Donald Trump won. And not a little, but with a clear advantage. To be honest, it's a immense success for him, the Republican organization and their allies, with Elon Musk At the head.
At the same time, it is bad information for the US, and in the long word – for the world. And it's not for the reasons that it's usually raised.
Too frequently critical analyses of Trump turn into pseudopsychology – that narcissist, that megaloman, that mitoman.
Such analyses are shallow and do not grasp deeper political changes that Trump embodies best, but which go far beyond.
The last election run is the best example of this – Trump and Musk have applied a strategy that will most likely be copied by the right (or possibly not just the right) around the world.
Let's talk about... taxation office.
In fresh years, public attention has focused on issues specified as democracy, climate, abortion law, Ukraine and Gaza. The prism of these subjects usually besides assessed who was the better (or less) candidate: Harris or Trump. That's understandable, due to the fact that all of this is very important.
But for me, there is besides a tiny thing that has almost completely eluded Poland, and it captures the differences between the modern Democratic organization and the Republican Party. It besides shows the challenges facing the modern progressive movement.
I am referring to the issue of financing the interior gross Service (IRS), a national agency that collects taxes.
In 2019, IRS officials And they said consecutive out: We don't have the money or staff to verify the taxation returns of the richest. Affluent taxpayers frequently usage a variety of tricks to reduce their taxes, so catching possible abuses requires extra labor.
The Biden administration has decided to remedy this. In 2022 she granted the IRS an additional $80 billion. And you know what? It did. good effect. Not only did it improve taxation recovery from the richest payers, but it importantly improved service quality for average customers.
Republicans have not convinced it – they do their best to cut IRS backing back.
This seemingly marginal communicative contains 3 morals.
Firstly, we are besides frequently convinced that certain phenomena are natural and that “you will do nothing”. For example, that rich people will always get distant with taxes. Well, how they do it depends on how we form our public institutions. It's not a substance of nature, it's a substance of politics.
Secondly, both American parties have besides close ties to the financial elite, but Republicans are inferior in this respect. Even if we can do something about the horrendously uneven American system, they want to undo it.
Thirdly – and this is peculiarly crucial in the context of Trump's election – is right Ezra Klein, an American writer who late wrote that the main line of dispute between democrats and Republicans became the attitude towards state institutions. These another guys don't trust them completely, they'd all better take the hell out. Well, but possibly the army, the police, etc.
This is not just about libertarian fantasies of a "tan state" (although, yes, these fantasies are strong among Republicans), but about more. The belief that these institutions are a kind of interior enemy, that they have been irretrievably mastered by the levitating sensations and their goal is to dazzle actual patriots.
This attitude has consequences beyond the United States – it is simply a symptom of a global phenomenon which, by its deficiency of a better name, can be described as a "conspiracy right".
New Power – Conspiracy Right
The conspiracy's right is characterised by undermining assurance in the organization foundations of modern democratic states: the wellness strategy (because it "presses vaccines"), universities (because it is mastered by levitation), technological expert groups (because they lie about the climate), media (because they lie about everything), all kinds of offices (because bureaucrats regulation us) – nothing and nobody is beyond suspicion.
No 1 can image this trial better than a Trump-Musk couple. Their full run was based on the continuous undermining of assurance in subsequent institutions. You can't trust electoral commissions, you can't trust a taxation office, you can't trust civilian services, you can't trust media, you can't trust scientists, you can't even trust FBI statistic on crime.
And if you think, "Well, but many of these institutions, specified as the media, have a lot behind their ears, don't you?", then of course you are right. However, it cannot be overlooked what Musk and Trump are attacking them for.
They want to weaken the taxation office not to defend the “ordinary man” from bureaucrats, but due to the fact that they realized that after backing he had an unpleasant habit of better collecting from the rich.
They want to weaken state wellness institutions not due to the fact that they are going to war with large Pharma, but due to the fact that specified weakening is the first step towards further privatisation of public services and subjecting them to wealthy investors.
They want to weaken conventional media not due to the fact that they do not like their oligarchization, but due to the fact that it is not full – that any journalists inactive have an annoying consequence to critical looking at power. Wouldn't it be better to replace this with X platforms – with the power of good Tsar Musk?
They want to weaken the influence of climatologists not due to the fact that they care about the "pluralism of public debate", but due to the fact that these damn scientists say things that are not calculated with their political and financial interests.
One of Trump's ideas is to make a state efficiency committee – with Musk at the head. They did not explain precisely what was going on, but Musk repeatedly suggested that social spending should be cut, marketplace regulation abolished and government officials should be released. I remind you that Musk is simply a fan of president Javier Milei of Argentina, who is giving his country shock therapy on steroids.
Sometimes erstwhile 2 billionaires about authoritarian urges tell you they want to dismantle the state to have more power, it's worth taking their word for it. It's truly about disassembling the state in the interests of a bunch of rich people.
Unfortunately, the Americans want to test it in practice.
