In today’s show, Jack puts Trump strategy and policies in historical perspective, showing how his proposed programs are rooted in policies initially proposed by Nixon and Reagan. Trump represents the latest in a series of corporate-radical right initiatives to restructure economic and political relationships periodically with US foreign competitors and to contain domestic challenges. Nixon’s NEP program of 1971, and the Powell Memorandum announced at the same time, represent a policy shift to restore US hegemony globally and check and rollback domestic popular challenges by unions and protestors demanding social programs. Nixon’s foreign policy shift was to split China-Russia by courting the former to pressure the latter. Reagan’s ‘neoliberal’ policies shifted the emphasis, to court Russia and isolate China. Trump in foreign policy is returning to a more Nixonian focus on deals with Russia to pressure China. Trump’s economic nationalism also has parallels with Nixon and Reagan. Reagan attacked Japan and Europe forcing new trade accords with both. Trump’s new targets are Mexico,China and Germany. Listen to a program by program comparison of Nixon, Reagan, and Trump for the deep consistency between Trump and his predecessors. Trump has reorganized the corporate-radical right movement. Breitbart is new and a more extreme variant of a theme that has been growing since the 1970s.
