When Martin saw this open letter, he immediately recognized the conspiracy hidden within.
Each of these seven proposals, for a country, was almost like a visually stunning but poisonous mushroom, yet for capital, they were a delicious tonic.
Whether it was repealing the Affordable Care Act, legalizing drugs, lowering the minimum wage standard, or reducing corporate tax rates, all were policies beneficial to capital.
The Affordable Care Act was part of Obamacare. Since its implementation in 2013, it had helped nearly 20 million Americans enroll in personal health insurance, but placed a heavy burden on insurance companies.
Once repealed, the insurance companies would absolutely cheer, while the people... well, in the US, the people don't really have much say.
Drug legalization? Needless to say, pharmaceutical companies stand to profit.
Lowering the minimum wage and reducing corporate tax rates are greatly beneficial to financial capitalists, while for workers, it's just... "haha."
In the original timeline, the Affordable Care Act was overturned in 2017, drug legalization was implemented in 2021, and plans to lower the minimum wage and reduce corporate tax rates were passed in 2019...
Then the US gradually descended into chaos.
This was also why the polar bear supported the "Austrian School" in proposing these seven items on Trump's behalf.
Another main reason was that Trump himself was a major capitalist. If he personally proposed these seven recommendations entirely beneficial to capital, it would inevitably arouse public suspicion and opposition.
But it was different coming from economists. Trump could claim: These are expert suggestions; I'm merely submitting the proposals to Congress.
In the original timeline, that's exactly what he did.
In reality, "Austrian Economics" had never been welcomed by normal governments because this school's theory advocated letting the market grow savagely, with the state refusing to intervene. Whether you're selling "drugs," "guns," or "nuclear warheads" is fine, as long as there's market demand for them.
Frankly, these guys are essentially anarchists.
What government likes anarchists?
The US is different. The US government is less of a government and more of a "Capitalist Association." Everyone from the President to the Senators represents one or more capitalist interests.
Among these seven proposals, a few also involved loosening international trade restrictions—such as eliminating tariff barriers. This, conversely, was beneficial to Russia.
However, Trump ultimately didn't dare to risk universal condemnation by formally submitting this proposal to Congress. He only selectively put forward a few proposals beneficial to capital.
He wasn't a fool; eliminating tariff barriers was clearly detrimental to domestic capital, and he would be jointly attacked.
Although he had close ties to Russia, the relationship was one of cooperation; he wasn't Russia's servant.
With memories of Trump's "Russiagate" in mind, Martin recalled some of the "Anti-Ching Chong" rhetoric from after Trump took office. It seemed that while Russia was screwing the US at that time, they also wanted to screw Ching Chong.
On the first day of the Republican National Convention, when anti-Trump forces within the party successfully created brief chaos in the hall, Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz tweeted mockingly to Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus: "If you still need a chairman to help you maintain order at the convention, I'm right here in Cleveland."
Soon, a netizen replied to her tweet: "You'll regret this tweet by the weekend."
Schultz certainly didn't expect that a week later, she wouldn't even have the chance to maintain convention order.
On July 22nd, the "WikiLeaks" website once again published 20,000 internal Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails from Hillary's inbox, previously obtained by hackers, forcing Schultz to announce her resignation following the convention. After facing boos while participating in an event on Monday morning, she announced she would not chair this Democratic convention.
These nearly 20,000 internal emails revealed a large amount of shady dealings involving Hillary, the Clinton family, and the DNC—including plans to fabricate a fake Trump company ad with gender-discriminatory hiring, and offering appointment nominations to famous donors in exchange for contributions.
The most serious part was that multiple emails showed that some DNC officials clearly favored Hillary and had plans to paint Sanders as an atheist to reduce his support among Christian voters, thereby helping Hillary win.
Although the content wasn't as explosive as the previous leaks, the damage to the Democratic Party's image was profound.
Even though there was no evidence these plans to suppress Sanders were ultimately implemented, these emails undoubtedly confirmed the criticisms from Sanders and his supporters about the DNC establishment's bias toward Hillary, and violated the principle that the national committee should remain neutral among all candidates.
While the DNC's favoritism toward Hillary was almost an open secret, starkly presenting the evidence before everyone undoubtedly made the entire Democratic Party and Hillary's campaign team lose face. It also gave some Sanders supporters and Trump supporters more reason to criticize Hillary and the corrupt establishment, condemning the manipulated system.
All Hillary's team could do was shift the topic to "The hackers were directed by Russia, which is secretly assisting Trump."
Well, although they might be correct, public anger wouldn't be concealed because of that.
According to the original plan, after the Republicans concluded their noisy convention, Hillary's team announced Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as the Vice Presidential candidate early the previous week.
After the weekend, the Democratic convention was supposed to project an image of a "united and victorious convention," forming a sharp contrast with the Republicans.
But this email incident completely disrupted Hillary and the Democrats' calculations.
It allowed that particular individual, Trump, to use the convention as a backdrop, with the latest polls showing Hillary trailing.
Sanders, who had declared support for Hillary two weeks earlier, while expressing dissatisfaction, still stated he would continue to support Hillary, but he couldn't suppress his angry supporters.
At the event on the morning of the DNC's opening day, when Sanders said, "We must elect Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine," he was met with boos and shouts of "We want Bernie!"
The Sanders team had to remind delegates via messages and emails to maintain order, not to boo, or leave the venue spontaneously.