"Populism is an impulse ,not an ideology". Historian Michael Kazin
This may go down as the most entertaining election for president of our lifetime. You can substitute the word "entertaining" with disturbing, or saddest ,or disastrous if you like. I'm not saying that this election makes me hopeful ,or bolsters my faith in democracy, I'm just pointing out that even when life appears hopelessly out of kilter there is still some amusement to be had.
Nothing could be more preposterous than the campaign of Donald Trump; preposterous, and apparently unstoppable. He is managing to do what no leading Republican presidential candidate has done and which all have strived for over the last thirty years. He is attracting new blood into the grand old party. His appeal crosses all lines of color, education, ideology, and religious commitment. There seems to be no common denominator to the Trumpians except a generally right of center point of view and a mistrust of Republican party leaders. That ought to define Cruz's support. His Senate career has been all about sticking it in the eye of party leaders, while holding down the right of the party of the right. He has a track record. He has the rhetorical style of a street preacher, but he lacks Trumps gift of banter and over the top bluster. This has brought to Trump the votes that Cruz has failed to win. The message that he presents more skilfully and authentically is muffled by the noise of the Trump circus.
If you're looking for consistency in the Trump campaign, or evidence of core beliefs you're looking in the wrong direction. What you get from the Trump campaign is Donald Trump, and whatever he happens to believe, or says he believes at that moment. Over the the last sixteen years as Trump has been considering a run, or running for president ,he has changed his views on almost everything. Recently we saw an astounding triple reversal in a three day period.
You may have guessed I'm not a Trump fan. That's not to say I'm feeling the Bern either. Bernie represents an opposing populism to Trumps right of center approach. Populism crops up from time to time in American politics, especially during traumatic times. The great depression saw the rise of left wing populist movements ;Father Coughlin and Hughy Long. At the end of the tumultuous 1960s former Democrat governor George Wallace ran as an independent candidate for President to the right of Republicans and Democrats and did a better job of threatening the two party monopoly than anyone apart from Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. The message of populism is this : The people are the rightful rulers and their influence is being usurped by powerful and unscrupulous elites. It's time to take back our party. It's time we take back our nation and throw the bums out! I suppose there's something to be said for that. Does that make me a populist? Populists rarely self identify. I guess that's the second reason for suspecting me of populist tendencies. I deny that that I am one.
Sanders populism identifies Wall Street bankers as the culprits of choice. Billionaires ,and the rest of the top one percent are not far behind. Somehow in the Sanders imagination if we can get a hold of the piece of their wealth that is truly excess and spread that out to the more deserving we will become another Sweden. Want will be banished, neighbor will look after neighbor, education will be free, and we'll all be driving solar powered Volvos. Oh, happy day!
Somewhere between Trumps chameleon flexibility, and Sanders democratic socialism, and Cruz's thundering sermons, there must be some less offensive choice in this election. This quieter, more sensible choice would be a doer rather than a blusterer. They would have a track record for getting things done, bringing people of disparate viewpoints together and hammering out consensus, or standing in the way of popular folly when that is called for, and bending popular will to their greater courage or insight like Churchill or Lincoln. They would not be facing indictment for recklessly exposing vital secrets to enemy agents and hackers then lying about it. They would not have a past record of unseemly financial arrangements, or a history of facilitating the threatening of victims of their husbands unwanted sexual advances, or the reputation assassination of those who came forward. I'm asking too much. It's a bit like asking for normal times when the cosmic calender has you scheduled for interesting times instead. In times like these all you may be able to do is sit back and enjoy the show, or at least find a little time for laughter between the tears.
This may go down as the most entertaining election for president of our lifetime. You can substitute the word "entertaining" with disturbing, or saddest ,or disastrous if you like. I'm not saying that this election makes me hopeful ,or bolsters my faith in democracy, I'm just pointing out that even when life appears hopelessly out of kilter there is still some amusement to be had.
Nothing could be more preposterous than the campaign of Donald Trump; preposterous, and apparently unstoppable. He is managing to do what no leading Republican presidential candidate has done and which all have strived for over the last thirty years. He is attracting new blood into the grand old party. His appeal crosses all lines of color, education, ideology, and religious commitment. There seems to be no common denominator to the Trumpians except a generally right of center point of view and a mistrust of Republican party leaders. That ought to define Cruz's support. His Senate career has been all about sticking it in the eye of party leaders, while holding down the right of the party of the right. He has a track record. He has the rhetorical style of a street preacher, but he lacks Trumps gift of banter and over the top bluster. This has brought to Trump the votes that Cruz has failed to win. The message that he presents more skilfully and authentically is muffled by the noise of the Trump circus.
If you're looking for consistency in the Trump campaign, or evidence of core beliefs you're looking in the wrong direction. What you get from the Trump campaign is Donald Trump, and whatever he happens to believe, or says he believes at that moment. Over the the last sixteen years as Trump has been considering a run, or running for president ,he has changed his views on almost everything. Recently we saw an astounding triple reversal in a three day period.
You may have guessed I'm not a Trump fan. That's not to say I'm feeling the Bern either. Bernie represents an opposing populism to Trumps right of center approach. Populism crops up from time to time in American politics, especially during traumatic times. The great depression saw the rise of left wing populist movements ;Father Coughlin and Hughy Long. At the end of the tumultuous 1960s former Democrat governor George Wallace ran as an independent candidate for President to the right of Republicans and Democrats and did a better job of threatening the two party monopoly than anyone apart from Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. The message of populism is this : The people are the rightful rulers and their influence is being usurped by powerful and unscrupulous elites. It's time to take back our party. It's time we take back our nation and throw the bums out! I suppose there's something to be said for that. Does that make me a populist? Populists rarely self identify. I guess that's the second reason for suspecting me of populist tendencies. I deny that that I am one.
Sanders populism identifies Wall Street bankers as the culprits of choice. Billionaires ,and the rest of the top one percent are not far behind. Somehow in the Sanders imagination if we can get a hold of the piece of their wealth that is truly excess and spread that out to the more deserving we will become another Sweden. Want will be banished, neighbor will look after neighbor, education will be free, and we'll all be driving solar powered Volvos. Oh, happy day!
Somewhere between Trumps chameleon flexibility, and Sanders democratic socialism, and Cruz's thundering sermons, there must be some less offensive choice in this election. This quieter, more sensible choice would be a doer rather than a blusterer. They would have a track record for getting things done, bringing people of disparate viewpoints together and hammering out consensus, or standing in the way of popular folly when that is called for, and bending popular will to their greater courage or insight like Churchill or Lincoln. They would not be facing indictment for recklessly exposing vital secrets to enemy agents and hackers then lying about it. They would not have a past record of unseemly financial arrangements, or a history of facilitating the threatening of victims of their husbands unwanted sexual advances, or the reputation assassination of those who came forward. I'm asking too much. It's a bit like asking for normal times when the cosmic calender has you scheduled for interesting times instead. In times like these all you may be able to do is sit back and enjoy the show, or at least find a little time for laughter between the tears.
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