Elites Under Pressure

It seems that the Trump candidacy is certainly striking fear in the hearts of the elites these days. First, there was Andrew Sullivan’s piece about the breakdown of elite structures that used to moderate the passions of the people – (you can read my response here). And now we have my good friend Evan Thomas writing about the need for a foreign policy elite in a New York Times op-ed today. Of course, Evan’s examples of the steady hand of the elite foreign policy establishment don’t exactly fill you with confidence, as he sometimes grudgingly admits. Under Eishenower, John Foster Dulles, along with his brother Allen at the CIA, architected the interference in domestic affairs in countries around the world with repercussions that still haunt us – Iran, for example. And, as Thomas notes, the responsibility for the disaster in Vietnam lies with McNamara, Rostow, and Kissinger. Kissinger, in fact, is the poster boy for the hubris and failures of the elite foreign policy establishment.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Trump’s candidacy and its success certainly is something we should fear. And, at the same time, we should not underestimate the potency of some of the issues he raises. Of course, it is hard to call Trump’s sometimes contradictory statements an actual “foreign policy”, but the twin pillars of his message is that free trade has hurt the US and that other countries that live under the umbrella of US military protection should pay their fair share. There has always been a strong streak of isolationism in the American psyche and candidates on either side of the political spectrum have run with a similar message of getting our allies to share the burden.  And, just a few pages later in the Times, we find an article describing how the global steel industry is under pressure due to alleged dumping by steel manufacturers in China, costing jobs in Britain and elsewhere. Whether this dumping is legal or not under the terms of the WTO, the jobs are lost regardless.

Elites need to make an intelligent and persuasive case against Trump’s demagoguery.  We need to know why engagement with the rest of the world actually makes us safer, even if it may be more costly. And we definitely need to know how our livelihoods are going to be protected from the vagaries of globalization over which we have no control. Simply saying that “we know better” just plays into Trump’s strong hand.