Selma as a Gauge of Racial Justice
"Just over a year into Trump's presidency, the fragile state of racial justice in America can only produce a deep sense of despair." [1] According to the Census Bureau's 2016 estimate, the median household income in Selma, Alabama is $23,000; 41 percent of its population lives below the poverty line; and only 17 percent hold bachelor's degrees. As a result, Karlyn Forner's book entitled "Why the Vote Wasn't Enough for Selma" shows that the gains made by the civil-rights movement are almost always outflanked by white supremists. "Tenant farming, like the voting laws, was a form of white power as much as an economic system." "Selma's white-led Economic Opportunity Board distributed $6.5 million in federal funds on the basis of race. Black women were trained in domestic work; black men were trained to load the garbage trucks that white men drove and so on. In so doing, the Board ensured that black people continued to receive much lower wages than poor whites.
Forner's book reminds us that anything less than a total and complete commitment from the federal government to end institutionized racism simply leaves in place and enables new and different forms of dispossession to take root.
Farmers Can Take a Hit
Early in July, President Trump acknowledged that U.S. farmers could take a hit from trade disputes with China. Trump said: "If, during the course of a negotiation they want to hit the farmers because they think that hits me. I wouldn't say that's nice. But I tell you, our farmers are great patriots. These are great patriots. They understand that they're (sic) this for the country. And we'll make it up to them. And in the end, they're going to be much stronger than they are right now."
Trump said that farmers have been "trending downward for an eight-year period" but because of his actions on NAFTA and China, farmers will be better off than they were." Trump told Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to tell farmers will be taken care of. [When Trump refers to "his actions," he is talking about Barack Obama.]
Kudlow Consistently Wrong
Larry Kudlow, formerly of Fox News, was recently appointed to be President Trump's top economic adviser. Jonathan Chait contends that Kudlow has been consistently wrong on the economy. "When President Bill Clinton raised the top income tax rate in 1993, Kudlow predicted it would halt the recovery and depress growth. An unprecedented boom followed. Kudlow prophesied the Bush tax cuts would generate such growth that budget surpluses 'would blossom'; instead, they produced giant deficits. In 2007, he dismissed housing bubble fears as a 'hallucination' created by Bush-hating pessimists. 'There's no recession coming," he warned. After stocks crashed and the Great Recession set in, he warned that President Obama's stimulus program would 'strangle the recovery.' " [2]
Shift in TPP
President Trump ordered National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to look into joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade pact he had pulled the U.S. out of last year while calling it a "disaster." Trump had said that the TPP was backed by "special interests who want to rape our country." Spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said he would join only if the deal was made "substantially better."
Within a day after ordering the two to investigate, Trump removed the order and said he preferred bilateral trade agreements over multi-national ones. He reiterated that stance when he met with President Abe of Japan.
Footnotes
[1] Elias Rodriques, "Still a Long Time Coming," "The Nation." April 16, 2018.
[2] Jonathan Chait, "Consistently wrong on the economy," "The Week," March 30, 2018.
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