The MAGA movement is anything but conservative–and that assertion is supported by the number of genuine conservatives who identify as “Never Trumpers.”
One of my favorites in that group is David French, whom I often cite on this blog. French self-identfies as an Evangelical Christian; he is also a lawyer who respects the rule of law, who understands that policy is complicated, and who recognizes that simplistic answers are almost always counterproductive.
French recently had a lengthy column in the New York Times on populism, in which he made a number of trenchant, important observations. I encourage you to click through and read the whole essay, but I particularly want to focus on a few key points.
French began by rebutting a comment by the odious Steve Bannon to the effect that Americans really haven’t examined Trump’s populism. French finds that laughable; as he says, there have been countless focus groups of Trump voters, numerous “man-on-the-street” interviews and interviews with supporters at Trump rallies. Anyone who follows politics has read books, watched documentaries and listened to podcasts. “And if you live in Trump country, as I do, you’ll find that Trump voters are very eager to explain themselves. This is not a quiet movement. They don’t exactly hide their interests and passions.”
French warns that “Regardless of how a populist movement starts, it virtually always devolves into a cesspool of corruption and spite. And that’s exactly where we are today.”
Populism is never separate from this “voice of passion.” That is its defining characteristic. It begins in deep grievance. Some of those grievances can be quite real and consequential — such as when modern populist anger is rooted in fury over the Great Recession, long wars in the Middle East or shuttered factories in the Midwest.
Some of the problems, however, that motivate populists aren’t problems at all, and populist anger is rooted in something else entirely. Segregationist zeal fueled Southern populism for generations, for example. Xenophobia has always created fertile ground for populist demagogues.
But regardless of whether the grievances are justified, the real energy of populism is in its emotion — in its raw, unmitigated anger. It’s that passion that makes populist movements so vulnerable to charlatans and demagogues.
There was no easy way to crawl back from the 2008 financial crisis. There are no easy answers in the Middle East, despite Trump’s faith in coastal real estate development in Gaza. The reasons for the loss of Midwest manufacturing jobs go far beyond the trade deals that “they” inflicted on “us.”
So populist politicians lean on the passion, reflecting populist anger back at the public. “The shared emotional connection delivers a singular message: I am your champion, and you are my legions.”
Populism may not place a high premium on honesty, but it is all about authenticity. Virtually every Trump voter I know loves that he speaks his mind and says what other people are thinking but are too afraid to say.
The most effective populist tactics, or course, are deflection and racism: anything that goes wrong is “their” fault.
When the elected populists don’t fix everything (because they can’t), they lean back on their shared emotional bond to avoid accountability or consequences. After all, in the never-ending battle of us versus them, one can always blame the other side for every failure and frustration. At least for a while.
We’ve seen this clearly with Republican devotion to Donald Trump. He inherited a growing economy and maintained its growth for the first three years of his term. While he deserves a degree of credit for that continued economic success, Trump’s messaging was relentless — he had created the strongest economy in the world.
But what of the failures of Trump’s first term? Well, that’s a “they” problem.
The soaring murder rate in 2020 wasn’t Trump’s fault. That was all about B.L.M. and the left.
The confusion, incompetence and deception that marked Trump’s response to the pandemic were forgotten. The left was the real villain of the pandemic, with its school closings and mask mandates….So when America ended Trump’s first term deeply divided, with lower life expectancy, more murder, less economic growth, more deadly overdoses and higher unemployment than when he entered the Oval Office, none of that was his fault. All of it was due to circumstances beyond his control.
French reminds us that defeating populism doesn’t require defending the status quo. It does, however, require a polity that isn’t so consumed with hatred of “those people” that nothing else matters.
Psychologically incompetent and willfully deluded! They involve themselves in delusional dogmas and beliefs thinking that somehow they can make certain citizens suffer, and they can rectify the situation before it affects they themselves. It’s a fantasy, and he is individuals who are claiming to be righteously inclined, but still associate with and become part of a nationalistic fascist movement, what does that say about the person? And whatever that person has to say, is not worth the paper it’s printed on, because it’s words over action. Words without action are kind of like faith without works! Nothing is accomplished nothing is solved, only, misery, pain, and as you say Sheila, spitefulness!
