The 45th US President Donald John Trump since January 2017 and until now has brought a big change to the prevailing international relations-which are widely known as the international order-which had been formed after the end of WWII.
The culmination of these cosmogenic changes was both the increasingly intense anti-globalization reactions and the US internal shift “towards themselves” which translates as isolationist tendencies.
The framework of the electoral period of 58th Presidential elections in the US (2016) was formed by the slogan “Make America Great Again” which was the basis of the successful-according to the election results-campaign of US President Donald John Trump. In this large-scale analysis, we will try to “decode” the US President Donald Trump’s applied policy from the 8/11/2016 elections and to this day, both in political and economic fields.
In addition, we will try to respond if this election slogan “Make America Great Again” made it necessary to implement anti-globalization policies and US isolationism tendencies or the reality is different and the current US President “is forced “to implement such policies in order to win its re-election in the next elections, knowing that the policies in place are simultaneously stirring up the existing shaped international order.
by Thanos S. Chonthrogiannis-https://www.liberalglobe.com
The Framework of our analysis
Each part of this analysis is self-contained and at the same time is linked to the next part of the analysis so that there is a continuity and as is done to date in all our large in scale analyses on specific subjects.
In Part I, we will look at the applicable policy within the US and how the pre-election framework that led to the selection of the cue “Make America Great Again” was formed.
We will see the problems and anxieties of the citizens of the United States and that, in less or more, the problems and anxieties are the same as the problems and anxieties faced by citizens in the other liberal societies of countries of the liberal world (mainly EU (France, Spain, Italy, Poland, etc.), UK, Canada, Australia, etc.).
In addition, we will present the reasons that caused the current ‘gap’ between traditional political parties and citizens.
In Part II, we will examine the reasons why, both the largest volume of voters and the political parties in both the US society and the other societies of the countries of the liberal world have been removed from each other at an alarming level, until of the point this removal is characterized as a chasm, despite the fact that political parties and always theoretically, are supposed to listen and express the problems of the society they serve.
In Part III of this analysis, we will propose the strategies that should be implemented by the political world in order to bridge this gap “by regenerating” the very notion of politics within society.
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)-The great Greek philosopher of antiquity-said that if a man has his health or his health problems can be addressed by giving him a good quality of life, then the supreme good of all the goods that man can have in life is politics and not health. Because it is a highest good to offer solutions to the problems of your fellow human beings.
In Part IV, of this analysis we will examine the applicable policies to date in the US economy as well as their effectiveness and whether they can perform in depth of time horizon, while influencing the international order in the world.
The shaped political framework in the US and more generally the problems facing politics in the societies of the liberal Western world
The socio-political context in the US as it was formed before the 2016 elections (and continues to remain the same today) would be unlikely to not make winner of the elections the current US President Donald John Trump or any other candidate who would use the political slogans of the current President of the United States.
Photo by Author: Shealah Craighead, licensed public domain
Source: White House
https://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Donald_Trump_official_portrait.jpg
The same socio-political framework applies, for example, to the Eurozone and, in general, to the EU member-states, with few exceptions, but also to the UK. But without the liberal, conservative and socialist political parties equally of Europe, they can distinguish the causes and propose solutions.
This assumption is something that the EU’s political world will see very soon in the May 2019 elections, how remote a large proportion of European citizens are from the traditional political parties in their countries, seeking these citizens to find solutions to their problems in nationalist parties, mostly and not only.
In this way and analyzing the political and social situation of the United States, as the largest in population and at the same time the most liberal society of the liberal world timeless, we succeed in analyzing the respective political situations and problems of the other societies-countries of the liberal world that are the same among them.
Since the 2008-year milestone that the global financial crisis has taken place-and hence, the political scene has been characterized by the gradual rise of populism. This fact is mainly due to the increase in economic problems and anxieties for the future of most citizens and always in combination with the gradual increase in the cost of living of the people’s daily lives.
At the same time, however, the vast majority of the political world in the US and more generally in the countries of the liberal world began to broaden the gap between political parties and their voters-citizens because of the “alienation” of political parties from the problems of everyday life and the anxieties about the future experienced by the citizens of their countries, without the political parties so far present the ability to give convincing solutions to the problems of their societies.
The causes of today’s existing “gap” between traditional political parties and citizens
The causes that caused the widening of the distance between voters and political parties in liberal societies have their roots,
1. In the embrace-in most cases-of the individual executive and political power with the media.
2. To fully adopt the principles and strategy of marketing to political parties with a view to a coveted victory in the elections.
3. To create inaccessible and unachievable education for most citizens. Education that nurtures critical thinking and judgement respectively.
