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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumsthe media's Both Sides Olympics: Good Grief, New York Times -- Trump Is Not a 'Populist' like Warren
Good Grief, New York Times Trump Is Not a 'Populist' like Warren
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/node/86626
Signaling that it's going to work hard to elevate Donald Trump during the upcoming presidential campaign, The New York Times recently suggested that Trump and Elizabeth Warren are politically similar because both offer up a version of "populism." They just do it from different perspectives, the article posited. Specifically, the Times dissected speeches that each gave on the same day last week. "The two back-to-back addresses laid out the competing versions of populism that could come to define the presidential campaign," the newspaper noted.
This is wildly misguided. It's also a continuation of the medias Both Sides Olympics, and represents a depressing preview of 2020 coverage, where journalists scramble to make sure Trump and whoever the Democratic nominee is appear to be somewhat similar, or at least of similar stature. (The Times is not alone on this: "Trump v Warren rallies preview possible 2020 populist duel," read a BBC headline last week.)
The truth is, populist serves as a crutch. And when its used today, the identifier represents a lazy shorthand used to describe Trumps grab bag of often-contradictory political positions. Words matter, which is why journalists should be reaching for "nativist," "white nationalist," and "authoritarian"not "populist"when identifying Trump.
Yet "populist" persists. And in the unfolding campaign scenario, that means elevating Trump, a congenital liar, a racist, and someone with questionable mental stability, to the same status as Elizabeth Warren, a U.S. senator and a Harvard Law School professor. It's a concerted effort to pretend that Trump is a serious person like Warren, and has given lots of thought to his political philosophy in terms of a populist agenda. In other words, it's a complete fantasy. But it's one the press is very comfortable promoting. In fact, it's one the press must promote during the upcoming 2020 campaign in order to continue its long-running pattern of trying to normalize Trump's behavior. (The seemingly impossible alternative is to aggressively call out Trump's radical and unsettling behavior.)
Reminder: Populism represents a political struggle on behalf of regular people against elite economic forces. It's an ideology that pits ordinary people against a self-serving elite, appealing to a sense that the political establishment has grown corrupt and unresponsive to the needs of everyday people. Today, Trumps brand of pro-corporate, anti-worker politics represents the exact opposite.
Indeed, "populist" and "economic anxiety" were two of the media's biggest Trump cons of the 2016 campaign. Trumps alleged populism enticed the press and provided journalists with an acceptable, nonthreatening way to address his primary and general election successes. It was a way to downplay white nationalism, race-baiting, and sexism as the driving forces of his campaign.
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Contrast that with Warren's aggressively populist plans to curb the power of the big banks, big pharma, big oil, and the increasingly monopolistic tech companies. Indeed, she's running on one of the most aggressively populist agendas in recent American presidential history. Looking at Trump and Warren side-by-side, it's comical to even pretend that Trump falls under the "populist" umbrella the way Warren does. But I guarantee you, Trump's "populism" will be a driving force of the media's campaign narrative over the next 14 months.
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Cracklin Charlie
(12,904 posts)By pretending not to see what is so painfully obvious.
Reporting propaganda as fact makes all other reporting suspect.
DURHAM D
(32,617 posts)Chyrons on my tv - Democrats are putting party over country.
at140
(6,110 posts)He favors giving huge tax cuts to the top 10%. The bottom 50% are scraping the bottom with low pay, and low benefits. But lots of people are employed (at low wages), so NYT thinks that is populism.
Mike 03
(16,616 posts)He captured the Rust Belt by appealing to the idea he could help people who felt left behind, but he actually did nothing for them; if anything, he made their situation worse. But they are sticking with him.
TheRealNorth
(9,500 posts)WI Republicans realized it in the mid-2000's and that is ultimately how they were able to take control of the state in 2010 (along with the tea party wave).
Reince Priebus then exported the strategy to the rest of the country.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,475 posts)his campaign and governing.
Populism relies on the idea that only certain kinds of people are "real" or "ordinary," and while the definition depends on a variety of things (including one's own identity), as a result it relies on some people being "others." As a stand-alone political ideology, it's vague, tricky and poorly defined; as a frame or flavor on other ideologies, it ultimately ends up diluting them. In any case, neither party and no ideology has a lock on it.
kcr
(15,320 posts)If you concede that populism is poorly defined and no single party has a lock on it, then how does it follow that all populist politicians regardless of party affiliation are the same?
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,475 posts)Specifically, what I'm saying is that this article isn't defining populism well so it can make a point.
rampartc
(5,452 posts)the signature issue of the populists was opposition to the gold standard.
trump is a multinational corporation wrapped in a big red tie. anything resembling "populism" that spews from his blow hole is just part of the kayfabe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayfabe
mathematic
(1,440 posts)Right wing populism and left wing populism are both things. The opinion piece you link tries to redefine populism into something it's not.
Left wing populists love to pretend that populism is always and ever a force for good. Complete nonsense. If I, a liberal democrat, that proudly wears the label "liberal" has to deal with people mistaking liberalism with "neo-liberalism" (which is Reagan's take on liberalism) then you, a populist, need to do the same with Trump's right wing populism.