During world war II, there were quite a few Jews that were Nazis, they fought against their own people, they used their knowledge to wipe out their own ethnicity. And then, they ended up in those same gas chambers eventually. Obviously, they barked up the wrong tree, just as this Mr French is doing. Has anyone ever witnessed a revolution that was painless? Bloodless? Compassionate and empathetic? Well, no, of course not! Because, revolutions never run on compassion and empathy.
The human craving for power and wealth IE riches, is unquenchable. When you have such a completely entrenched infestation of blighters, self-convinced of their superiority, nothing else can be done except complete extermination which will never happen. They really need to focus on what happened to the fascist movements during the second world war and all of its bloodletting.
Pure hatred and evil, what do you think is going to happen? When they’re done eating all of the others, they’ll start eating themselves! Very troublesome indeed!
So I guess one of the difficult challenges is responding to the populists without mirroring their emotional stance. Not sure we’ve done that consistently or well. Or that it’s a particularly effective tactic to win elections. This argument raises lots of questions for me about the criticisms lobbed at Democrats for getting the “vibes” wrong. Where is the right balance between being responsible and working honestly to solve problems and showing you recognize/respect how people feel when they’re either beyond trusting you to solve the problems or lost in believing you’re the enemy?
It is important, if for no other reason, to maintain a record of how things were, so for those who believe facts will know that once there was a time under Biden that some were trying to make a government that worked for the middle class, that inflation was coming down, etc.
Too bad, America was once a good idea…
“So populist politicians lean on the passion, reflecting populist anger back at the public. “The shared emotional connection delivers a singular message: I am your champion, and you are my legions.”
Hatred and anger are popular and in control now; “What goes around, comes around.” tells us that Peace and Civil Rights will become vogue again…some day. How many of us will be here to see it; the past THREE WEEKS tells us that the next FOUR YEARS will be eons long for those of us struggling to survive it.
Trump, MAGA, White Nationalists and the “evangelicals” have made a basically simple solution complicated by yelling louder and spending more money to prove their point that destruction of democracy is the solution. If Democrats has simply used their disappearing right to vote before it disappears completely; we wouldn’t be here now.
Psychologically incompetent and willfully deluded! They involve themselves in delusional dogmas and beliefs thinking that somehow they can make certain citizens suffer, and they can rectify the situation before it affects they themselves. It’s a fantasy, which contains individuals who are claiming to be righteously inclined, but still associate with and become part of a nationalistic fascist movement, what does that say about the person? And whatever that person has to say, is not worth the paper it’s printed on, because it’s words over action. Words without action are kind of like faith without works! Nothing is accomplished nothing is solved, only, misery, pain, and as you say Sheila, spitefulness!
During world war II, there were quite a few Jews that were Nazis, they fought against their own people, they used their knowledge to wipe out their own ethnicity. And then, they ended up in those same gas chambers eventually. Obviously, they barked up the wrong tree, just as this Mr French is doing. Has anyone ever witnessed a revolution that was painless? Bloodless? Compassionate and empathetic? Well, no, of course not! Because, revolutions never run on compassion and empathy.
The human craving for power and wealth IE riches, is unquenchable. When you have such a completely entrenched infestation of blighters, self-convinced of their superiority, nothing else can be done except complete extermination which will never happen. They really need to focus on what happened to the fascist movements during the second world war and all of its bloodletting.
Pure hatred and evil, what do you think is going to happen? When they’re done eating all of the others, they’ll start eating themselves! Very troublesome indeed!
I predict that this populism will continue its destructive run as long as our electorate hangs in at around 66%, roughly 2/3, while 1/3 don’t vote for whatever reason. Who are these folks? Don’t they realize the power they hold? Their refusal to participate in the great experiment may indeed spell doom for its continuation, as a third of the current electorate insists on following a charlatan down the path of self-destruction, but I doubt that half of our country’s eligible voters would agree.
“Regardless of how a populist movement starts, it virtually always devolves into a cesspool of corruption and spite.”
