[Peace-discuss] The Peculiar Populism of Donald Trump

[Carl G. Estabrook]

"How did America pass so quickly from Obama to Trump? The glib left-wing answer, that the country is deeply racist, is half-true but explains too much and too little. This racist country voted for Obama twice. A fairer explanation might go back to the financial collapse of 2008 when Americans had a general fear and were shocked by what the banks and financial firms had done to us. ‘In an atmosphere primed for a populist backlash’, as John Judis wrote, Obama ‘allowed the right to define the terms’. The revolt of 2008-9 was against the financial community and anyone in cahoots with them, but the new president declined to name a villain: when he invited 13 CEOs to the White House in April 2009, he began by saying he was the only thing standing between them and the pitchforks, and ended by reassuring them that they would all work together. No culprit would be named and no sacrifice called for. Trump emerged early as an impresario of the anger, a plutocrat leading the people’s revolt against plutocracy. The most credible explanation for the popular turn to the right – there are plenty of examples of people who voted twice for Obama but then for Trump – was offered by the Italian legal scholar Ugo Mattei. As he sees it, the resemblances between Trump and Berlusconi run deep, and in both cases the appeal derives from popular cynicism more than credulity. The voters have come to understand that the big banks, along with investment companies like Goldman Sachs and transnational corporations, are sovereignties as powerful as states and in some cases more powerful. By vesting a billionaire with extraordinary power, therefore, the voters are going straight to the relevant authority and cutting out the middle man – the politician.”  [David Bromwich, "Act One, Scene One,” LRB 39:4 · 16 February 2017]

> > ------ Original message------
> > From: Szoke, Ron via Peace-discuss
> > Date: Thu, Feb 2, 2017 1:22 PM
> > To: Peace-discuss AWARE;
> > Subject:[Peace-discuss] The Peculiar Populism of Donald Trump
> > 
> > This is the most plausible commentary on the 2016 national election I have seen.
> > 
> >> Subject: NYTimes.com: The Peculiar Populism of Donald Trump
> >> Date: February 2, 2017 at 12:14:42 PM CST
> >> To: <r-szoke at illinois.edu>
> >> Reply-To: <r-szoke at illinois.edu>
> >> 
> >>  
> >> Sent by r-szoke at illinois.edu:    <nytlogo194x27.gif>
> >> <02edsallWeb-thumbStandard.jpg>    
> >> CONTRIBUTING OP-ED WRITER
> >> The Peculiar Populism of Donald Trump
> >> BY THOMAS B. EDSALL
> >> 
> >> All wars have unintended consequences, including culture wars.
> >> Or, copy and paste this URL into your browser: https://nyti.ms/2k2vcjh 
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> > Note the relative absence of the usual bluffing, faking & pontificating about “the real issue,” or what made any group of voters
> > vote the way they did.  Here, it was more cultural (“values”) than economic, but they were of course intertwined.
> > 
> > We saw another example of how the “little people,” looking for a national savior or political messiah, will turn to an authoritarian "strong man” 
> > or caudillo instead of socialism.  I think an unspeakable issue underneath all the complaints about “political correctness” was resentment of all the fierce talk
> > about “white privilege,” while all they could perceive was “black privilege”: affirmative action, welfare entitlements, special exemptions, etc. 
> >    ~~ Ron