Trump, the unlikely populist (redux)
Last night I watched about ten minutes of Trump’s latest rally speech. It struck me that he hasn’t changed all that much from the last (and first) time I watched one, over three years ago (can it really be that long?) If anything, he’s both more relaxed and more strident, but he was already relaxed and strident back then, too.
When I wrote that post I just linked, the one from three years ago, I hadn’t yet seen much of Trump. I’d never watched his TV show or paid much attention to him prior to his entry into politics. But I’ve certainly made up for lost time since then, haven’t I?
I think most of what I wrote on viewing that first speech still holds, and it strikes me that the things I mentioned are among Trump’s great political gifts and contribute significantly to what makes him unique as an American politician (at least, compared to others I’ve observed in my lifetime), and are a goodly part of what so confounds Trump’s opponents and enemies and ties them into furious impotent knots.
So I’m going to reproduce the gist of that post of mine from August of 2015, with some recent additions in brackets. Here it is:
Trump giving a political speech is not like anyone else giving a political speech. He’s in his element in front of a crowd. And even in Alabama [or Texas, or anywhere], the New York shtick that you would think wouldn’t play so well there seems to be something they love when Trump does it. People are really really really sick of feeling impotent as Obama has thumbed his nose at them and lied to them, as the GOP has either disappointed or outright betrayed them [something which has somewhat changed lately for a lot of people, as the GOP has shown more spine], and as PC thought has taken over our values, education, the press, some churches, and many novels and movies [this aspect has, if anything, worsened].
Trump seems immune from PC considerations and also from the ubiquitous need to be beholden to conventional donors. He has the advantage of his familiarity to the public and his relaxation in front of the camera gained from years of being a showman and a TV personality. Trump has a populist appeal—you could see it very clearly during his speech—but he’s a rich-as-Croesus populist who doesn’t trash the rich as so many populists do; au contraire. Nor does he apologize for being mega-rich himself; he brags [bragging about his riches has now been mostly replaced by bragging about his record as president].
Trump has mastered not just the “art of the deal” but the art of giving a speech that sounds like ad-libbing stream-of-consciousness but is not. As he went along it occurred to me that what he is doing is cheerleading for America, reiterating over and over what he would do [and now, he adds what he already has done] for America and what he would do for the people he is speaking to, and fitting his words to their desire that America be what it once was. It’s the flip side of Obama’s hope and change: they hope that he can change things back to a time when America was great, and that’s his explicit message and the slogan on the very flyover-country-looking hats he wears and sells. This is a guy who knows marketing, and it’s no accident that the slogan is also pretty much what Reagan used in 1980 (Reagan put the word “let’s” at the beginning of the phrase, but otherwise it was exactly the same).
Trump is a happy warrior, or at least talks like one. “I will rebuild the military so it’s so strong and so powerful that we’ll never have to use it. No one will ever mess with us” is a typical utterance. He lists stuff—trade, health care, women’s health issues—and says “we’re gonna fix it.” And I guess people believe him, or at least believe he’s sincere about trying. How he’ll get around the impediments that stand in the way is unclear, but people don’t want clarity. They like his style. They like his spirit. [And now, of course, he has his record of political accomplishment to point to, so we know more about the “how.”]
“We have a great lack of spirit,” said Trump, and he’s right; and he’s out to provide it, and he does. He says he had thought Obama would be “a great cheerleader,” (hmmm, I thought; I just perceived him as a cheerleader a moment ago, and now he’s using the word). Instead, Obama is “a great divider.” But Trump? “I am going to make this country bigger and stronger and better and you’re gonna love it, and you’re gonna love your president…and you’re gonna be so proud.”
…[Trump] makes all other politicians look boring and stilted (hey, many of them are boring and stilted). He makes it all sound so simple—just as Obama did, but in a completely different direction and with a completely, and I mean completely, different style. Populist appeal is a neat trick in a man who’s a multi-billionaire and who grew up in enormous wealth and graduated from Wharton. But he’s got it, and although I’m sure he carefully nurtures it he manages to make it look natural.
