Tony Blair gave a speech about the consequences of Britain's vote to leave the EU. He listed the reasons why a small majority of its citizens voted to leave the EU in order to "Make Britain Great Again". They are the same reasons why a small majority in the US elected Donald Trump. Blair argued that Britain and the US will be worse off because of the populist vote. He acknowledges the impact of globalization on many citizens and the weak response to those problems by politicians. However, he argues that the international system, and the values that underlie the system, is what has produced prosperity in western nations without wars driven by nationalism. We should focus on fixing the problems in that system rather than dismantling it in favor of a system in which each nation attempts to win against every other nation. That, of course, is what Donald Trump has promised to Americans. He is the great deal maker and he favors a system in which he can deal individually with every other nation and win the deal. That is not a bad way for a real estate developer to behave but it is the wrong way to run a nation in a complex international system. We should be focused on making capitalism more fair to those who have been left out. Cowboy capitalism is the problem and not the solution.
After reading Tony Blair's speech, and comparing it with the Democratic response to Donald Trump's address to Congress, it helps me to understand how Trump won the election. He was probably the worse presidential candidate in our recent history. He beat a weak group of candidates in the GOP primary and the Democratic Party did not have a candidate with Tony Blair's ability to beat him in the general election. I don't see a Tony Blair in either political party.
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