A New Book Calls Trump ‘A Trojan Horse For Oligarchy’

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich appeared onscreen at Seattle’s Town Hall earlier this month on a virtual promotional tour for his new book: The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It.

Reich, who served as Labor Secretary in the administration of Bill Clinton, whom he met as a fellow Rhodes scholar in the late 60s, brought his trademark wit and self-deprecation to the event, which took on a more serious tone than his previous appearances due to the ongoing pandemic and its evolving economic fallout.

While Reich’s book was completed before the Coronavirus crisis, the themes he discusses eerily adumbrate our current circumstance and shed light on possible ways forward. Reich outlines how those at the top propagate myths about meritocracy, national competitiveness, corporate social responsibility, and the “free market” to distract from their accumulation of extraordinary wealth and power. In his appearance at Town Hall, Reich connected the rigging of the system to the egregiously poor response by the U.S. to the pandemic which has made America the site of the most cases of the disease and deaths resulting from it.

Reich pointed out that even during lockdown, the U.S. is a socially stratified country with winners and losers. Only about 40% of American workers have the ability to work remotely. Others will either be forced to go to their workplace and risk infection or join the ranks of the 20-25 million expected to be unemployed. He said, “78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. They don’t earn enough to allow them to save. The bills that Congress is working on are not stimulus bills—they’re survival bills.”

In Reich’s view, it doesn’t have to be this way. No advanced nation treats its workers as badly as America. Workers have very little power—even the most basic demand, for example, that a warehouse be closed down for cleaning.

The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It delves into the origins of the current broken system. Reich explains: “It begins in the 1970s—with corporate raiders like Carl Icahn who make money by threatening to take over companies. They argued that they could generate higher share prices by getting rid of the ‘fat.’ That mindset allowed companies to abandon their hometowns, bust unions, automate, and set up factories abroad.”

Reich said that “efficiency” became the watchword of the day. “They made the system more ‘efficient,’ but the word ‘efficiency’ hides something important. The communities, the workers, and the unions were not counted in efficiency. The social costs were not considered. From the 80s onward, we all accepted this as necessary. We were promised the efficiency gains. But the gains all went to the managers and shareholders. Efficiency gains did not go to the workers. The increase in stock prices was, in essence, a redistribution of what workers would have received.”

For Reich, taking advice from Trump or CEOs about when to open the economy is absurd. “The President says that the CEOs he talks to want to open the country. But the President doesn’t have that power. It’s up to governors. They’re the only ones in the position to balance the economy vs. public health. The CEOs are the least equipped public figures to make the decision about opening businesses.”

Reich sees a number of profound changes in the way America functions as unavoidable. Among them are the way America distributes healthcare. “Medicare for all is inevitable. We were spending 20% of GDP on healthcare before the pandemic. That’s simply not sustainable.”

When asked about whether banks should do more than simply delay payments for mortgages and other debts for people devastated economically and unable to pay their bills, he said: “Banks are getting money from the Fed essentially free of charge. The banks shouldn’t be charging any interest at all on any of their loans. Why are the banks imposing any fees on anybody for anything?”

Reich doesn’t blame the electorate for their choice of Donald Trump, though he had plenty of criticism for the current Oval Office occupant. He said: “Donald Trump is a trojan horse for the oligarchy. He is the embodiment of social unrest—exploited angers, fears and anxieties of people who felt that no matter how hard they worked, they couldn’t get ahead.” 

Though he’s a lifelong Democrat, he didn’t limit his criticism of his party. “Joe Biden has to convince enough of the working class that Trump is two-faced. He has to convince voters that Democrats will improve the lives of working people. The Democratic party has not distinguished itself enough from the Republicans on the issue of wealth and power. They will need to do that if they want to persuade the electorate in the fall.”

Despite the bleak economic, public health and political world we currently live in, Reich struck a note of optimism. He pointed out that nearly all of the profoundly effective public programs came as a result of a systemic crisis. The Depression brought Social Security and labor improvements. World War II brought the GI Bill and The Marshall Plan. The civil rights battles of the 60s brought The Great Society and the Voting Rights Act. 

Despite the challenge of the current pandemic and Reich’s ominous warnings of the dangers of oligarchy, his natural inclination seems to tend towards optimism. He ended his Seattle Town Hall Q&A on a positive note. “Traumatic events can change the order that was assumed to be inevitable.

“The only silver lining of this horrible time is that we may learn that: We need competent government; We need public health; We are all dependent on each other. The changes that come from traumatic events don’t happen overnight, but the seeds can be planted, and change can come that can make life better for all of us.”