Here’s the story leaders tell to build populations of populists.
‘You are hard-working, God-fearing, intelligent people, while others are lazy, incompetent, and nowhere near as smart as you.’
That must be told repeatedly, and if the leaders are politicians, it must be packaged and broadcast to huge populations daily.
In the case of the ruling triumvirate, “others” are liberals, immigrants, Democrats, blue city and State dwellers, and those in all other countries.
As background, Republicans realized that their brand was being obsoleted by our gradual return to that of those who founded this country, beginning with FDR, and they panicked into populism as a solution.
What’s unfolded since is endlessly repeated in the story of human cultural evolution.
What story should liberal Democrats tell to return to our Constitutional roots before the lessons in power MTV are studying under Vladimir Putin make
such progress deadly?
“Had the religion of Christianity been preserved according to the ordinances of the Founder, the state and commonwealth of Christendom would have been far more united and happy than they are. Nor can there be a greater proof of its decadence than the fact that the nearer people are to the Roman Church, the head of their religion, the less religious are they.”
NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI,
The David French of the Eastern Elite is the problem with the US. Populism is EXACTLY what this country needs right now. Kudos to Trumpolini for channeling the anger while sitting down and shutting up to the Democrat Party for not. Had Hillary Clinton and the DNC not sabotaged Bernie Sanders back in 2016, we wouldn’t be here right now. It’s not that complicated, Mr. French!
Two significant revelations occurred last night: Trump proposed cutting defense spending by half, hoping that China and Russia would do the same, and Musk realized that the uniparty in Washington was full of grifters. He blamed the Democrat Party (which was very popular), but the evidence showed it was both parties, so that’s what he posted late last night.
Thanks to the Democrat Party’s work at destroying populist movements on the left, we’ll have to wait and see who picks up the torch and runs with it. David French could have enlightened his readers about the same grifting uniparty, but he writes for the NY Times. Ask Krugman how he feels about having his column and newsletter edited and his column cut at the Times.
Those two late-night announcements will bring out all the cockroaches today and should be the beginning of some serious infighting in Washington. How will both parties react, and what in the hell is our entertainment media going to do? LOL
If we had a solid fourth estate, Musk’s pronouncement would have occurred decades ago under Reagan, killing off neoliberalism before it started. Also, American workers would never have allowed the states to roll over the unions, which is the only way to combat capitalism. You know, people power or democracy.
One last note: Trump and Putin want to end Ukraine’s proxy war, and the European “leaders” are going nuts. They’ve spent the past several years doing their jobs as puppets to scare Europeans with the claim that Russia was coming for them once done with Ukraine. An absurd claim to boost NATO, and now they insist that they all be part of the peace talks with Trump and Putin. LOL
The Democrats blew their chance in 2016 thanks to Podesta/Clinton and the faux #RussiaGate, so now Trump and the MAGA populists will be in the limelight.
David French is the modern equivalent of Elizabeth Dilling. French would’ve disliked FDR.
It really isn’t Trump the upper echelon of the DNC vehemently hate, it’s populism. Something FDR was vehemently accused of spreading. Of course, the modern Democratic Party is doing what it can to move rightward and away from its populist past.
Todd, Russia could end the war in a minute by simply withdrawing from Ukraine. Let’s not pretend that Putin has no agenda and please don’t ask me to believe that he only wants to restore “democracy” in Ukraine. If that were true he would have included Ukraine in his chat with Orange Jesus (OJ).
The two of them think they will come to an agreement and the Ukrainian people will fall in line. Putin apparently didn’t learn that lesson of history. He thought this would be over in three days. We are now just ten days short of three years. Note that when this all started, the Ukrainians didn’t have the advanced weapons that NATO has provided.
