24.6.26
Dear Partners in Thought,
I was recently watching Chris Murphy, the US Democratic Senator from Connecticut, presenting his new book “Crisis of the Common Good” and thought it was a very timely development given our new era. I always found Chris Murphy not ego-centric and flavoured with common sense, so was delighted he had written a book about the key issues that could potentially destroy America – the focus of his book, but also our world and which I have covered many times since Trump 2.0. In his book, aimed at American voters ahead of the November mid-terms and 2028 presidential race, Murphy promotes finding again the Common Good while stressing the ill-fated cults of profit, “everywhere”, technology, credentialism, consumption and corruption in American society, all furthered by Trump 2.0. Murphy, being a very good communicator, says it all in a useful summary in the first 25 pages with detailed chapters then covering each of the cults with many personal anecdotes.
America, a great country, which was naturally never perfect, has changed in no time much for the worse under Trump 2.0, making it a quasi-combined autocracy-kleptocracy where money and obedience to the leader matter first. The combination of horrific developments under Trump are simply unbelievable and of the never-seen-before-in-a-US-presidential kind. The list is very long, from a billion-dollar ballroom, destruction of the White House East Wing, renaming of key institutions like the Kennedy Center (now soundly rejected by a judge giving America some institutional hope), building of 280-foot-high pharaonic monuments, self-dealing and insider trading (investing prior to enacting key policy decisions) at times driven by a never seen but now very open family enrichment. All while many government officials, who in the main have been selected for their obedience rather than their competence, are often very rich individuals, if not a billionaire club with American policy and personal business naturally combined. The club membership is rather long, with peace deal-maker Steve Witkoff, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum or even the billionaire US Ambassador to Italy who is just doing a mega-deal … for himself. And let’s not forget Jared Kushner’s business father, a former jailed felon, as US Ambassador to France.
And then, as one should not stop given the lack of real opposition, a now abandoned $1.8bn fund that would compensate Trump’s political allies as well as January 6 US Capitol rioters (In fact, $1776m to nicely match the 250th American anniversary which would infuriate my ancestors at Yorktown.) The list of democratic deviations and issues with political sanity under Trump 2.0 cover all aspects of American life as seen with ICE in Minnesota as well as the various gerrymandering efforts and attempts to change the mail-in electoral process. It should be noted that some moves can be funny, like having his face on a $250 bill (Treasury Bessent found it publicly fine), this during his lifetime unlike clear statesmen such as Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Grant as well as Franklin and Hamilton. One of the key Trump strengths is that there are too many insane decisions taken at the same time at too many levels, making it too hard to follow them. And sheer incompetence is obviously also seen at the geopolitical level. Undermining the Western Alliance and NATO (even if Europeans should be more involved in their defence as they now will) while having threatened to take over Greenland (like he de facto did Canada) or starting an ill-devised Iranian regime change from the air leading Teheran to realise their key advantage in the world-affecting Strait of Hormuz says a lot about the changing times in America and the loss of its sound leadership. And now we enjoy a never ending and always unclear Iranian war peace process (now clearly focused on minimizing the unexpected war costs to American voters ahead of the mid-terms) that shows Trump going back and forth on what it means and even lying to our faces as to its actual conclusion and the fact it stresses a defeat of sorts for America in terms of war aims. This insane flood of developments is also linked to the loss of “common good” that historically defined America, even if never perfect in nature, hence the good timing of Chris Murphy’s book.
In his introduction, Murphy, being on many hockey game journeys with his fourteen-year-old son, tells us about youth sports and how it has been maximised for profit by organisers in recent years making it far away from what it was in his own youth and reflecting our new and sadder times. His book is focused on the crises that American (and to some extent Western) society fell into in developing various bad cults focused on profit, “everywhere”, technology, consumption, credentialism and corruption leading him to hope for a renewed cult of Common Good that made America, even if never perfect, what it was. As a US Senator and a Democrat, Murphy also focuses on the six bad cults naturally being enhanced by the Trump era given the unusual nature and persona of the last US president. To him the 1980s started to reflect a new era of greed, leaving old American values behind, that were personified by the then shockingly grandiose Manhattan Trump Tower in 1983 and Gordon Gekko in the movie “Wall Street” in 1987. TV shows like Dallas or Dynasty glamourised wealth at the highest level. To Murphy, that period, which also saw America becoming wealthier, reflected a shift from the common good to a me-first individualism in most spheres of society. The new era marked a retreat from shared prosperity, social contracts and strong communities with a new focus on profit, efficiency, consumer culture, technology, elite credentialism and corrupt politics leading to many Americans feeling adrift, alone and hopeless; and driving them eventually after short decades to elect a “megalomaniacal con man peddling division and empty promises” if not more.
