America Is At Its Philosophical Crossroads

Is America, finally at its philosophical crossroads?

While it’s easy to frame Donald Trump as an existential threat to democracy given his menacing political clout, the bigger problem facing the nation goes far deeper. This threat is a philosophical one and is the result of Americans believing in the presumed compatibility of two diametrically-opposed ideologies: that being democracy and capitalism. Only a fool would believe they can co-exist as equals.

Sure, both democracy and capitalism - in their infancy - seem cute and harmless, but it’s only after you extrapolate them to their inevitable end products that you see how utterly incompatible they are at their core.

Fundamentally, democracy is about delegating power to the masses. One person, one vote is the romantic notion behind this ideology, whereas capitalism is the complete opposite. In its purest form capitalism cannibalizes its own and, in the end, you are left with only one survivor left standing. Capitalism has no need nor desire for a delegation of power. Instead it exists simply to remove any and all competition. Capitalism is a celebration of the self, even when that self is a monolithic corporate entity.

By contrast, democracy, carried to its theoretical-extent, is purely egalitarian and designed to share power and influence. At its worst - in the words of libertarians and devout capitalists at least - democracy is but one step from unfettered socialism. A system which suppresses the will of the top end to satisfy the needs of the bottom.

In truth, these two ideologies have always been on a collision course and the only thing keeping this fantasy alive is the fallacy that a world exists in which these two can become equal partners. What is more accurate to say is that democracy and capitalism provide a great annoyance to each other and that neither has much use for the other.

Take the corporate reaction to Trump’s New York State fraud case in which he inflated the value of his assets for loan acquisitions but also deflated them for tax purposes. When asked to comment on this case, fellow reality TV personality and unapologetic capitalist Kevin O’Leary used the excuse that, in corporate America, “everybody does it” and worried about the precedent being set where anyone could be held accountable for these “accepted” accounting practices.

The fact that O'Leary said the quiet part out loud and bemoaned the suggestion that industrialists should be held to the same standards as working stiffs shows us not only how “acceptable” this deceitful practice has become amongst the financial elite but also how fair play is not even a part of the capitalist's playbook. Rules are only for those who can't find loopholes.

Keep in mind, this is the same Kevin O’Leary who built his initial fortune in his native Canada, only to move his operations to the United States because of its more capitalist-friendly environment (translation: deregulation and minimal restrictions).

O’Leary’s stance, which mirrors the sentiment of Corporate America, argues that capitalism is the engine that drives the nation whereas democracy (a whole other jurisdiction) is the fundamental governing principle that guides her. They see these as separate entities and, in this myopic world, they believe that these two coexist wonderfully, although reality tells us a completely different story.

In America, the top 1% holds $38.7 trillion in wealth. That's more than the combined wealth of America's middle class, a group many economists define as the middle 60% of households by income. Those households hold about 26% of all wealth. Low-income Americans, representing the bottom 20% by income, own about 3% of the wealth.

These numbers, seen through the corporate lens, are simply the result of capitalism by design, where there will be winners and there will be losers. This only seems logical until it runs headfirst into the principles of democracy, which aim to maximize societal wins and minimize societal losses. This is a world where the rights of the collective take precedence over the rights of the individual.

This real-life disparity is only kept afloat by jingoistic evangelists who attempt to equate the loss of economic liberty to the loss of democratic liberty. Once the government controls your bottom line - the corporate zealots will argue - it’s only a matter of time till they control everything.

Ironically, they’re right. In more sane, more civilized, and more democratic countries, governments do exercise power to control the dangers of rampant capitalism and for every frustrated financial entrepreneur, there are thousands of happy citizens who see economic equality in real time. In this world, people like Donald Trump are forced to either live within the territorial bounds of the state (which attempts to balance the economy with ethical fundamentals) or to flee to a place like America where it’s literally every man for himself.

This “persecution” of capitalist Donald Trump is as much based on his financial means as it is his political aspirations. The fact that the state would have the gall to restrict his financial liberties and hold him accountable exemplifies how capitalists see themselves as exempt from government restrictions. That precedent has been set many times over in that no one from Corporate America ever pays the price for the ills they’ve inflicted on American society because, basically, this fundamentally-flawed contradiction has never been carried to its end.

The United States coddles its capitalist elite out of fear of what would happen if they didn’t. American governments don’t dare enter into a world where rampant capitalism can be reigned in and continue to live with the fallacy that somehow, some way, money distribution - no matter how concentrated it may be today - will somehow find its level. Yet, in all of this, the reality is that democracy dies while capitalism thrives.

In this world, it’s not only politicians and the powerful that are above the law but also the capitalists as well. With Donald Trump you have both and the real threat that America faces is not already what he could do, but what he has already done. Of not just what he could be, but of what he already is

This cycle won’t end with Donald Trump. He comes from a culture that holds democracy in contempt because it has no place - both historically and rationally - in that world, although that excuse may work from a corporate point of view it certainly can’t be allowed to stand from a political point of view.

Trump is, after all, running for the highest office in the land. A position that inherently has to uphold the most basic tenet of democracy, in that all people are created equal and that they should remain that way. He can’t use his capitalist hat to protect him from his democratic responsibilities. Nobody can. They are separate entities and fundamentally must be treated that way.

This is not to say that capitalism cannot exist within a proper democratic framework. You only need to look at other socially-democratic nations in the world for proof of that. It's just that in a democracy, capitalism cannot be the dominant ethos. It's impossible to serve two masters and America, only now, is coming to that realization.

And now, as America finds itself at this perilous, existential crossroads, the nation needs to decide whether it sees itself as the pinnacle of capitalism or as the beacon of democracy. It can’t be both.