Putin is now relying on North Korean troops, having gotten thousands of Russian soldiers killed. His weapons are coming from Iran and China. In the long term he won’t win, even if they do have an agreement. Ukraine has its own culture and history and the Ukrainian people are proud of it. Putin is a bully, just like OJ.
as the radio on a.m here in the dakotas died, around 1995, the ranks of corp media who bought them up,turned the average day of farm news and crop tilling top 40 songs into what we see/hear today. I was a avid listener to kfyr/wnax for their morning show, with home town comidians and such antics,that finnally went away to right wing talk about liberals and rushs bullshit spin. that was when cumilus and such were in a buying frezy to change minds. tax talk went after Sens,Dorgan/Dashel those liberals are gutting the goverment to give to the poor everything their lazy ass wants.. except the biggest accomplishments was the farm bill that saved family farms and provided the foot notes of snap etc. of course those ag checks maybe slowed for a chosen tax breaks for those who have served the markets boughtnthise radio stations (the shareholdeds)and cause this inflationary greed. tell it like it is. there is a 100 foot tall wall here in NoDak, nothing but the rising crap of trumps domain gets in.
p.s. what happened to the American Prospect.org? it went off line.
Dave Dayan was doing his job. one recent piece pointed out how the goverment would and could AI itself to run those gov offices the right is cleaning out.. zuck must be wetting his pants..
Populism is always bad thing, Todd. In 2016, I could not believe that more folks could see Bernie for what he was… a bullshit populist just like Trump (maybe with slightly better economic grounding). “Build a wall” – “Break Up Wall Street” are exactly the same nonsensical platitude. And the ONE thing Bernie people ALWAYS forget? Bernie is NOT a democrat! No one can be shocked that the Democratic Party did not support him. But I think Gil is spot on! Who are these non-voters? Why are all the post-election polls about voters (especially the polls now trying to figure out who voted for Trump)? Why even bother? They put signs on everything anyway; they are easy to spot! But WHO are the non-voters and WHY don’t they vote. Let’s exhaust that! We have to understand that.
Todd, on what planet do you live?
Those of the monied right wing were very upset with FDR’s policies, and only took a back seat when he suggested that if they fought him people would openly revolt
against them. These folks have been working (quietly)against his humane policies ever since then. That’s what the Koch brothers were, and the remaining one is, doing, assiduously.
The John Birch Society set some sickness going, or, more properly, encouraged it, and the Heritage Foundation, and others with the Koch folk kept it running.
Trump, whose training in bigotry stems back to his sick childhood, and which fell in line with his Malignant Narcissism, just came along at the right time for them. So, he who sees others as nothing but tools for his greed, became a tool for them.
He continues to demonstrate how sick and stupid he is, has picked a cabinet for the ages, as the MAGA fools in congress have shown no backbone at all, and is destroying any GREATNESS this country took into 2025.
Other than citing Ronald Reagan’s horsepoo precedent setting presidency, one can look to Mitch McConnell (and back to his work with Paul Ryan)for laying the groundwork for Trump’s surviving his first term without impeachment, and with a lying and venal SCOTUS!
The most meaningful C&W? Folk? Humorous? Serious? song you’ll ever hear.
Sorry kids. I didn’t have any intention of this happening here and now.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFqgJwgSloU/?igsh=cjB4dm1oa201N2ho
I just watched Trump issue another purge, this one of probationary federal employees in several Departments; and when was his most recent phone call with Putin?
I remembered an old Russian adage from my Russian friend Anya; “Do not stir shit with stick, it will cause stink.” Someone needs to remove that stick from Trump’s stubby fingered hands; the stink is already at suffocating levels for this entire nation.
That is not complicated at all!
Todd. How can you possibly believe that if Putin takes over Ukraine he will stop there? That idea flies in the face of all evidence. Putin is a dictator who murders opponents who threaten his stranglehold on Russia. He started the war as a step toward rebuilding the empire of the USSR. History clearly shows that power hungry dictators are never satisfied. They do not voluntarily stop grasping for more and more. The more they get, the more they want. The longer the rest of the world waits to stop him, the harder it will be.
NEVER trust a dictator.
NO other words are needed.
Great column and comments. But the populism only works when it’s one side against another. “They” are getting something they don’t deserve. “They” are getting something I need and can’t get. “They” are lazy welfare queens while I’m busting my ass all week at work. As long as there is someone else to hate on, the populists party will have someone to demonize (like the liberals/left) or another skin color, immigrant, profession (scientists), etc., etc.
We’re doomed.