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Trump and ‘Revolt on the Right’
The Trump electoral campaign has many of the features of a Latin American
nationalist-populist movement. Like the Argentine Peronist movement, it
combines protectionist, nationalist economic measures that appeal to small
and medium size manufacturers and displaced industrial workers with populist
right-wing ‘great nation chauvinism’.
This is reflected in Trumps’ attacks on ‘globalization’ - a proxy for
Peronist ‘anti-imperialism’.
Trump’s attack on the Muslim minority in the US is a thinly veiled embrace
of rightwing clerical fascism.
Where Peron campaigned against ‘financial oligarchies’ and the invasion of
‘foreign ideologies’, Trump scorns the ‘elites’ and denounces the ‘
invasion’ of Mexican immigrants.
Trump’s appeal is rooted in the deep amorphous anger of the downwardly
mobile middle class, which has no ideology . . . but plenty of resentment at
its declining status, crumbling stability and drug-afflicted families (
Witness the overtly expressed concerns of white voters in the recent New
Hampshire primary).
Trump projects personal power to workers who bridle under impotent trade
unions, disorganized civic groups, and marginalized local business
associations, all unable to counter the pillage, power and large-scale
corruption of the financial swindlers who rotate between Washington and Wall
Street with total impunity.
These ‘populist’ classes get vicarious thrills from the spectacle of Trump
snapping and slapping career politicians and economic elites alike, even as
he parades his capitalist success.
They prize his symbolic defiance of the political elite as he flaunts his
own capitalist elite credentials.
For many of his suburban backers he is the ‘Great Moralizer’, who in his
excess zeal, occasionally, commits ‘pardonable’ gaffes out of zealous
exuberance – a crude ‘Oliver Cromwell’ for the 21st Century.
Indeed, there also may be a less overt ethno-religious appeal to Trump’s
campaign: His white-Anglo-Saxon Protestant identity appeals to these same
voters in the face of their apparent marginalization. These ‘Trumpistas’
are not blind to the fact that not a single WASP judge sits on the Supreme
Court and there are few, if any, WASPs among the top economic officials in
Treasury, Commerce, or the Fed (Lew, Fischer, Yellen, Greenspan, Bernacke,
Cohen, Pritzker etc.). While Trump is not up-front about his identity – it
eases his voter appeal.
Among WASP voters, who quietly resent the ‘Wall Street’ bailouts and the
perceived privileged position of Catholics, Jews and African-Americans in
the Obama Administration, Trump’s direct, public condemnation of President
Bush for deliberately misleading the nation into invading Iraq (and the
implication of treason), has been a big plus.
Trump’s national-populist appeal is matched by his bellicose militarism and
thuggish authoritarianism. His public embrace of torture and police state
controls (to ‘fight terrorism’) appeals to the pro- military right. On the
other hand, his friendly overtures to Russian President Putin (’one tough
guy willing to face another’) and his support to end the Cuban embargo
appeals to trade-minded business elites. His calls to withdraw US troops
from Europe and Asia appeals to ‘fortress America’ voters, while his calls
to ‘carpet bomb’ ISIS appeals to the nuclear extremists. Interestingly,
Trump’s support for Social Security and Medicare, as well as his call for
medical coverage for the indigent and his open acknowledgement of Planned
Parenthood’s vital services to poor women, appeals to older citizens,
compassionate conservatives and independents.
Trump’s left-right amalgam: Protectionist and pro-business appeals, his
anti-Wall Street and pro-industrial capitalism proposals, his defense of US
workers and attacks on Latino workers and Muslim immigrants have broken the
traditional boundaries between popular and rightwing politics of the
Republican Party.
‘Trumpism’ is not a coherent ideology, but a volatile mix of ‘improvised
positions’, adapted to appeal to marginalized workers, resentful middle
classes (marginalized WASPs) and, above all, to those who feel unrepresented
by Wall Street Republicans and liberal Democratic politicians based on
identity politics (black, Hispanic, women and Jews).
Trump’s movement is based on a cult of the personality: it has enormous
capacity to convoke mass meetings without mass organization or a coherent
social ideology.
Its fundamental strength is its spontaneity, novelty and hostile focus on
strategic elites.
Its strategic weakness is the lack of an organization that can be sustained
after the electoral process. There are few ‘Trumpista’ cadres and
militants among his adoring fans. If Trump loses (or is cheated out of the
nomination by a ‘unity candidate’ trotted out by the Party elite) his
organization will dissipate and fragment. If Trump wins the Republican
nomination he will draw support from Wall Street, especially if faced with a
Sanders Democratic candidacy. If he wins the general election and becomes
President, he will seek to strengthen executive power and move toward a ‘
Bonapartist’ presidency. |
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