Editors Note: Over a year ago we wrote our first true post thinking that we would be able to write every week and produce content. However writers who committed to contribute did not and could not, you see we are all like minded so called “essential workers” who wanted to blog about our interests and our experience. As of now there is just one and I will from this moment keep posting twice a week on Tuesday & Thursday, however from time to time I will use the pronoun we because I think the people who wanted to participate in Bus Stop Judo should still be heard and I will be discussing content with them before I post. But most of all I think the voices of the essential workers should be heard and I’m keeping a space open for them here, for those I work with and those I have yet to meet.

When we wrote Part 1 of “Why Donald Trump Is The Neoliberal Jesus”, the drafts for Part 2 looked much different, it involved Michael Jordan, Milton Friedman, (of course) and Bill Clinton but as we go to publish much has changed in the year and six months since our last post, A LOT. Please forgive us.

In our previous post we did not believe that the the on-line definition for neoliberalism was succinct so we went searching for more and we found this one , What is Neoliberalism by Halim Alrah,

“Neoliberalism: A Faith in free-market capitalism to distribute social resources most efficiently and justly.”

How’s that “neoliberal” vaccine rollout seem to be going right about now. Sorry, we had to throw some shade.

Alarah’s definition is perfect because he uses the word faith and faith by definition requires suspension of evidence or reality. One could argue also that democracy is a faith but a true democracy requires it’s believer’s to participate, be informed, think critically. The neoliberal faith will tell you that ketchup is a vegetable, and is healthy enough to put on anything. Now let’s look at the definition of a democracy.

democracy: noun a system of government by the whole population or all eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.

In addition to reading “Undoing The Demos, The Shock Doctrine, and A Brief History of Neoliberalism we watched videos, two of them stood out in particular, Halim Alrah’s video as mentioned above and one of the writer George Monbiot, called The Invisible Ideology. They both made these videos before the end of the Trump era but both I believe were foreshadowing that neoliberalism has became something more dark, deep, and insidious in said era especially after January 6th, 2021. More often than not people refer to Trump as the symptom or the monster, but we believe he’s just the spokesperson of neoliberalism, the Jesus if you will. And yes of course there were the Moses’ and Isiah’s for neoliberalism like Milton Friedman, or Fred Hayek, and the early churches like the Chicago Boys and the John Birch Society. Neoliberalism even had the pious Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, however they were both more like a John The Baptist for the neoliberal faith and not a savior. Not until Donald J. Trump was there a true neoliberal Jesus, some one who would undo the demos and give the corporations and oligarchs everlasting life, liberty, and happiness at the cost of the everyday working person.

The faith of “Neoliberalism is simple, the rich who run corporations and the oligarchs who run the rich who own said corporations can do whatever they want to whom ever they want because of people’s “faith”, in the market. Donald J. Trump much like Louis the XIV believed himself to be the state, Trump believes/believed himself to be the market, oligarch, and corporation rolled into one. So therefor in order for a neoliberal Jesus to thrive, democracy must be dismantled and for the four years of the Trump administration that’s exactly what the neoliberal Jesus tried to do. January 6th, 2021 was the culmination, of Trump’s gospel. We suspect the neoliberal God was pleased with his son during the Trump term.

So now that we are on the day of the second crucifixion/impeachment of Donald J. Trump the “Neoliberal Jesus” what will survive, our democracy or Trump-ism. If the Senate does not convict him, and we believe they won’t. Will he Trump, actually be able to acquire the title of a martyr. No, because if Donald J. Trump truly had any balls he would want to be tried and convicted. So much like the faith, followers, and institutions in the neoliberal church few ever take accountability or accept it completely if at all. So neoliberalism will hide behind the veneer until American Democracy let’s down her guard again and again by gutting the rights of “essential workers”. The blood, sweat, and tears are the sacrament of the neoliberal faith, just ask Mitch McConnell, but we will address that in another post.

Also written in the gospel’s of neoliberalism is that the state must never interfere with the market. If the market makes people fat and obese, so be it. If the market puts holes in your children’s teeth so be it. If the market pollutes, the air, water, minds so be it. If the market needs meat packers to pack meat and die of Covid-19 in the process, so be it. If the market separates children at the border so be it. Well the market didn’t separate children from their parents at the border, of course the Trump administration did that. And to this day Trump doesn’t think that he should be held accountable for separating babies at the border. Nor does he feel responsible for the insurrection on January 6th, 2021or anything else in between. Much like a corporation shouldn’t be held accountable for polluting the air or laying off thousands of workers, according to the neoliberal testament.

The problem that “essential workers” or everyday workers have with neoliberalism is accountability, be it with corporations or Donald J. Trump. Unlike Jesus Christ, Donald J. Trump has never been accountable and unlike Jesus Christ he is a lazy fuck. So he sees no true value in being tried or convicted, even though we believe this would make him stronger in our opinion especially among his supporters. Supporters who were willing to end democracy in America as we know it. Supporters conscious of it or not knew that if they couldn’t beat neoliberalism they might as well join it, and if neoliberalism requires a fascist or authoritarian bent, so be it. All those Trump supporters were more than willing to put on brown shirts and goose-step through America to make her great again.

Trump supporters may see him as a martyr, but Trump doesn’t want to be a martyr, because martyr’s have to work. They have to get their hands dirty. And somewhere in the back of his mind I guess Mitch McConnell doesn’t want Trump to become a martyr as well. Because if he did neoliberalism couldn’t hide behind the mantra of the establishment republican’s of the past “…..less taxes, regulations, and Black women can’t wear an Afro in corporate America.” (Yes that’s a thing). Mitch McConnell believes in neoliberalism but he prefers the violence that comes from it to be slow, not in your face like that on January 6th, 2021, but those supporters are neoliberalism’s chickens coming home to roost. I believe Mitch McConnell knows this and many a republican senator knows this and they don’t want to see a trial for the neoliberal Jesus.

So will those of us who believe in workers rights see a temporary reprieve from neoliberals as the impeachment trial begins or as the Biden administration sets out topsoil across eroded America. We doubt it. Yet hope springs eternal, because just maybe after tomorrow and the coming spectacle ahead we will see something change in the American psyche, still we doubt it, and we’re not just being cynical. There was a deeper reason founded in neoliberalism as to why all those Trump supporters on January 6th, 2021 believed in what Donald J. Trump was proselytizing and why the became violent zealots. You see people like that were there before Donald J. Trump and they will be there after. Neoliberalism knows this and doesn’t care if democracy nails “Trump Jesus” to the cross or not. Neoliberalism will create another Jesus, and it will be more insidious than what has past during the Trump administration, unless the so called “essential workers”, demand better and find a way to bring some of the zealots into the fold. (to be continued)

We will be posting about the impeachment trial here next Tuesday.

TajAthO