Can Donald Trump Actually Help his "Deplorables"? Probably Not [Podcast]

Nick Gillespie talks with Spiked Online about the president's empty promises.

I'm in England, about to participate in this weekend's excellent Battle of Ideas, a conference sponsored by the Institute of Ideas. I'm appearing on three panels, including one devoted to defining what it means to be a liberal these days, another on the erosion of the case for free speech, and a third on whether Donald Trump can really do anything to help the economic position of "the deplorables," the white working-classs voters he successfully courted in his run for president. The short version: No, because his vision of the economy is rooted in nostalgia and misunderstanding.

I was interviewed by Ella Whelan of the Spiked Online podcast about my thoughts on Trump. Listen below:

For the full program of the Battle of Ideas, go here.

Comments

[Jerryskids]

If you're screwed by life and looking to government to bail you out, you're doubly screwed.

[Memory Hole]

Well, I don't know about the screwed by life part but the whole budget exercise is one giant 4.5 trillion special interest corporate cash grab every year. Govt bails out big business all the time. If you're just an average joe then yeah you're fucked.

[SIV]

Is Nick really arguing deregulation and tax cuts hurt the working class? He really has gone FULL PROGTARD.

[JWatts]

Yes, those were the two first things I thought of.

Corporate tax cuts probably won't pay for themselves (the deficit numbers will climb) but they will certainly boost investment and increase GDP.

And just slowing down the spiraling growth of regulations under the Obama administration will free up money for actual capital investments with a positive ROI.

[Memory Hole]

If the working poor rely on govt healthcare then yeah if that's taken away then they are damaged. I don't understand why you think getting free shit from the govt isn't good for the people getting the help. Think of govt assistance as an oil well you invested in some time ago. Every now and again you get a check. A few oil checks here and there aren't going to stop a guy from looking for better jobs so this idea that people veg out on this measly govt assistance is bullshit. I'm willing to listen to arguments that govt assistance isn't an efficient use of capital for growing the economy but you'll never convince me getting something from the govt isn't a good deal for the getters. That would be like arguing FoxCom is getting fucked taking Wisconsin tax money.

[loveconstitution1789]

Its not government's role to provide welfare to people.

Healthcare and applicable insurance is everyone's responsibility to get, if they want it.

You lefties and your socialist nonsense that government is the savior. Its like a religion where you believe and believe and after millions killed by socialists there is plenty of evidence that there is not possible utopia.

[Kivlor]

A few oil checks here and there aren't going to stop a guy from looking for better jobs so this idea that people veg out on this measly govt assistance is bullshit.

From personal experience working in low-wage jobs like restaurants, most of the people on government assistance would flat out tell our supervisors that they would not work more than X number of hours because it would lower their government checks. So I'm pretty skeptical of welfare. That said, of course the person who is receiving said checks is better off for it than not receiving them in the short term. The problem is long-term dependence and an unwillingness to look for better options.

[buybuydandavis]

The problem is long-term dependence and an unwillingness to look for better options.

Wrong. They look for the best option. And find it in government dependence.

The government rigs the incentive structure to make dependence the better option. They are vote ranchers, raising generation after generation of government dependents.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Is Nick really arguing deregulation and tax cuts

Except they don't exist. Trump only talks about them.

I live near a large Caterpillar plant. Name one regulation that has been removed that helps them - and their business is booming anyway.

[JWatts]

https://goo.gl/Cmi3hZ

"The Trump administration said it was pulling or suspending 860 pending regulations."

"The rules the administration targeted govern everything ? from the basics of everyday living, such as a product safety standard for mattresses' flammability when it comes to cigarettes, to what sort of precautions construction firms should be required to take so their workers are not run over by other vehicles on site."

[loveconstitution1789]

NAFTA is being removed and that will help Caterpillar.

[Domestic Dissident]

I don't understand why you think getting free shit from the govt isn't good for the people getting the help.

Only at the most superficial level imaginable. Truthfully, dependency is absolutely terrible for the dependents. It's ultimately crushing to the well-being of the mind, the soul, and the individual spirit. It's the biggest reason why the opioid epidemic is getting out of control, especially in the old industrial midwest that has suffered the most from our horrible government policies that kill jobs and foster this awful dependence.

And Gillespie was never really a libertarian. He has always been a fake, a fraud, a fugazi, and a con artist.

[Memory Hole]

Get your money for nothing and your chicks for free

Get your money for nothing and your chicks for free

~~Drops the mic~~

[loveconstitution1789]

...
See the little faggot with the earring and the makeup?
Yeah buddy, that's his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot, he's a millionaire

*remembers mtv

[loveconstitution1789]

No, because his vision of the economy is rooted in nostalgia and misunderstanding.
Trump has tried to cut back government, regulation, and trade barriers.

Yeah, that is misunderstanding how economies thrive.

The nostalgia comes in when Trump wants the USA to be great again by cutting back government deregulating, and reducing trade barriers. MAGA!

[Domestic Dissident]

Gillespie's shitty book should be renamed "The Declaration of Dependents". The man loves him some dependency.

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

The Jacket cannot save you from your own irrelevance Nick.

[buybuydandavis]

Time for The Jacket to cut his losses and cast off Nick.

[BestUsedCarSales]

One thing, oft repeated and repeated once more in the podcast, is that comedy is harder now because things are so ridiculous that one cannot satirize them anymore. I always wonder about that statement. I think that shows too much of a respect for politicians and those in power, and so if they differ from the high ground people expect for some reason than it is already satire. It's a lazy idea and shows their own biases about how the world should function.