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COMMENTARY ROBERT REICH AND HEATHER LOFTHOUSE The Common Good vs. Trumpism \| The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmB_vV9K6oA Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess
The Common Good vs. Trumpism \| The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse May 25, 2024 660K subscribers ... 69,814 views ... 5K likes The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Friends, Today, in honor of Memorial Day, we take a deep dive into the common good versus its antithesis — Trumpism. We look at what’s happened to the common good, why Trumpism is attractive to so many these days, and how the common good can be resurrected. Please grab a cup, pull of a chair, and join the conversation. Explore the podcast Transcript and it is the Saturday coffee clutch with Heather Lofthouse and yours truly Robert BR and today we thought we'd take a deeper dive into a theme that's come up again and again in our coffee clutch uh but is sort of one of those themes in the background and we did this a few weeks ago many of you liked it a lot we're going to do it again but a different theme uh and Heather what are we going to do your idea well it was my idea but you also happened to write a book on it so it's called the common good let's discuss what is happening in the world with trumpism this I hate to even say the word philosophy it doesn't deserve it trumpism trumpism trism versus this idea that there is I don't know a sense of society we should always be thinking about above ourselves God forbid and this was partly motivated by a substack you wrote a couple weeks ago where you talked about the moral squalor of Trump World the moral listen trumpism I I don't want to dignify it by making it kind of a high futin philosophy but it is out there and it is a way people think about their interactions with everyone about how the world Works about how America Works uh and it is the opposite of uh a different view I call it the common good um and I want to kind of have an opportunity to contrast these two and let's say Trump ism is the view that everything is transactional every relationship is a matter of how much you can get uh how much you can outwit outsmart or squeeze out of somebody else uh or avoid them doing the same thing to you um and the common good is all about what we owe each other as members of the same Society they are fundamentally different attitudes uh it's not just democracy versus fascism uh this is really underlying uh the kind of social life of uh the world right and this is the real meaning of political philosophy right I mean this has been around Aristotle talked about the common good did Aristotle talk about the you were a philosophy major I was a philosophy major I read some Aristotle did you read arist I don't know much about required well oh he's fabulous Greek Greek It's All Greek exactly uh but yes the the idea of the common good was actually very very foundational to the United States uh I mean the the idea of a city on a hill this is the the Mayflower comes over the the original settlers in uh Massachusetts U the uh they talked about there being a collective uh understanding of what they owed one another um because because they had to uh the not only did the New World require it but they also understood that human beings do have responsibilities right and should right and then we structure a government to support that no well that we did but here's the here's the irony the government is about rights against the government I mean these are the two themes that are parallel right from the beginning right from before the beginning uh one theme is we have these responsibilities to each other as members of the same Society the other is we have rights against the government and this is very very Central to uh the the kind of meaning of self-government in a world in which you don't have Kings you reject royalty you reject uh the notion that there is a another force that should rule you um but I think today's conservatives uh get this confused they think it really should be and this is where Trump is they should be it should be just selfishness right uh and that's not what the Constitution or the founders or the original settlers thought when they said no we we are individuals we have rights this is self-government we have rights against uh the government but it doesn't mean that we are just rugged individuals with no responsibilities to each other quite the contrary right now when did so were we always so we weren't always this conniving you're seeming to say so when when did we become so transactional so selfish so I don't know kind of shallow well first of all hether let me say hasten to say that most people uh are not this way I mean if you go you know consider yourself consider your friends consider your community most people uh really do take honor and friendship and integrity right uh as fundamental values uh but in terms of our government and the people who run things not just in the government but also the private sector U there is and has been and I think I think it comes out of the 1980s probably the beginning in the Regan Administration a kind of notion that everything works better the more selfish people are this actually has its origin in Iron Rand in the 1960s and70s uh she was a an author a philosopher a a way she offered a way of thinking about selfishness that many conservant found very attractive right and that's libertarianism right it was ATL Shrugged it was the Fountain Head so my grandmother apparently who I never met um