People ask me, "What do people like about Trump?"
The list of 13 things that I as a citizen want.
This is why Trump is zooming ahead. He is at least talking about issues that most Americans are concerned about. One mantra about Trump is this: We are usually in agreement with most of what he says but wish someone else was saying it. But here is Our Special Bucket List for 2015,16....
HERE IS WHAT WE WANT..
1. Hillary: in prison!
2. Put "GOD" back in America!!!
3. Borders: Closed!
4. Congress: On the same retirement & healthcare plans as everybody else .
5. Congress: Obey its own laws NOW!
6. Language: English only!
7. Culture: Constitution and the Bill of Rights!
8. Drug Free: Mandatory Drug Screening before & during Welfare!
9. Freebies: NONE to Non-Citizens!
10. Budget: Balance the stupid thing!
11. Foreign Countries: Stop giving them our money! Charge them for our help! We need it here.
12. Fix the TAX CODE!
And most of all.
13. "RESPECT OUR MILITARY AND OUR FLAG!!"
We the people are coming!
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| Trump in New Hampshire |
And the answer is that some big group of people like his message. And as I wrote yesterday, the message has more to do with culture and in-group validation than it does with actual policy.
I got the attached message from an elderly but very vigorous friend. He is intelligent, very prosperous, and is a member of a minority Christian faith. The forwarded email expressed his excitement at how perfect was the sentiment.
I draw your attention to two elements in the letter. The first is recognition that the wonderful sentiments expressed in the letter are those voiced by Trump but wish someone else was saying it.
The second is the nature of the sentiments: most of them have to do with in-group validation. My friend is a prosperous, white, Christian, native speaker of English. He has had multiple operations and has been a heavy user of Medicare for many years, but does not consider himself to be a recipient of public benefits, and he condemns people who are. The sentiments he likes are ones ones that celebrate and validate his identity.
Trump's popularity is not a deep mystery. It is classic populist, nativist white identity politics. Trump is saying he will defend native white male Christians that he will defend them against change to their status as the "real" Americans.
Here is his email:
This is why Trump is zooming ahead. He is at least talking about issues that most Americans are concerned about. One mantra about Trump is this: We are usually in agreement with most of what he says but wish someone else was saying it. But here is Our Special Bucket List for 2015,16....
HERE IS WHAT WE WANT..
1. Hillary: in prison!
2. Put "GOD" back in America!!!
3. Borders: Closed!
4. Congress: On the same retirement & healthcare plans as everybody else .
5. Congress: Obey its own laws NOW!
6. Language: English only!
7. Culture: Constitution and the Bill of Rights!
8. Drug Free: Mandatory Drug Screening before & during Welfare!
9. Freebies: NONE to Non-Citizens!
10. Budget: Balance the stupid thing!
11. Foreign Countries: Stop giving them our money! Charge them for our help! We need it here.
12. Fix the TAX CODE!
And most of all.
13. "RESPECT OUR MILITARY AND OUR FLAG!!"
We the people are coming!
2 comments:
There is an institutional name for those 13 items on the "bucket list", for the enumerated "sentiments", for Trump's "message"-- a party platform, which as set out in the email, is concise. Several platform planks have considerable cross-party appeal. The contention that Trump is weak on "policy" also has a name-- denial. I hope we Democrats are not remembered in history as the "Trump Deniers", as the party that lost because it did little more than insult Trump's "silent majority" by dismissing with derision policy issues that should have been debated with respect.
Thanks. I hope it is clear I am not denying Trump. He has a constituency, and it is bigger than the one that loves this list. (In Reno every person I talked with focused on Trump's financial independence of big backroom backers.) But there is a unifying theme of this list: validation and celebration of white identity and culture: #2 God endorsed, #3 Borders Closed, #6 English, #7 Culture OUR founding documents, #8 Screen Welfare recipients, #9 No benefits for Non-Citizens, #13, Respect our Military and Flag. These are not elements of a policy platform, but they are a demand that the symbols he identifies be honored. When he concludes with "We the people are coming" he has an idea in mind about who constitutes "We". The list is a celebration of "We". I respect the power of this, and indeed think it is way more powerful as a political rallying point than what Hillary is doing, which is to list policy planks. Trump is doing an extraordinary job. But his great strength--speaking clearly--has a vulnerability, which is that in-your-face comments are harder to ignore and re-interpret and sometimes he says things which even his fans are uncomfortable with.
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