Trump has a very long history of neglecting, abandoning and ultimately screwing people who did right by him and helped him in business. Not without very good reason, he has been labeled a con artist, promising the sky and the moon to his customers while delivering condescending abuse and worse.
Now he's doing it to his political supporters while undermining the fundamental principles of American democracy. This isn't populism, and it isn't what his supporters signed on for. It's self-aggrandizing, self-serving and self-promotion by Trump, his acolytes and his family.
America deserves far better, but only roughly half of the country seems to realize it. The rest are too stubborn or too blind to admit it.
66
Trump is a lucky man. He is that kid, a bully and a loudmouth, teachers and classmates had to endure. Likely he picked on nonwhites then, too. He's all grown up now and he cheated his way to the Presidency. To have destroyed so much, for so many years, and yet still be in the game is adequate proof of his luck. That his foreign creditors, to whom he owes so much, have not hurt him, badly, for his failure to pay his debts counts among his 'lucky breaks.' Oh, right - US citizens will pay his debts for him. It's always been this way for him. His US fans love that he throws them bones regularly by giving voice to their worst selves. How bracing that must feel! He emboldens the worst among us.
36
A Grifter, a Con Man -
Eventually, a squeal to the movie The Sting will be made.
However the Mark in The Sting 2 will have been our democracy.
19
At his core, Trump is a con man because he fundamentally needs to distract the world from his inherent failings of character.
He never laughs, never displays a sense of humor. Unless it is to acknowledge that, for example, the "sick" plan to dump asylum seekers in blue cities was his own.
That's a real knee-slapper. This man is not well, mentally or emotionally, and never has been from Day One. That's why he doesn't sleep, plays and cheats incessantly at golf, and excels at third-grade insults.
34
"...Trump isn't a populist, unless we redefine populism as nothing but a synonym for racism."
Remember when Trump won the GOP nomination, but was not expected to win the presidency? There was a lot of discussion about how the Republican Party had brought about their own demise. Trump was the so-called southern strategy writ large, taken to a disastrous extreme.
People identify their interests around more than simply economic issues. White people who feel threatened by a loss of status are capable of voting again for Trump, even realizing clearly that he is not a populist and will do nothing for them economically.
They know he is a racist, and that will do.
38
Trump’s “base” responds to the “in their face” pep assemblies and the opportunity to buy the $40 red hat, because, like a TV sitcom, no reading, thinking, or research is required. Trump will tell them everything they need to know which, the party line, right or wrong, reinforces what they already believe. Cspan? Ha. Not when there’s Hannity, Carlson, Dobbs, Laura, Jeannine, and a cast of several to reinforce the Trump “message”, whatever it is on any given day. The oxygen tent of unreality is a great place to be, when the alternative is a fact based world that requires analysis and reason.
9
I have been waiting for some journalist to discover that populism is not the same thing everywhere it raises its head, and it isn't all resurgent fascism.
We equate Brexit with populism for the same reason that we equate Trump with Brexit. They are not even remotely similar. It Hillary Clinton had been able to perceive the difference, she would be president today.
Fortunately, a couple Democratic candidates appear to understand the difference.
5
It is easy to fool people that would rather hear lies than face the grim reality that they have been exploited or misled are aging and have no savings for retirement.
Like a bunch a free falling people with no parachutes ready to sell their souls for the promise of a parachute before they hit the ground.
Ironically, the fact that the people saying they will restore opportunities for a good life (working until 80 may be?) are the same breed that took their financial safety net away by cutting unions and pensions, shifting jobs oversees to concentrate profits in fewer hands,... seems to be missed by most.
The pro-wall street democrats are not innocent in this either, so the anti establishment feeling runs deep, that how Trump won in 2016 and things are only getting worse.
It is good to hear more discussion of wealth gap in the current democrat campaign, but it should not just be discussed in the context of race, it should be discussed in the context of age, education, location and grapple with the fact the system of self funding of a large fraction of retirement is not sustainable for 90% of the population.
So, my point is Trump is a symptom of a much larger problem of a somewhat schizophrenic society that know it's living a lie but refuses to confront reality.
Change is coming, we need to plan a transition out of an unsustainable system that waste resources, destroy our environment and keep people scared. Taking money out of politics would be a first step.
13
That is very true that many POTUS supporters are poorly educated people. We can see the way he gained huge supporters on Twitter. Nevertheless, we need to also understand that President Trump knows what the people'' The poorly educated Americans'' want to hear. He was able to hook them with some sensitive topics like illegal immigration, Tax cuts, Trade deficits blah blah blah and these problems don't really have a realistic solution but could be mitigated. He keeps funding the losers of his trade war ''The soybeans farmer in places like Iowa'' because he wanted to keep gaining their trust.