one of them she was a fan of iron Rand well I many people I don't know what that means many well maybe she was a fan of the Fountain Head and Atlas Shrug these two massive books um and Rand wrapped up her philosophy in these novels they were novels they were one was a dystopian kind of Novel yeah it's storytelling 101 right yeah and I I remember as a kid I you know uh as a teenager young teenager I read I think I guess it was Atlas Shrugged and I was very excited by it so I can understand why your grandmother did you read as part of school I no I read it in the summer wow when I went I spent the Summers with my with my grandmother in her Cottage up in the adod mountains and there was nothing to do except read and I read out Shrugged wow U I didn't know much about you know what I was reading but uh many people were many people were attracted to it uh but people didn't really connect it I don't think until uh Reagan came along with a philosophy with a kind of way of being with with libertarianism right now so you mentioned Reagan and the ' 80s we have to of course discuss wall Street I mean the actual street but then also the movie and this lionization of Corporations and greed self Drive greed is great greed is good said the protagonist in Wall Street uh and um yes it was a time when uh basically the the the notion of the corporation as designed to respond to all stakeholders workers Community uh share holders uh the nation uh that was being challenged by corporate Raiders we saw an opportunity to make a lot of money by essentially squatching all the interests of everybody else the workers and the community and saying your only purpose you corporate CEO is to maximize shareholder wealth and we are going to take you over if you don't do it right um and that really did change change a lot of CEO Behavior and the way they they viewed their jobs you know there's nothing like a threat to your job uh to change the way you think and this is different from say Sears for example which I know you've written about before I mean there was a different model before this one yes in fact a lot of Corporations had profit sharing with their employees and they went from profit sharing with employees to basically profit sharing only with CEOs and top Executives and and big shareholders it's profit giving giving right over that's right and that's where you get the BuyBacks eventually and and we have a whole lots to talk about there but the point is that this was a time when corporate Raiders basically changed the philosophy not just of the corporation but of much of America that's it and I love diving into the archives and finding you yep here we go talking to different people and there was a conversation you had you were on the news with a corporate Raider his name was Ash Asher Edelman oh this was in the the early 80s right and he was a model for Gordon gecko my understanding in Wall Street should we take a look okay we now have quite a lot of evidence gathered about all of these unfriendly mergers and Acquisitions what happens to research and development what happens to long-term investment uh since Mr Edelman did bring up data point and into logic I was not going to bring it up but since he brought it up those are two companies that he has invested in in fact taken over and uh he finances a lot of those takeovers by junk bonds and then what does he do he uses the junk bonds a lot about half of the junk bond proceeds to gamble with Arbitrage on the stock market and then if he wins as he has at least over the last few years that goes back into showing the company profits now that if there's any casino game going on that is certainly a casino game you better answer that quickly cuz we've got to go uh your idea of a casino sometimes is my idea of a very efficient business Sir Mr Edelman and Professor R thank you for both for joining us well it was you know it was it was a cordial discussion relative to the kind of discussions we have today uh and Asher Edelman I I kept in touch with and I saw years later and he said you know you're you were right he didn't say it exactly in those terms right uh but uh I think looking back uh that was a very important turning point for American capitalism uh but it was also a turning point in terms of what eventually became trumpism and eventually uh kind of compromise the this notion of the common good now one other Story You've referred to over the years is It's a Wonderful Life and you're not the only one right many people talk about this but describe what happen in it and how it reflected Society you know hea it is one of my favorite movies of all time should we just watch it yeah why don't we watch it just an hour and a half but it um it was it was uh it was released in 1946 Frank Capra was the director Jimmy Stewart played the protagonist uh it opens with him uh feeling that he's going to commit suicide because his wife his his life is worthless um and uh and and Clarence who's his his Guardian Angel comes down stops him from committing suicide and said you know your life was not worthless I mean had you not lived uh Pottersville which is what the name of the town would have been Bedford Falls would have Fall Fallen under the sway of this terrible character Lionel Barrymore bled Mr Potter but the point of the film was to essentially and Frank kaer did this again and again that people called it Capricorn um he did it with Mr Smith comes to Washington but it was it was to celebrate the common good to celebrate what we have in common uh and what we owe one another as members of the same Society um and uh interestingly