Prior to Sarah Palin, both parties had an elitism problem. Now it is mostly just the Democrats.
Trump re-made the GOP with a populist message.
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| Populist |
A bi-partisan, educated elite in America had led politics in America for over a century. Party leaders, donors, and informed activists winnowed potential candidates to people thought suitable and prepared for the job of president. The result has been a bi-partisan government of comfortable elites sharing power.
This was facilitated by ideologically diverse parties, which changed with Newt Gingrich. And then John McCain put Sarah Palin on the ticket.
Sarah Palin broke the mold. She didn't have an elite background. She was blue collar and proud of it. She didn't know much, but she was comfortable with who she was. She hunted caribou from helicopters. Her children had problems. She went to five different no-name colleges. She was a plain talker. No apology.
The news networks were aghast at her ignorance and unpreparedness. Liberal elites scoffed--and the more they scoffed the more people liked Palin and disliked the condescending know-it-alls.
Obama won, but the populist fire was lit in the GOP.
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| Conservative magazine attack on Obama |
Bi-partisan elites had codes of proper behavior and thought. It included believing expressions of racial and religious prejudice to be unseemly and wrong. George W. Bush's response to the September 11 attack:
"These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith. And it's important for my fellow Americans to understand that. The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. Thats not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace."
Classy. It was the sort of thing Obama might have said.
Those words reflect a sophisticated, educated and generous view of the world--sentiments that can come from an underlying feeling of order and security in the status quo.
Classy. It was the sort of thing Obama might have said.
Those words reflect a sophisticated, educated and generous view of the world--sentiments that can come from an underlying feeling of order and security in the status quo.
A great many voters heard Bush and had a different instinct. They thought it was politically correct, prissy nonsense. It didn't reflect their thoughts at all. They disliked Muslims and were suspicious of what they might do. Screw Muslims!
Trump felt the same way.
Trump rallies are warmed up by parents of children killed by people in America illegally. The outrage! Trump generalizes this to all immigrants. So do a lot of Americans. It is statistically incorrect but emotionally on target for a great many. Screw those illegals!
It is what Archie Bunker of All in the Family show on TV in the 1970s would think. (It is what a lot of the elites think, too, but know they cannot say, lest they get into trouble with HR.)
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| Anti-elitism |
Trump is not elite. He talks about his wealth and educational credentials the way non-elites do it. He brags. He says it proves he is "really, really smart." It is vulgar. Gauche. The difference between Trump's scripted, written-for-him speech from a teleprompter, and his natural speech is obvious and profound. His natural speech is very simple and straight from the tabloids. He sounds like Archie Bunker, not Bush or Obama. Trump blasts the New York Times and Washington Post, and he should. They are elite newspapers written by elites for elites.
Anti-elitism works for Trump politically. The GOP brand has been transformed but its key constituencies are intact. By ignoring the deficit he kept the anti-tax people aboard, his dog whistles on race and gender kept the cultural conservatives aboard, and his judicial appointments kept evangelical Christians aboard. A lot of people vote Republican out of habit and they all coalesce around disliking the condescending tone of the elites of both parties, but especially liberal elites.
Cultural populism trumps economic populism.
Anti-elitism works for Trump politically. The GOP brand has been transformed but its key constituencies are intact. By ignoring the deficit he kept the anti-tax people aboard, his dog whistles on race and gender kept the cultural conservatives aboard, and his judicial appointments kept evangelical Christians aboard. A lot of people vote Republican out of habit and they all coalesce around disliking the condescending tone of the elites of both parties, but especially liberal elites.
Cultural populism trumps economic populism.
3 comments:
"Elites" is one of those pejoratives I note along with "identity politics", "class warfare", and "fake news", that allows Regressive propagandists to label their opposition and frame an absurdist debate.
While you correctly identify the issue I think you miss something important about it. Trump cultists have an inbred inferiority complex that is completely separate from the judgement they feel from those better educated and worldly than themselves. It is best expressed by the charming redneck catchphrase: "You think you're better'n me dontya"?
It's pretty easy to see that Trump has no respect for his followers as evidenced by the steady stream of lies he feeds them. He relies on their desperate need to believe they are the target of some vast conspiracy against them concocted by university professors and librarians, when in fact they are victims of generations of bad parenting and their own DNA.
Nothing says elitism like claiming your opponents are victims of bad DNA.
Merriam Webster defines elite as:
singular or plural in construction : the choice part : CREAM
"...the elite of the entertainment world."
The word has been weaponized by the right, it now means anyone with whom you disagree and who you also suspect are smarter than you. Or who have credentials, such as a PhD, a Bronze Star, anything that gives the alleged elite person legitimacy.
It is especially good at turning a policy discussion into a personal attack. You didnt have a better argument, you are part of the elite. That sort of thing.
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