Heed the wisdom of elders

America's corporate media, duly regurgitated by the CBC, posits that Joe "the Unifier" Biden faces an intractable problem. However can Joe unify the nation when almost 75 million 'merican tards voted for hate-spewing, Putin-loving, white supremacist, Donald Trump? 

What to do? Obviously, these people are so stupid, the mere fact they are allowed to vote at all is a stain on America's democracy. How can they possibly vote for a man who told 30,573 whoppers during four years as president? What are they thinking? Are they even capable of thinking? Clearly, the prospect for unifying the American people are bleak indeed if you insist on including 75 million domestic terrorists...

(btw, nobody can claim Trump made America great, but he sure did wonders for the career of little Danny Dale, who went from scouring the seedy underbelly of Toronto's drug scene for those elusive Rob Ford crack tapes, to stardom and a million plus twitter followers as CNN's official Trump Fib-tracker.)

And that's kinda where things stand.

Which is why Stephen Jarislowsky's opinion piece in the Globe's business section was such a breath of fresh air. Jarislowsky, 95 years old, cut his teeth in the era before "business ethics" became an oxy-moron. Yes, that does make him something of an outlier in the modern era, but his analysis of where Trumpism came from is right on the money.

In a nutshell, Trump's base is what was left after American business and political leaders offloaded America's industrial sector to low-wage economies. "Free trade has killed their jobs and this, in turn, has killed their communities."

If Joe "the Unifier" wants to de-radicalize 75 million Trump voters, Jarislowsky has a timely tip for him. Rebuilding the industrial sector is not only essential to restoring the living standards of working class Americans, but such a restoration of manufacturing capacity is also a matter of authentic national security, unlike most of what is done in the name of national security today.

"If this is not restored, there will be more rebellion."