2
When someone votes for Trump even though it goes against their interests, it can only be explained by some other motivation such as tribalism or racism.
The electorate could be forgiven for the first election, but if Trump gets elected again, you will see some major rifts occur in the World.....stay tuned !.....even better: Vote !
11
American political parlance is poisoned. Historically (and the media enables this), "populist" is seen as somehow a bad thing, largely because the ones who get painted as such are demagogues.
However, since Trump lost the popular vote, can he be said to be a populist? What are the ideas he espouses that are considered popular with the populace? Populism shouldn't framed as synonymous with bigotry.
Given that the GOP is relying on voter suppression, rampant lying, and gerrymandering to hold onto power against the popular tide of voters against them, it can be said confidently that the GOP isn't a populist political party.
That said, are the Democrats willing to step out of their focus groups, identity politicking, and fealty to Wall Street to campaign around an honest populism? It would be the kind of legitimate change election that could get the US into the 21st century, instead of faceplanting back into the 18th (where the GOP wants to take us).
Such honest populism would require political courage, and while we're seeing it with Sanders and Warren, it peters out after that. Corporate Democrats fear honest populism, even as Republicans cynically manipulate it for their own ends.
It just highlights how much of our political process is (currently) locked down by the top 1%, who are far overrepresented in government. Look up the NYT article on the thwarting of the supermajority, and the story about which Democrats are favorites of Wall Street.
7
Trump only got worse over the years. Still, everyone refers to his base as "Conservatives". That only emboldens him and his administration. Begin calling them what they have become, not what they once were; they are fascists.
17
Trump is a populist because his self-aggrandizing lies are a matter of routine. However - unlike Trump - most populists haven't been coddled and pampered so much that they don't even know how to drive a car.
1
Is it because Populists have to have at least one other concern besides themselves?
3
Recently, I feel as a lonely voice amongst the commenters in the New York Times. But I persist in the hope that the "woke" will actually wake up and realize the result of their performative, self-righteous scolding.
The most popular slur on the left for quite some time has been the pejorative, "racist." I am older, and while I still see many people who would actually meet the definition of the term, "A person who believes a particular race is superior to others," I also see that there are fewer people who think that way, and that the acceptance of and opportunities for people of color and other of the past dispossessed (e.g. immigrants, LGBTQ, etc.) is greater than that at any earlier time in my lifetime. Sometimes, it is important to acknowledge and celebrate progress, while acknowledging that it is imperfect and incomplete.
Instead, to quote David Brooks in his most recent column,
"These days many people seem to think that the way to prove virtue is by denouncing and shunning, not through mercy and rigorous forgiveness."
So the left beats people over the head with "white privilege" as a latter day form of original sin. That privilege is pretty hard for a lot of white people to feel in, say, a small town in Ohio riven with opioids. Then the left wonders how someone like Donald Trump could be elected president.
To address the real problems of which Krugman writes, try to act like we are all in this together, which, by the way, we are!
Lose the identity politics!
19
@D I Shaw,
To quote you, "That privilege is pretty hard for a lot of white people to feel in, say, a small town in Ohio riven with opioids."
Hmm. However, any of the black people in that small town in Ohio riven with opioids, who were using opioids, for probably the same reasons that the white people are, are now more likely than not, serving time. Drug abuse only really became a compassionate concern when large numbers of white drug addicts started showing up, and the powers that be realized that the standard methods aren't working.
How's that for your "white privilege"?
I agree with you, though: We are all in this together.
16
@D I Shaw
I cannot work out who "the left" are. If I knew that then I could work out if I am one of them.
I would add that that you hardly have to have a political 'identity' to wonder how Trump became President. Many millions of people the world over have been wondering these past two years.
12
@D I Shaw - yes, there are a lot of people who are Squeezed (read Alissa Quart's book) and that includes the white folks that are repeatedly brought to a boil by the POTUS' dog-whistle politics. And even though the plethora of Democrat 2020 hopefuls are focusing on policy issues and not identity politics, they will have to contend with an incumbent who persists with his dog-whistle game. And, these Squeezed folks will follow him once more - their outrage stoked again by the master showman. As they say, "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" - but they have no understanding much less any shame.
12
"Why Isn’t Trump a Real Populist?"
OK, Paul, I give up - why? Really, though, it doesn't matter how you classify Trump because you're going to discredit anything he says or does anyway.
"It’s alarmingly easy to envision the U.S. going the same way, and very soon: If Trump is re-elected next year, that could mark the end of America’s democratic experiment."
Another "we're all doomed if Trump is elected/re-elected" comment. Please, Paul, elaborate how the "democratic experiment" will end. As far as I can tell, we're pretty far from the founder's intent of what this country was supposed to be. America is not in this place socially, economically and politically solely because of Trump. It has taken decades. But for some reason Paul you are either unable or unwilling to acknowledge that.
