As Trump Gives Away the Store to Corporate CEOs and Billionaires, Will Democrats Take Advantage?
Democrats are being handed populist issues on a silver platter, they need to take advantage of it
As hopefully all of my readers know, the Republicans gave away huge tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, along with corporate tax loopholes and many other lucrative gifts, in their Christmas tree for the wealthy reconciliation bill. They are following that give-away with not one, not two, but three different crypto dereg bills this week, the combination of which will set up major financial fraud and a coming crash in crypto that could make the 2008 financial meltdown look like a picnic in comparison. Meanwhile, Trump administration officials are taking away labor and consumer protections, and quietly deregulating environmental rules, civil rights rules, and the financial industry.
When it comes to trade and tariffs, Trump isn’t even pretending to fight for more American manufacturing jobs with his tariffs anymore. Instead he has been complaining to our leading trade partners about the taxes and regulations they are placing on Big Tech companies, and saying he will place tariffs on the countries that are trying to reign in Big Tech until they stop hassling his pals at Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google. He did this to Canada and the European Union, and the second half of Trump’s tariffs threat to Brazil, after the ridiculous rant about poor Bolsonaro, was about the anti-monopoly law Brazil had passed to protect it from Big Tech monopoly abuses.
Most of you may have known about the things I mentioned in the first paragraph, especially about how much the Big Ugly Bill benefitted the wealthy. However, I’m guessing that few of you know about the trade dynamics in the second paragraph, because Democrats aren’t talking about it.
This is a huge missed opportunity: working class voters may be increasingly wary of the inflationary pressures caused by tariffs, but they still like being tough on trade if it helps bring back better paying manufacturing jobs. However, if these voters knew that Trump was threatening tariffs on other countries to help the Big Tech monopolies, there would be hell to pay.
Voters are populist in general, but they are especially populist when it comes to issues of corporate power and monopoly. Check out this poll from last year.
Democrats are good at talking about the Republicans’ tax cuts for the rich, and good at talking about the harm the spending cuts in the Big Ugly Bill will do to people. More of that whenever we can. What they also need to do, though, is to add a third leg to the stool: they need to talk about the way corporate power is hurting our economy, our workers, and our communities. The corporate power angle is what completes the story we need to tell.
The fact that huge, powerful corporations are taking advantage of workers and communities, hurting the vitality of small businesses and communities, and getting special regulatory favors and tax breaks from Trump and the Republicans in Congress is a very resonant story to voters, and is very believable to them. What Democrats have to convince those same voters of is that they will fight the corporate powers that be on behalf of working families.
Not talking about the fact that Trump’s tariffs policy has come to be in service of Big Tech is a big missed opportunity. Not talking in general about the way Trump is hanging out all kinds of favors to powerful corporate donors is pure political malpractice.