The Cult of Profit is a natural development of the greed era that most of us could see and feel in many areas of life and business, even if America was an entrepreneurial nation with “climbers and doers” that made a difference, also for the common good. Murphy feels, not wrongly, that the drive for wealth changed the nature of the social contract focused on broad prosperity – as seen with the Big Tech mega-billionaires, which are the obvious leading example of this American demise. At the same time, governments stood aside while corporations grew stronger and unions weaker, ensuring a transfer of power with capitalism being mainly if not only focused on maximising profit. It is clear that Murphy’s take on the cult of profit would fit the approach of European socialists and even centrists (the former I have also grown closer to due to this drastic change in capitalism, a step which is odd for a member of a Gaullist family, very involved with Chirac’s party and its national youth team in the early 1980s when my boss was a mid-twenties Nicolas, who unexpectedly then would become President of France.)
The Cult of Everywhere, linked to that of profit, reflects a strong feeling of repulsion against the adverse impact of globalisation that many of us saw as a good thing, also in terms of ensuring global peace indeed through trade. This cult naturally hurt local businesses throughout America, especially in states that were dependant on very local activities for jobs and customers where owners abandoned their moral obligations to local “workers”. Globalisation, which started 25 years ago, was aimed at promising a golden age without actual borders when everybody would benefit as technology and trade would build a more integrated and better world. While this ambitious development never fully and happily happened, this cult led to a loss of national and local identity while jobs were lost, especially in remote American areas while a rising and once forgotten China took advantage of a new manufacturing era.
The Cult of Technology led by strong business leaders brought smartphones, social media and now AI which strongly impacted human relations and likely job prospects for the latter. Americans stopped socialising very fast with friends and started to isolate themselves (a global feature we can all thank Big Tech for), all the more for teenagers (It would not be likely that the Big Tech-captured US administration would pass legislation to keep teenagers away from social media as in the visionary Australia and soon Britain and France.) Murphy also stressed that technology led to a decline of attendance in institutions like churches, unions and civic clubs that once cemented sound collective purposes and shared societal values. While he sees that technology brought many life improvements, he finds this cult as having led the Great Withdrawal also hurting humanity while furthering loneliness and fulfilment at a time when the US was too lax on regulations, a latter feature we can find enhanced by Big Tech’s de facto capture of Trump 2.0 through massive donations and political support.
The Cult of Consumption is exemplified, perhaps unfairly, by George W Bush telling his citizens after 9-11 to go down to Disney World in Florida, this stressing enhanced market participation to deal with huge societal issues if not nightmares at the time. It is clear that this example is targeting a leading GOP man, which might be seen as overly partisan, all the more as George W Bush, while not a perfect leader for many, is not a Trump friend and carries values and principles of US leadership that we always saw in the past (seeing him with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama at the latter’s presidential centre inauguration in Chicago last week made me easily feel that there was another, sounder American leadership at some point not so long ago.) Murphy also stresses the change of contactless “buying” with local retailers being forgotten for the likes of Amazon and Walmart while creating huge fortunes for its leaders. He stressed the depersonalisation of commerce with the rise of tens of millions of “influencers”, all while consumption became stratified with the wealthy buying into preferred, easier and faster ways of buying goods and services, this creating a deepening of societal resentment.
The Cult of Credentialism is focused according to Murphy on the divide between those with college degrees and those without, as society increasingly rewarded the former while neglecting the latter. A degree has become essential to achieve societal well-being and has become challenging to secure at many levels. According to him, the promise of sharing education costs is one that has been gradually broken as tuition became very expensive in all colleges and especially the top names we know, all while government became disinterested in higher education. To worsen the poor picture, many colleges, also among the top ones, favoured donors (ask Harvard graduate Jared Kushner) and alumni over applicants from modest backgrounds resulting in a monopolisation of access to enrolment opportunity. As a funny side note, I wonder what Murphy’s neighbour, Yale, would think of his approach – even if I agree with him (On a more positive note, let’s not forget that US colleges also introduced “affirmative actions in the 1970s to help minorities access higher education – a policy Trump supporters clearly never liked.) On an additional thought, one can also wonder what the future of higher education will become a few years from now with the rise of AI, which may make Murphy’s points historical in nature or no longer relevant but we should hope that universities keep going in spite of this self-enriching Big Tech-led AI invasion that is changing our world in uncontrollable and potentially terrible ways at too many levels.