That was towards the end of the post, but I ended it by saying I didn’t understand the people who didn’t take Trump’s candidacy seriously. Even in August of 2015 I took it very seriously indeed, and thought all the other Republican candidates and the Democrats as well should be scared by his entry into the race, because someone with those skills could win both the nomination and the presidency. It wasn’t that I necessarily thought either would occur, but it was clear to me that they might occur and that the chances were not minuscule.
Well, history has told us it happened, and here we are. And Trump is still giving those relaxed and strident speeches demonstrating his political skills, and still drawing absolutely enormous crowds. Now, as I said, he has a track record to go with his braggadocio. This gives him added confidence and lends credence to what he says.
Trump said in that speech from three years ago that he wanted to be a uniter. The country is more bitterly divided than ever, but I don’t see that as primarily his fault. The Resistance was fully in place even before he took office, and they are determined to divide and conquer, to undermine everything he does, and to make it so that half the country doesn’t even really listen to him or hears a distorted version of what he is saying.
Trump is still drawing mammoth crowds. There are no doubt many reasons for that, but one thing about attending a Trump speech is that it’s fun. Of how many politicians can you say that?
I have come to understand Trump’s methodology and to see him as true patriot. Yeah, he can be crude and has a flamboyant personality. But he is a refreshing change after the rather milk toast 43’s regime and the underhanded, criminal reign of the messiah. He’s one of those characters in the right place and time. He lacks the eloquence of Churchill, but he’ll do.
I was uneasy about him because he was crude and because I thought he’d be a moderate New York Republican at best. I voted for him because of his promises about the Supreme Court. He’s fulfilled those, and so many more. I’m judging by results, which speak for themselves.
I read Codevilla’s essay on The Ruling Class in 2010. That prepared me for Trump, although I did not think he could win. I wrote a couple of posts at Chicagoboyz in 2016 but was still watching, not as a supporter.
There are plenty of Trump skeptics here (even extreme ones like myself) who admitted at the time he was a better bet than Hillary. In effect: ‘If not Cruz, then roll the dice on Trump, because never Hillary’
There are even virtual never-trumpers who comment here who have made ungrudging admissions that they have come to see that his election has had some very real positive consequences for the American middle class that bodes well for the future. [if that progress is not deliberately sabotaged]
But, what I have not seen, is the reappearance of the most virulent anti-Trump Armageddon prognosticators who said we would probably all die within 6 months of his election; or at the very least be subject to a fascist dictatorship which would inevitably ensue. Crickets from the precincts of these brave souls.
And that leads me to my last point which stars Bill Maher and Tucker Carlson.
The former has stated that it is his hope that it does not take an economic catastrophe to get rid of Trump. Unfortunately, from his viewpoint, things are economically improving. But also from his POV, and from I believe many never Trumpers as well, the proper response is: So what? So what if the economy is better? So what if minority unemployment is at an all-recent-times time low? So what if middle America’s prospects may be looking up?
See, because these results meant little to nothing to them in the first place. And the institutional and evolving-times arguments which they used to promote the notion of the impossibility of such policy aims succeeding, were just so much chicken feed, or chaff spewed out to confuse the radar.
And that finally brings me to Mr. Young Bowtie, who seems to have grown out of his George Will Jr. short pants and become a man of significant insights and incisiveness. And, he, and Victor David Hansen and a few other social critics and observers, have assembled enough evidence and clips and instances and history, to demonstrate that the “So what?” attitude of indifference to the American middle class was driven not by mere preferences for dealing with momentarily greater national survival questions; but by an antipathy for the nation, and the constitutional polity and the inhabitants as we have known it, and them.
So, when the “to hell with the rule of law” crowd does not reappear to face and defend their predictions and preferences, it becomes clear why. They were never arguing in good faith in the first place.
Those who were … have since ponied up. Those who were not, remain no shows.