the FBI launched an investigation of Frank cpra as a result of this film I didn't know that this was the era of of the Communist red scares this is uh Joe McCarthy comes on the scene pretty soon um Richard Nixon is skullking in the background uh and there is the fear that anything that denigrates the capitalist uh is suspect and that Mr pot and the way the the way that Mr Potter was was shown and described was a dangerous denigration a dangerous cartoon version of the capitalist it was very accurate right so yeah you love that movie so a little bit more about what the common good is and how it's changed over time I mean I love when you talk about the fact that you got um a new minimum wage passed and you worked with Republicans to do so was there a different sense in politics of the common good how long ago I think it was completely different it changed uh and I remember when it changed in 199 5 when new Gingrich uh took over a congress essentially his contract with America he became the speaker of the house uh and uh Congress really did come under the sway of the Republicans but it was a different kind of Republican it was a very right-wing angry angry and angry is a very important adjective here uh republicanism uh that led eventually to the trumpism we see now uh but before that Republicans and Democrats did work together Heather and uh yes I worked with Republicans uh even uh changing basic rules that could now never be changed uh but there was a sense that uh you had to raise the minimum wage because it was the right thing to do the fair thing to do right fairness actually decency deccy decency these are important these were important aspects of what it is that people should worry about but I think that was about Humanity but it was also about government right so it was we need to in our policies we need to think about the greatest good for the greatest number yes and it wasn't just I mean looking back on it it sounds kind of hokey it sounds oh come on are you really I mean people are very cynical today but actually I lived through a time and and even before that the Civil Rights Movement uh the anti-vietnam war movement uh these movements were were were kind kind of essentially assertions of values right common values uh and also fundamental assertions about uh the process of government about what democracy actually was about what it required of all of us uh so when johnf Kennedy said in his inaugural and I remember distinctly because I was what 14 years old he said uh you know ask not what America can do for you but what you can do for America and as a 14y world I thought this was the most wonderful thing I'd ever heard right uh but it it did exemplify this notion that we have responsibilities right and you mentioned civil rights I think it's important to think about someone like Martin Luther King leading a movement a man of color who Not only was fighting for civil rights but he kept the common good at the Forefront as well I mean talk about a lift and he saw the connections and wanted to make in the last years of his life seeking the connections between civil rights and workers rights uh and trying to get organized labor and also the Civil Rights Movement together working together I mean that's why he was that's where he was assassinated uh the garbage strike going on garbage workers stri U so yes this is this goes this this this incorporates this notion of common good very much incorporates a multi-racial multiethnic movement uh that is in some sense counterveiling to the power structure that was already there right and so you seem to say that in private life people still have a good sense of the common good or you know some sense of it but it's more in public life that has been the really problematic deterior deterioration deterioration yeah and and that's the and the question I keep on asking myself is whether our our public life the the the decline of public values the the way in which I mean even at the Trump trial I mean you look at these people and how they behave stormmy Daniels you know waiting until Trump is a is a candidate before ship shopping her story around uh about a sexual liaison with him uh and uh even the publisher David pecker of the national Inquirer uh basically uh grabbing stories uh and and squelching them until he can cash them in with powerful people and uh and on and on and on these these people are are they're they're in my mind and I don't mean to be a pansy about this because I've been around a lot of people I'm not I'm not naive but in my mind they exemplify an attitude toward how one behaves in life uh that is very different from the attitude that I think most of us have in in private right and I hope that what happens in public and the trumpism uh doesn't infect the private world I I think that many people out there who have been and consider themselves in some senses victims of uh an economy that has passed them by uh they have not seen a a real wage increase for years we've talked about this in the past many people are attracted to Trump because uh they see the economy and our political economy is so corrupt uh and they see it as so selfish and they feel so cynical about the public life uh that they are attracted to somebody like Trump right and they're I mean the social media Echo Chambers are not helping I saw a study the other day that said people who went off of Facebook in 2020 the six weeks leading up to the election were less likely to believe disinformation now it wasn't hugely statistically significant but it was still notable and slightly less likely to vote for Trump