A Crony Capitalist for President

Mitt Romney, we were told, was a vulture capitalist.  He presumably grew rich by feeding off the corpses of his employees.  A great many voters decided that this disqualified him for president.  So why are so many enthusiastic about a crony capitalist?

During the recent presidential debate, Carly Fiorina made a telling observation.  She noted that one of the reasons Hillary Clinton should not become president is that she essentially accepted bribes in exchange for government favors.  In a word, she was corrupt.

But Fiorina was not finished.  She then remarked that many of these bribes came from one Donald Trump.  He was, in short, a crony capitalist who grew wealthy by paying government officials to do his bidding.  Indeed, Trump has bragged about this.  It is, he says, the way business is done.

So please explain this to me: If Hillary is corrupt for taking bribes, why is Trump not corrupt for giving them?  So far I haven’t heard media commentators follow up on Fiorina’s trenchant reflection, but make no mistake about it, during the general election when Hillary’s venality is exposed, so will his.

The fact is that you cannot fight corruption with corruption.  They say that it takes a thief to catch a thief, but if we put a thief in the White House we will only get what amounts to wholesale theft.  The Donald will do what lines the Donald’s pockets, despite his vows to the contrary.

Character matters.  We audition potential presidents to see if they have the right stuff to be the world’s most powerful leader.  We know that Barack Obama abused his power.  Do we now want to elect someone who has demonstrated that he too knows how to abuse power?

And then there is this other thing?  Trump touts his business success as evidence that he knows how to revive our economy.  He likewise boasts about his Master’s degree in business to demonstrate how smart and knowledgeable he is.  He will therefore promote policies to make America great again.

But do you remember Smoot-Hawley?  This was a tariff bill enacted in 1930.  It was intended to resuscitate our economy after the Stock Market collapse.  The idea was that if we raised the taxes foreigners paid on goods imported into our country, then Americans would buy American, thereby creating more American jobs.

It did not work out that way.  You see, those nasty foreigners just raised their tariffs on our goods, which meant that they did not buy from us.  This, in turn, resulted in layoffs among the American workers who manufactured merchandise for sale abroad.

The upshot was a drastic decrease in international trade that contributed to the length of the Great Depression.  Foreign trade turns out to be an engine that spurs economic growth.  When it is cut off, everyone suffers.

So now Trump wants to increase the tariffs on China and Mexico.  He claims to be a free trader, but his solution to getting even with our rivals is to slap an excise tax on them.  It does not seem to dawn on him that they might retaliate and that this could launch a trade war in which there will be no winners.

Trump is good at putting up office towers.  He has expertise in operating casinos and golf courses.  But how does this translate into shepherding our entire economy?  During the debate, he initially denied wanting to raise tariffs, but then when cornered admitted as much.  This will not, however, save American jobs!

  Do we want a stammering buffoon for president?  Do we want to elect someone who not only does not talk like a president, but will not act like one?  Haven’t eight years of incompetence been enough?

Let the crony capitalist return to the business that he knows best.  Let his go back on television to wage his war against political correctness.  But please, don’t inflict him on a nation still reeling from Obama’s ineptitude.

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University