The essence of his populism, and popularity, is that he has proven himself to be sincere. He has followed up and delivered on his campaign promises more than any president since Reagan; maybe even more than Reagan. I didn’t understand him when he was running and though I believed him serious could not see why he should be taken seriously. Since his election I’ve seen video of him engaging with citizens and voters. He genuinely seems to like these folks. He talks WITH them not TO them. They joke with him and he jokes back. They love him because he’s real, like them.
I love his optimism, his commitment to improving America, and his willingness to fight. Lots of other people seem to too. His detractors are mean spirited, focused on superficial things, and petty. They ultimately just make him stronger.
Funny thing about crude. As we know, Trump is far from the first President with a crude streak. One difference is that in the past, it was hidden, or at least was made to be a small issue.
Admittedly, his “in your face” crudeness really put me off at first. That combined with my suspicion that he could not be trusted to do what he promised, placed him very near the bottom of my GOP choices.
But, he has been President long enough to judge him on his policies and actions. Based on those criteria, I think he may have been at or near the top of the choices all along.
DNW posted a prescient comment. The Trump antagonists with the biggest megaphones really don’t care about Trump’s accomplishments. In so many ways, they float along as on fluffy clouds, untouched by any of the turbulence that concerns ordinary folk. Their lust is for power and control, or a place near those who have it; and Trump is barring the gate.
This NeverHillary voter is so very very happy about Trump, the actual President.
His list of great possible choices for SCOTUS was brilliant, like Newt’s Contract For America.
I wasn’t even sure his second pick would be among them, but just getting the first one was worth voting for an ex-Dem who cheated on all his wives (tho not as badly nor as often as Hillary’s husband cheated on her).
The unfair Dem media treatment, and especially the secret anti-Rep discrimination in the Universities is scary.
The Dem based Social Justice Clan is trying to treat Trump and Reps much like the old Dem KKK treated blacks — as not fit for proper company, not wanted nearby. Names are important, we should call the PC folk Social Justice Clan, not warriors.
Trump’s tweets are mostly great. He’s talking directly to voters.
I’m now more hopeful Trump campaigning can insure he keeps the House, and it was always likely Reps keep the Senate. His “keeping” the House also means the Rep party is becoming the Trump party. Leaving the old GOPe “good losers” behind. There’s been plenty of good, more than expected, almost as much as hoped for, and almost nothing bad except for some blunt phrases.
I do hope that if Trump keeps the House, instead of impeaching him, they reopen the investigation against Hillary, and against those who obstructed justice and/or destroyed evidence.
Populism is part of his appeal. But I think it goes deeper than that, to two factors:
1) A quality the Pick-up Artist community calls ZFG: Zero F@#$s Given. This is one reason why the attacks rarely stick to him, why he just breezes right through their daily gauntlet. Whether he really is ZFG, I don’t know, but he sure does project that quality. In mass quantities.
2) Loyalty to Country: whatever President Trump does, he does for love of country and takes actions that benefit the country as a whole, not just the people who voted for him (not that his detractors will care).
Think about the standard portrait or caricature of most politicians: how will this action play with the folks who voted for me?
Trump’s actions put the Nation, and its people, first. Even the ones who didn’t vote for him. His actions, to his supporters, don’t come off as “Republican” but as American. Almost as if he is party-less.
He said in the most recent speech:
“You know what I am? I’m a nationalist, okay? I’m a nationalist. Nationalist. Nothing wrong. Use that word. Use that word.”
Now, I’m a pretty cynical guy (being a police officer will do that to a person) but to paraphrase Dr. Suess, my small heart grew three sizes when I heard that.
Use. That. Word.
Amen.
Just remember that Reagan, when he was criticized as an actor, said he did not see how anyone could be president who had not been an actor. Trump is showing how true that was. The rally with Cruz was an example.
Ann Althouse has an excellent post illustrating the differences.
Fractal Rabbit:
My essay on nationalism.
Excellent Neo.
Somewhat on the Nationalism topic: I spent a semester abroad in the Netherlands (1994) at, what was at the time, considered a teacher training college (the Noordjlyke Hogeschool Leeuwarden or NHL).