Currently, if research is done in liberal societies, what citizens think of media and politicians, in most cases the results of these surveys will be daunting for political parties, but above all are depressing for the media.
Most citizens do not trust the media and how they present any situations to them. In general terms, I personally believe that media have managed to do their work and role in society adequately.
In particular, the field of investigative journalism has many successes in its assets. Without that means, that the other sectors of journalism are not successful.
But it is the nature of the journalist’s work to be close and to be associated with the political and executive power in order to control it, which creates sooner or later “affection and hatred” relationships between these poles of power and journalism industry. In addition, the media to a certain extent are responsible for not collectively protecting the nature of their work from this type of phenomenon.
The relations of “affection” have to do with the beautifying of the presentation of any situations by the media in order not to suffer the image of whichever vintage for them government and political persons respectively. “Hate” relationships occur when the government and politicians selected by the elections are not the “chosen” of the media.
These situations that appear over time in liberal societies-not just today’s phenomena-have led a large majority of citizens to believe that where necessary, the media not only are not independent but go hand in hand with the political parties for the conquest and sharing of the “cloth” of the executive and any other authority/power.
In addition, a large proportion of citizens believe that where necessary, the media “put” their backs to support their agreeable politicians. In the event of a political scandal, it is customary for the media to become the scapegoat as the easiest target for the public.
The second main cause of these phenomena is based on the overwhelming conquest of the political world and political parties by the practical implementation of the principles and strategy of marketing.
This has also been achieved through the relationship of the political parties with the media, as the media have tremendous knowledge as to how the appropriate product and/or service should be sold to the public.
The timeless influence that marketing has exerted on the political world and how the image of every political candidate should appear to its potential constituents has become a catalyst in the process of being elected.
The result of all these practices was to change the speeches of the candidate political people and, more generally, the speeches of the leaders of political parties, which from speeches of substance, were transformed into speeches without substance which always placed their weight in the overall flawless image and in the appearance of the candidates with the main aim of gaining only the impressions of their citizens and voters.
Political speeches that did not correspond to reality and did not give solutions to citizens’ temporal or non-problems.
The supreme purpose of the staffs of political parties throughout the liberal world was and still is the best possible “sale” of the flawless image of the politician which should then be denatured for him at high rates of polling and potential votes equally and not in ‘sales’ as is the case for any other type of product or service.
The third main reason that caused the widening of the gap between citizens and political parties in liberal societies is based-and always according to the marketing strategy-on the integration of citizen manipulation and their transformation into electoral “mass-percentage”, that is manipulated and influenced by the tools of marketing and, of course, through the impact of the image offered by the media.
In order to achieve this objective, it would be necessary to remove any possibility that most citizens could have from acquiring a high level of education that gives man the cultivation of critical thinking and judgment.
In developed liberal societies, this exclusion of most citizens from this type of education is achieved by the tremendous increase in the cost of studies making good educational and university institutions economically inaccessible to most citizens.
If some citizens choose to have their children-with every sacrifice-of this type of high education, both they (students) and their families will have to be charged an incredible amount of money that would make them overindebted for their whole lives.
In this case, the over-indebtedness of these citizens, and since they cannot find a way out of their exorbitant loans through well-paid jobs in the future, are becoming an additional disappointing percentage of educated citizens standing against the existing traditional political parties and for as long as they do not find permanent solutions to these problems.
In other countries-and especially in member countries of the southern EU and not only-public education is slowly and steadily deteriorating over time through declining funding from state budgets so that any education is acquired by citizens to not provide a high culture of critical thinking and judgement.
The aim is the best possible specialization of the citizen in an object of study and then to be introduced in the best possible way in the labour market and always depending on the degree of division of labour that exists in the labour market.
In this way, with the gradual and long-term exclusion of citizens from the acquisition of a high level of education, citizens belonging to the category of citizens considered as “electoral mass” are being multiplied-and always based on logic and strategy οf the marketing of political parties.
That is, citizens who do not have “critical thinking and alertness” and the marketing of their political system characterizes them as electoral “mass” of citizens-consumers. Electoral in terms of political parties’ terminology and “mass” of citizens-consumers in terms of principles and strategy of marketing.
Citizens who benefit from a culture/education of critical thinking in their lives are often a small minority, and their existence as to the influence of the results on the electorate is indifferent to the marketing of political parties. Since the vote on this percentage of citizens cannot influence the outcome of any elections.
In the next part and specifically in Part II of our analysis we will examine why both the largest volume of the electorate and the political parties in both the US society and the other societies of the countries of the liberal world have been removed between them to an alarming degree.
Thanos S. Chonthrogiannis
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