I don't understand why so many people are being taken in by Trump - One answer
A friend of mine wrote this and graciously gave me permission to post it here. I think he makes a lot of sense about why we are seeing this 'Trump phenomenon'.
Q: Why are so many people being taken in By Trump?
A: For the same reason so many Germans were taken in by Hitler ... because both men spoke in populist language to a population that was in dire economic situation, and whom the existing power structure had served very badly. Hitler didn't have the best ideas either, and he spoke in wide demagoguery that demonized specific racial groups, but specifically, he used that racial animus to tell people that their problems were caused by Jews, and that they could be fixed by getting rid of Jews. In the absence of any voices on the other side actually addressing the concerns of the average German, the rhetoric of Hitler was very attractive, not because he was offering good answers, but because he was offering the ONLY answers that specifically addressed their concerns (albeit in a disingenuous, racist way).
That describes the Trump campaign, and the larger general campaign it's happening within, to a T. No one is directly addressing the problems that globalization has caused for the middle and working classes, except Trump, now that Sanders is effectively sidelined. Clinton tries to speak to those issues, but does so from within the perspective of being one of the architects of the globalization movement. She can't rail against free trade deals that strip jobs away from Americans to send them to places like Bangladesh with no safety or health regulations, and near slave labour working conditions, because she's been a huge proponent of those very trade deals her whole career. So she can't talk about destroying the system that many of the people she wants votes from want destroyed because she helped build it. Trump can and does talk about that, and even if it's self-serving and largely lies, he's the only one in the game actually talking to people about solutions to their problems.
I think as long as the left wing choice is a neo-liberal, Trump will see dangerous success. There's a segment of the progressive left that, frankly, is done with the neo-liberalism that has created a second gilded age where income inequality is at the highest levels it's been since the last gilded age. Only a few of those people will actually cast a vote for Trump, but a bunch of them will refuse to vote for the Democrats, either staying home, or casting their vote for a truly progressive leftist candidate like Jill Stein. And there's a segment of independents who are looking for change in the world, people who would have happily jumped on the Sanders wagon, but who are now left without a Democratic candidate who supports their causes. Some of them will vote Trump, again because he is the only one in the two major parties even trying to address the inequality and job security issues, but again, more will stay home or vote for the progressive Green option.
So it makes perfect sense to me why people are "taken in" by Trump. It's the same reason people have been taken in by demagogues in the past ... there are real, serious problems in the society that mainstream politicians are unable or unwilling to address in a substantive way that fixes anything. Demagogues can come in and address those problems in a direct and forthright manner through the use of deep seated racial and class animosity. That's exactly what Trump is doing ... playing the very REAL concerns of poor white voters about their economic situation through racial and class based attacks. It's not a new script, and as we can see from history, it's a script that works a lot of the time. And it works, mostly, because the mainstream politicians the demagogue replaces are unwilling or unable to directly address the true root of the problems in their society.
I think the Brexit vote shows how willing people are today to go outside the normal bounds to have their problems addressed. And I think the Trump phenomena is a similar dynamic in the US. The Leave campaign didn't offer good answers, but crucially, they were the only ones willing to criticize the system that makes the current situation possible, and that criticism is what captured people's attention because, while they don't know how to fix the problem, they know that global trade policies that allow labour ghettos to drive the cost of labour down to near zero ARE the problem, and in the absence of anyone else acknowledging that, they will follow the people who do. In the UK that was the Leave campaign, and in the US right now it's Trump. The only(?) way to mute Trump's appeal is to have a strong candidate on the other side who can credibly stand up and say "Free trade is biased toward business and destructive to workers, and that bias needs to be fixed." Trump says that (disingenuously), Jill Stein says that, and Bernie says that ... but crucially, Clinton says that the system is fine, it just needs tweaks here or there (see her counter to Bernie's free tuition proposal ... for Clinton, it's partial relief of partial loans for a short period for a small group of people who start businesses, and nothing for anyone else).
That's why "so many people are being taken in by Trump" ... because the candidate from the other major party thinks our existing system is working fine, and requires no major changes. Trump is saying "It's broken" loudly and often, and even if his solutions are ridiculously out to lunch, while the other side refuses to acknowledge the system is even broken, Trump will continue to see support both from his base, and from unlikely sources outside the Republican base as well. The people think the system is broken, and unless the Democrats nominate someone willing to run on the platform that the system is fundamentally broken, they face a very tough fight in November. Trump's success comes from the same place the success of other demagogues in history came from ... from a recognition by the populace of a broken system, and a refusal by mainstream politicians to directly address the fact that the system is broken.
= new reply since forum marked as read