so now we have social media but you've talked about this before that we kind of the beginning of this political hanging and this extreme strident anger was Rush limo well Raj limbo I think uh discovered that anger sells ridic cells and this was in the late ' 80s right this is the late ' 80s early 1990s uh His Radio Show became the most popular and briefly it was on television y uh in fact he used to kind of go after me me should we okay can we please watch a clip we want to show you Robert B [Applause] rice but never underestimate the power of a declining paycheck a lot of the people who decided to vote against Democrats on Election Day who had voted for Democrats in 1992 were people who have high school or less educations or have certainly less than College educations a lot of men who seen their economic prospects decline over the last 15 years they voted for change in 1992 they voted for change in 1994 and believe me I think they will continue to vote for change did you hear what he said look you people were too busy laughing at the videographic fun we're having here but what he said was that a bunch of uneducated idiots who usually vote for the Democrats didn't this time this whole notion of their anxious voters with a high school or less education voted us out and he called them traditional democratic voters so what are they they're insulting the American people again it's a great example of Democratic party arrogance and condescension and what here's a translation is you people out there you fell for slick marketing and packaging again you have betrayed your brother and sister Democrats who care deeply for you and instead have entrusted your future to a bunch of Republicans who don't care a thing about you or your lack of Education all they care about is is taking money out of your back pocket and putting it in theirs and thereby enriching themselves but we know that you really in your heart love us and after you discover the error of your ways in two years you vote us Democrats back that's actually what R means well woof I mean that's that encapsulates uh not only Rush limbo but that became Roger ALS that became Fox News Fox News begins in 1996 many of the same attitudes and ridicule and assumptions uh were carried on into into Fox News oh it's so foul do you remember when Trump gave Rush limbo the presidential medal of freedom uh yes uh just before rush lbo died uh and I I I I think all of these come together I mean Russ limbo uh is the beginning of trumpism uh as it was distilled in the broadcast media uh carried on by Fox News uh and then and trumpism is the result uh many people today think of trump as the cause it's no Trump is the consequence of years and years of all of this going on right and a symptom so how do we get the common good back ah Heather how much time do we have how much time do we have I I think the common I think the common good returns uh to the public sphere now again I think it's already there in the P private sphere I think you know this is these are the people we know the people we care about our communities um but I think that we bring it back to the public sphere with leaders who uh now I was just about to say like Joe Biden and I hesitated because Joe Biden uh is is not one of his limitations is he's as a person I don't think it's is a matter of age he's just not able to communicate uh the the the way uh the common good needs to be communicated to instill the inspiration of the common good the way johnf Kennedy did the way to some limited extent Bill Clinton did uh and and uh Barack Obama uh but it it really is about fighting this cynical selfishness uh it is about fighting uh big corporations and Wall Street and uh this kind of attitude that average people don't count right so you mentioned Democrats but there have there been any decent Republicans in the past that you could refer to oh Heather of course I mean I I'm old enough to remember Nelson Rockefeller do you remember like it was yesterday Jacob javitz you remember Jake I mean but but there were a lot of um Liberal Republicans believe it or not they they had van yeah U but the thing about a lot of those Republicans in those days is that they took for granted what we're talking about now they took for granted they this was the era after World War II we had all As Americans been through a Great Depression we had been through a terrible War uh these were people who understood intuitively whether they were Republicans Or democrats what we owed each other because we couldn't survive the depression and the war unless we understood and acted on the common good that's what Jimmy Stewart and Frank CA were talking about and it's a wonderful life this is the the summation of of 15 20 years of of of sacrificing for each other right you've mentioned John McCain too John McCain in 2008 ran as the Republican uh against Barack Obama and I remember John McCain saying over and over again uh when people would say to John McCain uh you have got to criticize Barack Obama he's terrible person he's he's he's a communist or he's a socialist or he's just this or that John McCain would say no Barack Obama is a good man right or a decent man we may disagree right but he's a good man uh I think that that kind of sentiment is so foreign to trumpism not just to Donald Trump but to the people who now are politicians in the wake of Donald Trump the kind of viciousness the ridicule the put Downs the kind of uh you know it's us or them yeah and they are horrible people and I think people are scared to say those sentences now because they'll be ostracized right yes