4
Trump shows that economics is not as important to a large group of people as believed. Bigotry can be used to overcome economic self-interest.
9
@ Daniel A. Greenbaum
Trump is only the latest example of this strategy, which had worked for the Republican Party (and, not coincidentally, for the capitalist class) for decades.
11
Trump is not betraying his base in non-economic matters. He clearly supports racism and xenophobia and has made it a priority to appoint anti-abortion judges. These social issues are what increase turnout of the hard-core non-plutocratic Republican base. Many independent and even Democratic voters may have turned to Trump because they did not view either party establishment as representing their economic interests. Republicans have won election for the last 50+ years by diverting attention from economic issues to the "social" issues, exploiting bigotry of various kinds. Trying to win on those non-economic issues is playing into the hands of Republicans, not just Trump. There should be no appeasement on social issues but Democrats will only attain majorities adequate for needed reforms by emphasizing economic issues. They must promise definite measures to reduce inequality and provide needed services such as healthcare, rather than chasing big-money donations.
6
I don't think "betray the base" is unique to one party. Hilary ran on a loud platform of "reform and improve education" which I have heard in every election and I am 60 years old. Education has gotten worse my entire life. I went to a public school in the 60s, 70s where the graduation rate was well over 95% and the literacy rate (e.g. reading at 9th or 10th grade) must also have been well, well over 90%. After 50 years of promises to improve education it is 5X as costly in constant dollars and the graduation rate is 50% and half the graduates can't read. So much for Promise To The Base of either party ever four years for decades on end.
2
@Bruce Quinn
Bill Clinton 1993 - 2001 (until the end of January):
Enacted Goals 2000 which implemented higher standards in core subjects.
Title 1 funds to high poverty schools were increased.
Initiative to repair America's public schools - 1.2 billion for urgent school renovation, starting with Native American schools. Communities helped with hiring higher-quality teachers and reducing class sizes.
The "Technology Literacy Challenge Fund" related to investments in advancing technology in public schools and libraries, i.e., computers which were considered at that time to be a high luxury item.
"Gear Up" program, a nationwide college prep program helping low-income children finish high school and prepare for college.
Do you seriously have a problem with that?
6
The myth of nationality is based on the belief, or half-belief, that Americans are all, in some sense, one big family, and that we therefore trust, care for, and love each other. And the simple, sad fact is that most people, myself included, have a hard time seeing people of other skin colors or cultures as members of our "family." There was a time when even a difference in religion or sect made it hard to do so, and some still find that difficult, especially in the case of Muslims. Some degree of racial prejudice, although deplorable, is universal, and remains a challenge even to us Americans, despite the fact that we are such a patchwork quilt of different races, cultures, and religions. We are far from the "one nation, indivisible" that we aspire to be. But we are trying.
2
"As if to symbolize who he’s really working for, on Wednesday Trump will give a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Art Laffer, best known for insisting that tax cuts for the wealthy pay for themselves."
Isn't that the economist who is known for giving us the Laffer Curve? Or was that the "Laugh-er Curve" named for its comic disassociation from reality?
9
As Dr. Krugman points out, Donald Trump appears to enjoy hurting those who have supported him. So much so that, taking account also of his narcissism that makes it hard for him to concentrate on other people who aren't actively upsetting him, it's extremely hard to imagine him agreeing to anything that would help ordinary white people, much less ordinary people in general. There may be occasional talk of populist actions, but I can't imagine the actions being carried out.
4
The open question is whether, and when, significant numbers of DT supporters will figure out that you can't buy food, health care, education, or decent housing with whiteness. Or maybe they have found some way to survive on whiteness alone.
8
It would make sense for Trump to throw some economic benefits to his base before the election and I expect him to do so. If not it’s hard to envision another term.
4
From the Washington Post, this is Trump's version of throwing his base a bone, planned for next week:
"In tweets, President Trump appeared to reference a plan to round up thousands of migrant parents and children in a blitz operation across major U.S. cities."
Inhumanity is the only issue he has left, although he appears to be pulling the wool over the eyes of the "poorly educated" on tax cuts for the rich and the despoiling public lands, too.
11
This column really doesn't understand populism nor Trump's base, which was among the less educated but was fairly even across social classes by occupational status and income.
To conclude that Trump isn't a populist is plain silly.
1
@Pippa
Your comment makes no sense. Level of education correlates extremely well with social class, occupational status, and income.
4
Were he to attempt to sing musical scales, his song would consist of only 2 notes: "do" and "me". That's all trump is about.