The Cult of Corruption is focused on the gradual rise of money in politics which a Supreme Court 2010 Citizens United decision probably unwittingly created by seeing political donations as free speech, which led to a flood of corporate and billionaire cash into campaigns. These donations have had an impact on election results and the legislative process while the common citizen was gradually de facto left on the side and powerless. Over the years, Americans got used to this development that Donald Trump exemplified at many levels including for him and his family’s self-enrichment while in power (How many billions since his second term?). The extent of monetization of political power and the US presidency via the stock market or dealings with business leaders or even foreign countries seeking US support is a clear first in American history.
Having described the five cults and the gradual move from communitarianism to me-first individualism that started in the1980s, Murphy explains how Trump exploited the spiritually disgruntled many and their nostalgia for better times to get into the White House and then worsened the very six cults. Trump tapped into “memories of a time before globalized markets, profit fundamentalism, addictive technologies and corporate-captured government”. He built a new MAGA community for those longing for gatherings and social interactions while tariffs were meant to punish globalization while promoting nationalism first. He stressed that outsiders like immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQ individuals and the traditional elites stole communities from “true Americans” implying that diversity was not compatible with common-good America. He promised to “drain that swamp” to get back to the old America. However, Trump did not curb corporate power or profit-worship nor did he rein in technological excesses while he cut corporate taxes and deregulated industries, also as he was supported by the likes of society-destructive Big Tech. And instead of “draining the swamp” as he had promised his MAGA base, he used it to enrich himself and his family through a long list of avenues from cryptocurrency, Middle Eastern investments to government contracts in ways that had been unseen so far with any US President. In many ways, Trump exemplified the six cults (even if one would argue that he was not an easy friend of globalisation with his never-ending tariff wars).
While his core base does not fully grasp – or does not want to see what he has done, his popularity is clearly and expectedly in great decline today, this regardless of any polls. Were he able to run, he would not win the presidency in 2028, but he and his team are still there for two and half years, even if he does seem to care for what his policies and the state of the GOP are today and is clearly keener on his posterity. This short decline was sadly accompanied by a physical decline as easily seen with his erratic speeches full of words never heard from a US leader. His MAGA base support, largely opposed to wars abroad, appears to still support him “come what may” even with the strategic Iranian disaster as they prefer to follow the leader, while their clout, as a shrinking minority usually not equipped to understand policy impacts, is also declining (all while they are the first to pay for war-related oil and other goods).
Murphy’s book provides the reader with many detailed chapters on each of the six cults while hoping for a challenging return to a sensible sense of communitarianism in US society, if ever possible given the damages done, when Trump and his allies would be gone. Murphy is promoting a dedication to an economy and society focused on dignity and meaning for everyone, this not only via sheer politics but through government reform, corporate accountability and stronger communities, the latter being a key feature also away from technological isolation. As a key side note, non-US readers would sadly easily notice that the book focuses very little on Trump’s destruction of the Western alliance or poor foreign policy developments as these matters are not the prime focus of the American voter unless there is a cost involved.
Chris Murphy would be a great presidential candidate given his sensibly moderate style and the dearth of leading and appealing figures among Democrats today, Governors Gavin Newsom and Abigael Spangerger (the latter a sound potential VC choice) excepted. The other Democratic party leaders are either too old, like US Senate party leader Chuck Schumer, or lacking the persona or profile that would fit a majority of voters (I will avoid stressing names out of courtesy). The Democrats are struggling to find the candidate who could win and be a great President and hopefully be a badly needed old style leader of a returning, post-Trump, Western world we are all missing. It is also clear that Democrats should tactically rethink their strong and at times excessive focus on diversity, that opponents call “woke”, as it also helped Trump and his willingly highjacked GOP (now much less happy) to seize power a second time in 2024 in a scenario few would have thought possible post-Trump 1.0.
As of today, Murphy is not yet seen as a top presidential candidate (even if on the list), though his focus on key societal matters should say a lot to the American electorate as we would hope. In his conclusion, Murphy provides us with no less than 30 proposals for reversing what he sees as a spiritual American decline and focused on dealing with the six cults to go back to a forgotten era of the Common Good. Amusingly, his last chapter starts with the famous Reagan line about America being “the shining city on the hill” that was borrowed from John Winthrop, the first Governor of Massachusetts, making us realise that American politics should not be about partisanship but indeed focused on the Common Good with great leaders that even the world can benefit from.
Warmest regards,
Serge
Desperate Measures 