Trump: Populist Nativist

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Trump doesn't fit normal Democratic-Republican categories

Trump is complicated and it gets him into trouble.  His Republican opponents are running ads saying he is apostate on some issues. 

Trump almost sounds like a liberal, a Democrat.   He wants government to work on behalf of real Americans.   He isn't "conservative."

RNC Chair Reince Priebus:  Trump is a Republican

 Trump fails to condemn Planned Parenthood completely, noting that it does "some good things."

Trump says compassionate things about people needing health care, saying he wants to replace it with "something great".   Republican orthodoxy would be that poor people should get less or zero health care because it is a consumer good to be allocated by who can pay for it.  "I don't want people dying on the streets," he said.     "Everyone has got to be covered," Trump said, saying that the government's going to be paying for it."    Rush Limbaugh blasts Trump.   The conservative position is that the government has little or no place in health care, not that it is a safety net of last resort.

Trump voters in Nevada:  stood 3 1/2 hours

Trump wants government intervention in trade policy and in financial institution regulation.   Again, Trump wants strong government to force big business to meet popular goals for the benefit of citizens. Trump is an authoritarian, not a libertarian.   Trump wants government to do big things, to build infrastructure, to win trade wars, to make America great.  (Not just free.   Great.)

Republican orthodoxy would be that government should be weak in regulation to allow business to work for the benefit of owners, and that benefit to citizens and other stakeholders trickle down.

But Trump says things that Democrats do not say aloud.   Democrats are a party of inclusion, not exclusion.

The modern Democratic Party coalition combines liberal progressives with groups that have faced special discrimination or stigmatization:  women, blacks, immigrant communities, homosexual communities, Muslims, Jews, Hispanics, Asians, the disabled, the non-religious, the unmarried, the poor, recipients of government assistance.   (This group includes an overwhelming majority of people, in once category or another.)  

It is forbidden for Democratic candidates to express xenophobic or racist or sexist sentiments.   The Democratic "brand" is inclusion and the proper tone for people in the coalition is respect, not disdain.   Trump condemns "political correctness" while Democratic candidates practice it scrupulously in public.

Trump defines "real Americans" narrowly, not broadly.   That is is populist nativism.  It excludes many people in the Democratic coalition.  He opposes most immigration and wants deportation.  He openly and freely endorses preference for white native born citizens.  He expresses triumphant disdain for the defeated.  He mocks a disabled person.    He publicly acknowledges cultural stereotypes.  He flouts international rules and norms, publicly endorsing torture.

Bottom line:   Trump is in sharp conflict with Democratic orthodoxy, but the theory for Trump's election is that Democratic candidates are out of touch with their own party.  Democratic voters may well be more nativist and xenophobic and more resentful of "political correctness" than are its national candidates.   And Trump is in sharp conflict with Republican orthodoxy, but Republican orthodoxy may be out of touch with Republican voters who in fact they don't really want small government and big business.  In fact they like government services, at least for people like themselves, and they distrust Wall Street and business elites and instead want a government that protects them from those elites.

Trump is electable as President.   It may not happen, but Trump has appeal with the voters in each party.  And this year being in opposition to party elites is a positive, not a negative.