There were about 10 Americans from around the country there and equal numbers from Russia (newly Russia at the time, not the USSR), the UK, Greece, Spain, Germany, France and Ireland.
This was the beginning of my own personal Change Story because the takeaway from every history course I attended was that Fascism and Nazism were not the true evil of WW2. Nationalism was the true evil. And the only way to stop the next World War, the next Hitler, was to stamp our Nationalism. And since America was the most Nationalistic country anyone knew, America had to be made to toe the line by any means possible.
It was…illuminating. Most of my fellow students seemed like wonderful people. They were, by and large, friendly and welcoming (except the Irish: they were incredibly rude people, to a man. I was shocked by that, especially being second generation Irish myself) but they made it known many times a day, as tactfully as possible (except the f%$#ing Irish) that I was an American and therefore the cause of all of the world’s problems. Because nationalism.
It would probably not surprise anyone to know that the strongest bonds forged in that time were between the Americans and the Russians. I found them to be wonderful, friendly and warm people, once you got past their typical Russian distrust.
Tom G on October 23, 2018 at 5:48 pm at 5:48 pm said:
The unfair Dem media treatment, and especially the secret anti-Rep discrimination in the Universities is scary.
* * *
Secret is what the college discrimination very much is not.
AlphaFaceGram are trying to keep their discrimination against all conservatives a secret, and may be succeeding. How would we ever know?
Somewhat in reply to MikeK and DNW I’d give this perspective on the elites being only interested in retaining their power and caring nothing for the poor guy who lost his job 20 years ago in Youngstown and his son to opioids last week. In The Great Crash of 1929 Galbraith reports how he, and other economists, worked out that the US economy had actually slowed down in the Spring of ’29 well before the Black Friday crash in October of that year. They did it by looking at the record of freight car loadings kept by the railroads – the stock market had been a dead man walking for 6 months. Back then there were no expert academics, bureaucrats and others keeping track and working out leading and lagging indicators etc. Now there are thousands of them who have never done an honest day’s work in their lives who have the effrontery to tell us we have no business electing someone who sees right through them. They tell us we need massive – even unlimited – immigration and then tell us that there will be no ordinary jobs because of robots by 2030. I’m not saying the statistical work isn’t an excellent idea. I’m saying the elites broadly speaking have become a bunch of self serving liars who have only their own interests at heart. And I say that as a card carrying member of the Eastern Intellectual Establishment.
If you read The Art of the Deal #11 in his formula for business success is – Have Fun – “Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.”
The Resistance were the people that started talking about civil war years before it got popular and in vogue for Red vs Blue.
They were considered crazy, of course. More accurately, it was the American sheep in 2008 that was insane and tranquilized by fake news MSM that they keep complaining about as they kept on buying into it.
Fractal Rabbit, I am reminded of Stripes when Bill Murray says, ‘We’re Americans, we’ve been kicked out of every country in Europe.” Fine, Europe, try to squash nationalism over there but we like being Americans.
I’ve quit watching the news until after the election. I’m tired of being pulled back and forth with no one really having any idea of what’s going to happen. So I’ll stick with Tucker’s occasional analyses of stories I care about and watch Netflix or Amazon Prime the rest of the time until it’s over.
Hopefully the election will move decisively in one direction or the other. Either way Americans will get the government they vote for and therefore deserve. I sure hope for my kids and grandkids sake it’s to the right, but if it’s to the left then it won’t be a total loss because it will hasten the revolution.
lgude — My personal favorite leading economic indicator is heavy truck orders. There is currently a nine-month backlog. The recovery/boom is still strong.
I’m glad to know Galbraith, et al, were not as dumb as I thought they were.
A nice coincidence: Donald Trump and Nassim Taleb have graduated from the same school. And the former became the best example of a Black Swan, which the latter defined as a totally unpredictable event overturning the whole apple cart of the world politics.
alexandria ocasio-cortez says if trump terminates citizenship for mexican babies when we take power we will end citizenship for all registered republicans and impeach conservatives off of supreme court as republican senators will be strped of citizenship and can’t stop it. be careful what you wish for.