onto businessman Trump as the breaker of America’s democracy after just three months as president.

It’s odd that Sachs exculpates ex-president Obama. For the past eight years in office (2009-2017), America was Obama’d hard by his bringing Chicago politics to Washington, D.C. Obama got passed into law a Rube Goldberg now-shattered health bill by brazenly lying to the American people and ensuring that the bill had “lack of transparency”. He signed the Paris Climate Agreement and the Iran nuclear deal by stealthily going around the American Congress, making good on his dictatorial narcissistic threat to wield “pen and phone” if Congress refused to go along with his wishes. It was Obama and his hand-picked henchmen who swirled the wrecking ball, battering America’s democracy, proudly displaying their Wilsonian/Rooseveltian progressive “do it my way or else” credentials. Sachs seems out of touch to what has made and what is unmaking American democracy. Trump could hardly do worse than his devious predecessor, as he tries to restore some of what has made America unique.
- d clark Jun 2, 2017
  
  @Gregor Flock
  You are correct, in that Sachs’s third paragraph inserts “the problem goes beyond Trump”. Please note, however, that from start to finish he names Trump 20 times, in almost every paragraph. Sachs’s target is Trump, not giving the reader a history of the breaking of American democracy. As for Dr Sach’s naming the Koch brothers, he stoops low trying to blacken them from their father’s activities, that they inherited their wealth, and that they are very wealthy—attributes that would apply to many other good Americans. For your accusation that I used a straw man argument, please tell me where. Such fallacies should be revealed. Remember that the straw man fallacy is one of Obama’s most ugly and duplicitous weapons of his verbal gymnastics repertoire.
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- Gregor Flock Jun 1, 2017
  
  @ d clark: JS never said that America has a broken economy "because of Trump" as you allege (see 1st paragraph). JS even clearly states "the problem goes beyond Trump" (3rd paragraph), naming names such as the Kochs. Try to cut down on your straw man arguments pls.
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Peter Lintner Jun 1, 2017

Quote: US political system, which, according to one recent assessment, is no longer a “full democracy.”

US is a two party closed political system, only one party more than the communist China. One has to be a fool, or completely naive to believe US is a democracy. Oligarchy for the rich.
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Chandrashekar Tamirisa Jun 1, 2017

This article by Jeff Sachs persuasively argues about our broken government in America. However, the United States has crossed the inflection point on energy in particular and oil demand will soon peak and then decline. With or without the Paris Accord and Trump or No Trump the structural shift of the US economy has already gained irrevocable momentum toward sustainability.
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Jan Czaja Jun 1, 2017

I generally agree with the article, however, what's the solution. It sure doesn't lie in supporting the Democrats or the Republicans. Every since Bill Clinton aligned the Democratic Party's economic policy with Neoliberalism which was already Bible in the Republican Party, the game was up for working class. The corporations have essentially turned the Congress into its law making division.

People are aware of the problem. First they voted for the Hope and Change guy in 2008. Well that didn't really work so they went polar opposite in 2016 and we all know the result. Unless one of the parties gets cleansed, or just implodes and a new one arises in its place, I just don't think that anything will change. At this time, the working class has no representation in United States whatsoever.

“Corporations are people, my friend - Mitt Romney"

I think that statement just about sums up the current state of US politics.
- Sean Mac Jun 10, 2017
  
  The solution is to vote for Democratic party making it the majority in 2018 election.
  
  Yes, Democratic party is not perfect but we need the checks and balances to contain this menace Lying Trump.
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Petey Bee Jun 1, 2017

Amen to all that - a good beginning! But why stop there? If we're talking about the corruption of US politics, the Democrats are as unlikely to be a solution as are the Republicans themselves.

This article focuses heavily on the energy industry, which leans Rep - mostly. For instance, the Obama admin's refusal to permit the Keystone XL was with the encouragement of superstar supporter Warren Buffet, who happened to own the north-south Canada-GulfCoast railroads, with which the pipeline would have competed.

Lets move on to other major players. The pharmaceutical-insurance complex has had the US medical system in a choke hold for several decades now. It seems to lean somewhhat Democratic. The Byzantine complexity of the ACA was to their advantage. Sure all first world countries but us have national health care. Sure the US government has actual experience with single payer for millions (for active duty military). Sure everyone and their grandma has known this the entire time, the polls are clear, neutral policy analysts are clear on this all. Same old.

And what of the two biggest industries that should've been the center in this article - defense and finance? Anything they want enjoys broad bipartisan support.

It's not really clear how to resolve this -- although the 2016 election was an indication that the voting public gets it. (in my opinion, Trump was the mother of all protest votes).

Third parties may help.
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Henry Rech Jun 1, 2017

Abraham Lincoln said:

"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. "

It seems it is enough to fool some of the people some of the time.
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Subhash Garg Jun 1, 2017

Can't find anything to disagree with. What a miracle! Note, the Supreme Court is again a party to subverting democracy, as they did in the Jim Crow era.
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daniele simoncini May 31, 2017

I've never thought of more diplomacy as a way to reduce military expenses (althought one could say that you'll have less convincing arguments doing so). And of course the majority of Americans want to tax the rich, which are a minority and have the money.
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Mark Feldman May 31, 2017

Thomas Jefferson saw clearly how to prevent the system being overcome by what he called "kings, priests and nobles". Here is what he wrote.

