Rural Sectionalism and the Election of Donald Trump

A December 29  Wall Street Journal piece shows 20 charts that indicate how badly rural Americans have fared. The election of Donald Trump, mostly by rural voters, can be interpreted to be a reaction, and the campaign to eliminate the Electoral College a counterreaction.

Inflation-adjusted household income has declined since 2000, and it has declined the most in rural areas. Much of the decline occurred during the Obama years. That contrasts with the stock market, which has received massive public subsidization. 

Those who foot the bill for "too-big-to-fail" banks are the same people who are dying at increasing rates.

Where I live, Olive, NY, New York City has long played an imperialistic role similar to that of any Roman-style power. It has done so to procure virtually free water; it chose to go the imperial route rather than purchase water ethically back in the 19th century.

In his book Empire of Water, David Soll outlines the 100-year history of theft, exploitation, and regulatory caprice that deprived the ancestors of many people I see each day of their homes and businesses, forcing many who had owned family businesses into becoming day laborers.

Environmentalists, dominant in the Democratic Party, have learned from New York City and since the 1990s have systematically attacked rural areas. This occurred most aggressively during the Obama years.

Not satisfied with increasing death rates in rural areas, Robert Reich, the American media, and their fellow Democrats campaign for more political power to be concentrated in urban centers by abolishing the Electoral College.  The end of the Electoral College would mean even more extreme depredation of rural America than has already occurred. 

Trumponomics = Obamonomics

The Society for Human Resource Management reports the Hay Group's forecast of declining real wage increases for 2018. This is a global phenomenon, not limited to the US. Central banks are expanding credit globally, resulting in escalating stock and real estate markets coupled with stagnant real wages due to what Keynes called "money illusion."

Phil Magness on Facebook has mentioned that Keynes was a leading eugenicist. The coupling of declining real wages for the average worker, especially in rural areas, with increasing subsidization of elite, urban financial and real estate investors is consistent with social Darwinism. 

The strongest proponents of absolute equality, the Democrats, are most closely related with Keynesian economics and social Darwinist redistribution from rural blue collar workers to urban banking interests--although the Republicans are a close second.  

In effect, there is little difference among the econmic policies of the Democrats and the Republicans:  Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, Obama, and Trump have all overseen expansive stock and real estate markets with stagnant or declining real wages. 

One clue as to how this has proceeded is in the declining number of commercial banks. Expanding credit facilitates takeovers, which means that urban-centered banks consolidate rural banks. In turn, credit is less likely to flow to rural areas because rural investments are too small for the consolidated banks.  Hence, stagnant real wages have accompanied economic declines in rural areas, a point the Wall Street Journal recently emphasized. 

Lynch's Doppelganger

Last November Adam Thirlwell wrote a brilliant review of Twin Peaks: The Return for the New York Review of Books. I'm going to have to reread it to digest Thirlwell's references, but one I noticed as I researched his review is that the song "My Prayer" by the Platters, which appears twice in the series--in Parts 8 and 18--reflects the recurring Doppelganger theme in the series.

One of the singers on the Platters was named "David Lynch." David Lynch of the Platters died in 1981. In other words, the double use of "My Prayer" involves a reference to Lynch's own Doppelganger, just as Cooper has a Doppelganger and Cooper's Doppelganger has one.