MEDIA WATCH: Martinelli, Trump act alikes

Olmedo Beluche in La Prensa, October 2

THE  UNITED STATES 2016 [presidential] election  every day more closely resembles the Panamanian elections of 2009.

There is a candidate who expresses the continuity of the two-party system, and a billionaire candidate who is presented as the iconoclast  criticizing social results, economic policy, corruption, and  how decisions are taken in Washington.

He claims to represent “real change” because, being a billionaire, supposedly he does know what to do.

The logic of the campaign puts the citizen in the dilemma of deciding between continuity of politics, represented by a formally impeccable candidate, or an egomaniac and unstable individual ( “El Loco”) that repeats  some truths that reach the common people.

Therefore, some predict the triumph of Trump, although his misogynist, racist and xenophobic discourse has robbed him of  many potential voters.But that does not matter, as he speaks to the white worker, whose standard of living came to pique with 30 years of neoliberalism.

Both Trump and Martinelli express the discrediting of a political regime which, although calling itself democratic, impoverishes most of humanity in favor of the 1% richer.

We are witnessing the political crisis of the capitalist system, which in Europe is manifested as Brexit and as a crisis of the traditional parties who have expressed an agreed order after the Second World War, in particular social democracy.

Take the case of Spain, with the crisis to form a government, the crisis of the PSOE and the emergence of Podemos.

The growth of the extreme right in Germany andFrance. It is the political manifestation of a global crisis of capitalist globalization, whose other symptoms are several crises: economic, humanitarian expressed in millions of people fleeing from one country to the north, the warmongering that has destroyed the Middle East, ecological and climate change.

Even the crisis of the “progressive” governments in Latin America.

The problem is whether Trump represents a real change or “more of the same” as  with Martinelli.

There is talk of a return to protectionism, but the biggest beneficiaries of globalization are American companies, including Trump franchises.

Neoliberalism destroyed the living standards of workers in the US in favor of big monopolistic companies. Using assembly factories in Mexico and China have increased their profits, including migration and the millions of undocumented workers have increased capitalist accumulation with low wages.

… If Trump wins,  a more radical variant of globalization will emerge sucking in, even through war, more wealth to the American empire.

Internally, like neo-fascism in Europe, the blame  [for problems]will be  diverted toward blacks, immigrants, etc.

The US  does not need a Trump, but a government that is not afraid to touch the  pockets of billionaires on Wall Street, to restore labor and social rights, and to end predation and plunder of  the rest of the world.