"Trump's Very Ordinary Indifference to the Common Good"/The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/10/trumps-very-ordinary-indifference-to-the-common-good/616675/
Trumps Very Ordinary Indifference to the Common Good
Blowing off tax obligations and public-health dictates makes the president an all too typical member of a self-indulgent global elite.
6:30 AM ET
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...Trumps tax returns was not just one mans refusal of his fiscal obligations. Those returns, along with Trumps whole approach to governing, are a concrete manifestation of a broader and more troubling phenomenon:
an elite insurgency in which wealthy, well-connected people around the world stiff the societies that gave them success. Observing Trumps open defiance of the law and rejection of accountability, many critics have attributed the pattern to the quirks of Trumps individual psychology. But they have missed the larger picture: This president is an entirely ordinary member of a global elite whose members believe that rules are for chumps.
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That story, known as the
Panama Papers, exposed a sprawling web of tax evasion, money laundering, and other financial misdeeds by the global elite. Also exposed was a brazen contempt for the law by many officialsincluding heads of state and ministers of justice and financewho were empowered to uphold it.
Trumps name came up more than 3,500 times in the documents; although he was not implicated in any wrongdoing, many of his customers, business partners, and other associates were.
The Panama Papers, still the largest data leak in history, sketched a picture of elites in revolt: a growing refusal of obligation to the societies that had allowed them to become wealthy and powerful.[/i]
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Trump is the ideal representative of the elite insurgency. His offhand remark while filming Access Hollywood 15 years ago could serve as the unofficial motto for the whole offshore world: When youre a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
Excellent Read....