“…Preach…a crusade against ignorance…improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against…evil, and that…kings, priests and nobles…will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance…”

It's a long and stunning story about how "the people [have been left] in ignorance", the ignorance that allows the Murdochs, Kochs and Trumps to use their money to fool the common people. The said part is that all of this started with the corruption of higher education, on which ALL education, even k-12, depends. If you want to understand how this works, look at the category "University Education Dumbs Down High School". It's on my blog inside-higher-ed .
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Steve Hurst May 31, 2017

Trump visits people who buy US stuff but behead citizens and is nice and smiles and dances with swords. Then visits people who sell more stuff to the US than they buy from the US but dont behead people and is nasty and drives a golf cart while they walk and then dances with words. Its about the money stupid. There is nothing to salvage because there are no standards other than money. The US is simply a global conglomerate and its what the people voted for. Credibility problem, there is no credibility problem because there is no credibility
- M M May 31, 2017
  
  Show me the money as they say, where is the money? Or is it just a "mirage"...another illusion? IThe trip has been a good Hollywood Act for future movies and royalties!
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Marc Laventurier May 31, 2017

It's the culture, stupid. Trump is a con man who has fully employed "America’s democratic institutions", primarily the septic right wing echo chamber crafted by Ailes (RIH) et al. to tick off every prejudice inculcated into the dimmest recesses of the american polity for decades, wrapped in the promise of a job offer and the flag. Once elected, he similarly approaches the republican congress, promising the the holy grail of their faith, tax cuts. The US is financialized capitalism masquerading as a state, and operates like an over-mortgaged sheep ranch; the veterinary bill alone will bankrupt it.
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Thomas Lloyd May 31, 2017

I have been saying for quite a while that America was not a democracy but an autocracy, which you aptly state with the corrupt Koch brothers. Trump is a symbol of American greed and corruption. God help America, and the world.
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Stephen Siamai Kromah May 31, 2017

What good is in all this for a winning Russia election meddling strategy? Wreaking pressure on Vladimir Putin Russia; by solid position of US and EU.
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Howard Holmes May 31, 2017

And the solution is ????
The solution is to eliminate re-elections. Simple and effective.
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Stephen Siamai Kromah May 31, 2017

It wont be surprising some drug-lords taking over government in organized elections somewhere in West Africa soon.
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Stephen Siamai Kromah May 31, 2017

And then Trump drained the swamp in Washington. This is how he was going to drain the swamp by putting these big boys in power in Washington D.C.
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Stephen Siamai Kromah May 31, 2017

Quite so President Trump is a symptom even just by the GOP 2016 primaries results; as standard of measurement of this problem within the Party. You want to tell me given the line up all those candidates who Trump beat; GOP could not muscle around Jeff Bush or another candidate besides Trump?
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Hank Bones May 31, 2017

The author has the right premise, but the wrong villain. Attempting to paint Donald Trump - the political outsider unable to be bought by corporate, banking, and foreign lobbies, and elected on a populist platform - as the corporate stooge is quite a stretch.

I encourage Professor Sachs to explore the corporate, banking, and international lobbyist ties of establishment Republicans and Democrats alike throughout Congress. Who do they vote in favor of. Who contributes to their campaigns. Where do they go to work after they get out. Where did they work before.

Doesn't it seem odd that under both parties for the past three decades the deficit has ballooned, Wall Street has engorged itself, the middle class has withered away, and income inequality has exploded? Republican and Democrat members of Congress both serve the same masters. Unfortunately, in the case of both parties, those masters are not the American people.

Trump is America's second attempt to wrest democracy back from the special interests (Obama, the first, was unsuccessful). He may or may not succeed. If he does, he will need to take a wrecking ball to the Republican party and clear out the establishmentarians. If he fails as Obama did, let us hope a new political party emerges to take on the Democrat-Republican aristocracy, before the American people's patience wears too much thinner.
- Gregor Flock Jun 1, 2017
  
  Like Paul Ross and just in case you should actually be serious, I would urge you to take a deeper look at Trump's cabinet before going *facepalm" when recognizing of your utter ignorance.
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- Paul Ross May 31, 2017
  
  Your humor is subtle and sweet.... Trump, who appointed the richest cabinet in history, is not a tool of Capitalist class... I see what you did there.
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Stephen Siamai Kromah May 31, 2017

By punctured G7 Summit 2017, we getting to see real shock of Russia meddling result of US 2016 election outcome.
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Stephen Siamai Kromah May 31, 2017

It is like I am reading "The Great Divide" by Joseph Stiglitz. We are in big trouble, maybe some see the problem with democracy under President Trump as America problem. But it is not so to me. It is not bounded by borders of US.
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