The narrative that Donald Trump was campaigning as a populist was a media creation that group-think cauterized. But the reality was that Trump was always pushing extreme Republicanism with a facade the media refused to unmask.
A few writers understood that Trump was never a populist but just a chameleon who effectively fooled many Americans and used the gullible media. Now the media are running stories like “As Trump Drifts Away From Populism, His Supporters Grow Watchful” and “Trump’s no populist. He’s a swamp monster.” And yes, it is true that his voters are becoming concerned. But some are starting to bolt from the Trump train.
This morning an article by Mark Sumner titled “Trump is not ‘slipping away’ from populism, he was never there, to begin with,” hit the nail on the head. He points out that Trump was never a populist nor did he, campaign that way. He cloaked extreme Republicanism in a faux populist veil. Sumner wrote the following.
But though populism provided a neat—and extremely affirmative—label, there was never much resemblance between what Trump was proposing and that of historically populist figures like Huey Long or William Jennings Bryan. Yes, Trump captured a large following in rural areas and successfully attacked the concept of an “elite” of academics and environmentalists, but that’s not a populist position. That’s a Republican position, one that’s been built up over decades of talk radio, Fox News, and Tea Party rallies. Despite some fist-waving at corporations that move out of the nation—rhetoric that has led to exactly no action—Trump’s message was strongly pro-corporate, fiercely anti-government, and heavily racist. Completely Republican.
Sumner went further.
The idea that Donald Trump doesn’t fit within the traditional Republican Party only strikes those who haven’t been able to keep up with the race Republicans have made toward the extreme, and more extreme, and extremely extreme right.
He went on to enumerate Trump’s policies and show that they have always been an extreme form of the Republican policies that were ever present.
Trump’s positions on the environment aren’t un-Republican, they’re the most extreme Republican positions lifted straight from that party’s most oil-drenched ranks. His climate denial was already there, at the heart of the party. The mythology of the EPA as job-destroyer was already there, at the heart of the party. He’s just raising a banner others were already holding.
Trump’s positions on economic regulations aren’t un-Republican, they’re the most extreme Republican positions, taken straight from the party’s corporate center. The destruction of worker rights is a lifetime project of the Republican Party. The elimination of safety rules was a goal of George W. Bush. Trump’s policies are nothing but Reagan’s trickle-down—with little in the way of updates.
Trump’s positions on racism aren’t un-Republican. Throwing obstacles in the way of black and brown voters isn’t Trump’s idea, it’s been at the center of the Republican power plan through cycle after cycle. Gerrymandering minorities to restrict their power has been a project Republicans have worked at diligently year after year, in state after state. Treating immigrants as threatening others isn’t Trump’s idea—there have been at least forty years of Republicans building more-nationalist-than-the-last-guy platforms.
Trump isn’t coming home to the Republican Party. He is the Republican Party. He has been from the beginning.
Sumner also points out that the bravado that Trump likes to exhibit in foreign relations is nothing more than the stance of Republican militaristic orthodoxy with a flare. He ends his article pointing out that Trump was never a populist and then called out the media for being slow in acknowledging reality.
Trump hasn’t ceased to be a populist. He was never a populist. Those issues where he has “drifted” from campaign positions, are simply places where it’s taken Trump more time to settle into the slot he’s already taken on everything else—at the most extreme, right-wing position. The modern Republican position. His policy on immigration is not one whit less severe or racist. His policy on the environment not one pipeline less aggressively destructive. His policy on the economy not one dime less self-serving and directed at benefiting the wealthy. He’s not moderating. Just more clearly than ever what he always was.
Donald Trump is where he started—at the head of a party designed and directed at helping people like Donald Trump. It’s just taken some pundits an astoundingly long time to notice.
Read the entire article. Sumner brings it all together perfectly.
