Professor Robert Skidelsky writes in The Guardian (15.11.16) that there is Keynesian merit in Trump’s policies which challenge the neoliberal obsession with deficits and debt reduction. Liberals need to question and refine the plan, not dismiss it as ignorant ravings:
‘The “passionate intensity” of the populists conveys a simple, easily grasped, and now resonant message: the elites are selfish, corrupt, and often criminal. Power must be returned to the people. It is surely no coincidence that the two biggest political shocks of the year – Brexit and the election of Trump – have come in the two countries that most fervently embraced neoliberal economics.
‘Trump’s geopolitical and economic views should be judged against this background of disenchantment, not by an ideal moral or economic standard. In other words, Trumpism could be a solution to the crisis of liberalism, not a portent of its disintegration.’