well if they're Republicans I mean look what happened to Cheney y uh you know she said uh a lot of things about the Republicans about Donald Trump and now she's gone yeah U and you can't really be a republican any longer unless you kiss the Ring of Donald Trump unless you're totally loyal but that means by doing that you've got to adopt his notion of US versus them uh that the country is divided uh and uh that uh basically on our side of the Divide is a very different attitude toward uh what it means to be an American right which is important because you've talked about this concept which I like is which is what does it mean to be a real Patriot what does patriotism actually mean and that's tied to the common good for you and others well I think that democrats should be talking about this and not let Republicans run off with the idea patriotism patriotism is about what we owe each other it's about paying taxes in full what we owe it's about jury duty it's about uh you know your giving to your community uh giving to the people around you who are needy uh this is patriotism it's not patriotism is not just uh you know free market crazy clap trap right no it's paying a living wage and if people want to work then they should be able to and they should get paid to do it right it's understanding that there is a moral core to capitalism or at least should be you know anybody who is working full-time should be earning enough to get out of poverty uh people should if they need a job be able to get a job uh if they are ambitious enough they should be able to get the training and education they need to have a better life uh their children they need child care Elder Care uh they should be able to get access to Medical Care as well these are things that uh most other societies most other modern capitalist societies provide people uh and it is a fundamentally about morality we don't talk about it enough right uh when you you know when when the issue of morality comes up people very often kind of get very uncomfortable because it sounds or glaze over it's a little well or their eyes glaze over that's right uh in this cynical age but this is what patriotism is about and protecting democracy is part of that fabric too isn't it hugely it's very it's in fact protecting democracy is Central right if you don't protect democracy how do you have a self-government how do you have the institutions even if you disagree about you know people are going to disagree they're going to be disagree about about where a highway should be or whether this should be the the you know priority or how do you combat uh climate change or whether climate change is a problem but all of these issues require a democracy they they require fty and loyalty to democratic principles if you get rid of democracy if you undermine democracy uh then you have no way of actually expressing uh what you want right and Reckoning with the wrongs we've done a lot of wrongs is part of it too and we can't reckon with that when it's US versus them exactly and if if people say you know if the trumpist or the trumpers say uh we don't want to face American history right uh the history of racism the history of uh genocide with regard to Native Americans indigenous people sexism then uh and sexism uh then if you won't face reality then how do you actually act uh with a moral sense how do you uh act in the future in ways that uh uh recognize uh the people around you and the legacies they've had to deal with how do you function as a good citizen U you know it it I think we're the trumpist says this is all about keeping people out this is all about you know we don't want everybody else to come in America but the other point of view is what we want is to make sure people who are here understand their responsibilities understand that there's something to citizenship that is not just a bundle of Rights right right well if I have to pluck out a hopeful thread there is a lot of hopeful threat here I feel a little like it's the game of operation and I'm trying not to get zined um but I mean the fact that we think the common good is still alive in private life feels like we can extract it and bring it back into public life yes and there I I want to H to say there are many people in public life who still understand the common good who still uh want to elevate it right um and uh they happen to be Democrats most of them uh but uh I think it's important to honor what they are trying to do uh and I'm in contact with many many many of them and you don't have to be a politician to be a leader uh you don't have to be authorized by a cloak of Public Authority uh to take a leader ership role in your community uh in your society and there are many many people who understand the common good who are our leaders today uh but we've got to understand we now we we face this colossal Challenge and choice uh and it's not just fascism versus democracy although that's those are the the umbrella terms but get into a little bit closer and you see it's about uh trumpism as a as a selfishness as a as a as a kind of using other people to the maximum Advantage versus this notion of responsibility social responsibility Heather thank you for for listening to me sound off no are you kidding I loved every second of it very philosophical for a clotch it is a little philosophical but I I think important but it's practical too it's it's how we live together as members of this same Society anyway you're very good and very tolerant and all of you are as well and we will see you next Saturday

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