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Tuesday, March 8, 2016

It's The Globalization, Stupid

During Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign, James Carville reportedly coined the phrase "It's The Economy Stupid" to remind Clinton's staff of the key message of the campaign. This campaign, while straddling various issues, in many ways comes down to a revolt against globalization. While its been raised by various commentators on the internet (including yours truly), I'm beginning to see recognition of this from others within the traditional media establishment. In "Sympathy for the Donaldites," Kurt Schlichter writes at Town Hall
Trumpism isn’t merely about unfocused anger – it would be super-convenient to write this off as a temper tantrum that will soon blow over and allow us to get back to the business as usual of ignoring the pleas (which are now demands) to stop the immigration disaster, to address the fallout of free trade, and to stop the useless sacrifice of our sons and daughters in wars we’re too damn gutless to win. But it isn’t. Again and again Republicans promised to solve these problems and yet every single time they’ve lied. Rubio got elected in Florida promising to oppose amnesty then not only fails to do so but stands up with the Democrats and did the exact opposite. And we’re surprised a candidate comes along and points that out? 
Think of this as, in large part, the struggle between the haves and have nots of globalization. Amnesty was a great idea for bubble people who think illegal immigration satisfies some sort of libertarian ideal, or who only experience its impact by being able to hire a cheaper nanny. It’s a pretty great idea for the illegals too. But leave your nice neighborhood and go where a high school grad who was born here can’t get a job as a roofer since any general contractor who doesn’t hire illegals is going to go broke because his competition will. Tell somebody whose daughter is shot dead in front of him by an illegal who got arrested five times but never got deported that it’s an act of love. 
If we had built the damn wall we promised our base back then, we probably wouldn’t have that damn Trump now. 
Free trade is great, in a macro sense. It sure helps enrich the donor class. But go tell the guy who lost his $25 an hour job because NAFTA let Carrier move its air conditioning plant to Mexico about Milton Friedman’s “Free to Choose.” What’s he free to choose? Long-term unemployment? Making a fake Social Security disability claim? Or taking a job greeting at Wal-Mart for $8 an hour? 
Immigration and free trade are generally good, but they impose real costs and our base is getting handed the bill. These folks have been asking us for help, and what was our response? Shut up, stupid racists. Well, they finally found someone who is taking their side. His name is Donald Trump, and we made him possible. Hell, we made him inevitable. [Emphasis in original].
However, there is still a large sea of ignorance out there. The post "Insular Media Elites" at Decline of Empire observes that our media can report that globalization leads to lower wages in the United States, without understanding what that means to the average American.

Why raise this in a blog ostensibly about prepping and survivalism? Because it is this hollowing out of the American economy and people that will cause the serious social fractures causing social and economic upheaval. Vox Day, in his recent post, "Five generations deep," quoted an article where the reporter interviewed a Hispanic protester at a Trump rally in Texas. The protester explained: "Y’all don’t understand — we aren’t the minority anymore. We own Texas. Texas is Mexican-made. I’m five generations deep right here.” To which, Vox Day commented:
And that, right there, is why Jerry Pournelle correctly predicted that "There Will Be War". And by war, I mean war on the North American continent of the sort that hasn't been seen in 150 years.
    Once the flow of government money stops, and once there is nowhere else to run for the white people that every Mexican, South American, African, Asian, Arab, and Jew is chasing in order to improve his life, the ethnic wars will begin. Who, then, will be the real American?
      Presumably the survivors. Homogeneous nations are born from heterogeneous countries.
      This is what Matthew Bracken warns about when he discusses his Civil War 2 (CW2) Cube. (See also my 2012 post, "Matthew Braken Discusses Civil War in the U.S."). Much as we, as individuals, do not wish to see this outcome, I think that, at this point, it is almost a certainty within the next two decades.

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