Hello Hivers and Book Clubbers,
Let's talk some more about books, this time one that is specifically about American electoral politics. I'm still combing through a 5-book package that I bought from Blue Tiger Media, a Dutch publishing group mostly interested in works that can be deemed 'politically incorrect'. The book I want to talk about is about a topic that many will be very familiar with already: the American 2016 election. Its complete title is 'Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders; American Spring of 2016', written in 2016 by Hajo Smit.
The book clocks in at about 250 pages, and tries to paint a with a wide brush about the subject: it sources statements, articles and interviews from many sides of the political spectrum, from a left-wing website like Huffington Post to a right-wing one like Breitbart. It is, however, somewhat introductory, and thus somewhat basic. The book relays many of the stances of both Trump and Sanders, and compares them to those of Barack Obama and other earlier American presidents.
American Spring?
For the rest of this article, I'm going to indulge more about the implications of the American 2016 elections, than following the plot of the book. This is also because of the timing of the book, as to when it came out; the book was published after the pre-elections for both parties, but before the general elections. So Smit did not know yet whether Clinton or Trump would win. In 2022, we do know, and we know how Trump's term in office went, and the election following that. So these years give me an opportunity to reflect on the matter.
So let's start from the sub-title 'American Spring of 2016', a word-play on the Arab Spring of a few years prior to 2016 (but let's not delve into that rabbit-hole here). Can the 2016 election-cycle really be considered this way? In short, my answer would be 'yes'.
American politics before 2016 had gotten very stale, in the worst way. It was dominated by money from lobbies and large donators, and the party-machine of both Democrats and Republicans kept the window of acceptable discourse very narrow. Ideologically, Republican and Democratic candidates did not differ that much in the 1990s and 2000s. If the people wanted something different, tough luck.
That dam finally broke in 2016, through two men that could not be more different. A foul-mouthed billionaire who had switched between parties several times, to end up becoming the Republican nominee by self-funding his campaign in part. Trump, the billionaire who succeeded in selling himself as 'man of the people'. No mean feat.
On the other side, you have a Jewish senator who has been in politics for decades with the same message, mostly based in socialism and pacifism. Because of this, Sanders technically wasn't (and still isn't, if I'm not mistaken) part of the Democratic party. Though not as much of an outsider as Trump, who had never been a politician before, he still was the anti-establishment choice in the Democratic pre-elections. And he did come quite close, considering the opposition being the Clinton-dynasty.
The book mentions, correctly in my view, that Trump and Sanders agreed on some important issues. They both loathed American interventionism and regime-change: it was time to stop the adventures, mostly in the Middle-East. They were de-stabilising the peoples that lived there, and were costing America too much in both lives and material/money. Another thing was the almost identical position on trade: both had their doubts about the laissez-faire principle that has dominated America in the past decades, arguing that many factory-jobs had gone overseas, mainly to China and India. They both argued in favor of the middle-class, which had been (and still is) struggling in the US.
Expectations vs. Reality
As mentioned before, we have the advantage of time compared to the book, and are able to look back on Trump's term as president from 2016 to 2020. Did he meet expectations, or fulfill many of his promises? And I would argue for a simple 'no'. And especially in the first two years of his term, when both the House of Representatives and the Senate were both majority Republican, so much more should have been done.
Trump has been more noisy about trade than any president in decades; he (in my view) correctly diagnosed the problem, but has not really been able to do much about it. Granted, this is a tough issue. Trump's tax-reform plan has given cuts to everyone, which is good for blue-collar workers and the middle class. Unfortunately (in my view) a tax cut for the upper class was completely unnecessary. In the past (I'm talking early 2000s) Trump had argued for a one-off wealth tax for the very rich (millionaires and upwards) to deal with the national debt and tax relief for the rest of the country. This did not happen, obviously.
But perhaps Trump's most symbolic promise, which also tackled his core issue, that of illegal immigration from the south, was of course the southern border wall. And here, in my view, he failed the hardest. This should have been a slam dunk, something tangible you can point to saying 'that is what my presidency has managed'. The number of border-crossers has fluctuated during his presidency, but he has failed in reducing illegal immigration overall, and to me this is the crux of his failure to be re-elected as president of the US.
Conclusion
So returning to the book, there is a sense of optimism for Trump's presidency that did not turn out as rose-coloured in reality. This tendency is often the case, of course; politicians often promise many things, but are only able to deliver on a few (if that). But I do think that Trump, and Sanders too, have blown open the gates for a different type of politics in America.
We are still seeing how Trump has put his stamp on the entire party, to the point where the 'old guard', especially the neoconservatives, are completely left by the wayside. On the Democrat side, one can call himself a socialist without any issues today, and there are several in congress who do so without any serious issues. The book is a good read if you've missed the circus, but is a bit on the basic side if you didn't (like me, for example).
I hope you've enjoyed reading this article. I'd like to know your thoughts on American politics these days. Do you think Trump and Sanders have made a lasting dent on American politics, or is this a phase that will blow over once these two men, who are both in their 70s, will retire from the scene? I'll be doing more reviews in the future, still too many unread books on my shelf. I'll see you all in the next one,
-Pieter Nijmeijer
(Image source: self-made photo of book cover)