Seeing Past Trump

AMID THE SOUND AND FURY which always seems to accompany the various iterations of Donald Trump,the most important point to remember is one which has been stated with great frequency, but seemingly less often taken to heart; that Donald Trump is a symptom, not a cause. Thus arises the question; symptom of what? The answer is considerably more complex. To begin,a general,comprehensive answer looms apparant; Donald Trump is a symptom of a wideranging variety of illnesses afflicting American society and culture,a symptom, in short, of contemporary conservatism. Submerged beneath the radiant glow of American liberty, properity, and perceived excellence lurk their counterparts, much less illuminated by the limelight of serious, objective scrutiny. We Americans are much more inclined to self praise than self criticism. Our liberty is undergirded by an economic and political system characterized by almost complete control, a plutocracy, ownership and control of the economy and policial system by the billionaire class. Much more has been written than read about this. A huge amount of the nation's wealth is owned by a tiny fraction of the population. Hence,control of the organs of government by the wealthy class. Gore Vidal wrote that there are atually two governments functioning in the United States: the cosmetic government consisting of the three fammilair branches of government with which everyone is familair, and the actual government, consisting of the billionaire class which purhases, owns, and controls all important poltical offices and the politicians who occupy them. Donald Trump, whose pretense to populism, to representation of the forgoetten citizen is so obviously a sham. Donald Trump is no less a champion of the billionaire class than the most ardent elitist. By electing Donald Trump,everyone who is not wealthy but votes for Trump is voting in direct opposition to their self interest. The interests of the poor working class are not served when a presdent, alleged billionaire or actual billionaire, signs into law a massive tax cut for the billionaire corporations, which Donald Trump did. Depending on the structure of government and the politicans who control it, government can either be beneficial to the poor or for the wealthy, but probably not both. But when government is downsized and reduced, there is no hope for it to benefit the poor, and the vacuum is filled not by the poor, but by the wealthy elite. Hence, corprate control. Conservatism is the ideology of the wealthy, despite the claims conservative politicians make to the contrary. Donald Trump is nothing other than a sympton of conservatism and its domination of American economics and poliics, despite the proven fact that a majority of Americans, who are far less than wealthy, support progressve policies. Modern conservatism is antithetical to democracy, because true democracy would benefit the working poor majority. The vast majority of Americans will never beneift by electing Republicans to office. And in fact, most Americans vote for Democrats. Republicans maintain a share of political and economic power far exceeding their actual numbers, because our system is a Republic, in which democracy is indirect, rather than majority rule. Our current system, as it always has, effectively prevents the people at large from having any real power and governing our country. We have been lulled by incessant corporate propaganda into acccepting elitist, minority rule. Until we come to terms with this, and organize to change it, there will be no meaningful change, and we the American people will continue our long tradition of utterly lacking meaningful representation.