4
Trump lost the popular vote in 2016. Remember! Not by a few hundred thousand like Nixon did in 1960, he lost by 3 million votes. And what about that firewall the Clinton team was relying on? He won Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin by 1% of the vote or less. His approval numbers are +10% lower than his disapproval numbers. Republican commentators and intellectuals have abandoned him long ago. He won the election in 2016 with the help of the Electoral College because an unusually large number of independent and Democratic voters who did not like Clinton either voted for a minor party or stayed home, some thinking he would never win.
Unless the Democrats chose Robespierre or someone with higher disapproval numbers that he, he will lose and if we are lucky he will lose big. Why do you think there are so many Democrats running for the nomination? Because at this point anyone should beat Trump handily.
What is left of Trump's support is a minority of voters who do think government has any role in promoting the welfare of the people and die hard Republicans who would even vote for Robespierre because they want low taxes, high walls and conservative judges.
Relax, Trump is a loser as President and will be a big loser as a candidate for reelection in 2020.
3
Paul,
Maybe, we're overthinking this. Tony Schwartz, co-author of THE ART OF THE DEAL, was interviewed by Chris Hayes last night, and he described the Trump he has known for 30 years. This Trump has always been arrogant, self centered and dishonest, but, when Hayes asked if he had seen any (mental) decline, Schwartz replied, "significant".
So what seems to be a betrayal of his base maybe is just his inability to think through political strategy. Maybe we should be thinking about removing the man from office, not for criminality, but for mental incapacity - invoking the 25th Amendment. Because, as the title of the book by another man who has known Trump a long time, David Cay Johnston, IT'S EVEN WORSE THAN YOU THINK.
8
You're making the mistake of thinking that Trump still has the brain power left for complex strategy. He doesn't.
It's all about himself and short-term gain. That's why lying is so useful to him. Sure, he'll get caught by those who care, but by then the moment has passed and he's on to the next thing. When he sees his adoring crowds, he doesn't think, "How much do I have to do for them?" He thinks, "I'm really great."
As to why he's gotten away with it so long, I suspect it has to do with why people send more repeated payments to Nigerian princes.
7
trump is a barbarian who like to kick over some norm of government or society everyday. People who don't believe the government has done much for "them" (most people) liked watching those in power taking abuse. The daily turmoil is something to watch and cheer on.
However, very few of us can take years of emotional and economic gyrations and eventually people want to settle down to a predictable life and some security. When that time comes trump will be history, and Fox will need to find some other "never ending tale" to try and preserve ratings.
Hopefully the loss of interest in trump will start before this year is out.
5
Art Laffer receiving the medal of freedom is a disgrace. No one has done more to destroy honest political discourse on taxes or fiscal policy than Art Laffer. His hypothesis has been proven false consistently over the four decades he's been promoting, most recently in Kansas and with most recent federal tax cuts. So the medal of freedom will be given to someone that has stubbornly ignored all evidence and stuck to a failed hypothesis simply because it gives republicans a talking point that they need when tax cut time comes around.
11
Trump is a liar. He identified something that the marks wanted, he offered it, they believed him, and he reneged. This is not a surprise to those of us who watched in disbelief as a few key states turned red in 2016.
If we can get rid of him in 2020, and whoever replaces him can actually do something to help the lower middle classes of every color, this experiment with democracy might actually survive intact. If not, his replacement is waiting and watching, and will surely learn from his mistakes.
3
Another aspect that you are missing is power. Trump may not be delivering on his promises or giving anything meaningful to his base, but his base feels as if he is and they also feel that they have defeated liberals. Simply defeating liberals is all that many Trump voters want. Trump might be an incompetent, lying jerk, but he's their incompetent, lying jerk and they don't want to give him up. That is probably the primary motivation for Trump supporters to stick with him, and nothing he does, no matter how idiotic, un-American, or criminal will sway their vote. Yes, this is quite sad. Sad for them, sad for us and sad for this rapidly deteriorating country.
12
I was pretty angry when HRC made her fateful (and fatal) joke about the "Basket of Deplorables". I knew immediately that it was a symptom of the Left's arrogance and incapacity and that that it could spark a rage-filled backlash never seen before. At that time, I felt sympathy for the people she maligned (though never planned on voting for Trump). No more. Their mindless self-destruction has been relentless, and Trump has been right there to help it along. Their beloved "Way of Life" is dead, it just hasn't fallen down yet.
4
Everyone in the world, in Trump's destructive, dictatorially centered imagination, sloppy strivings, seem no more than props on a stage built exclusively for him by his Grandfather, father and Roy Cohn. This is what worries me most concerning the welfare of our country, democracy, and yes, our farmers, and in general, his "base" of followers, that he was, throughout his gilded history, and is in the present, ruthlessly programmed to expend with, or worst case, destroy, any who crack open their door of vulnerability to him. " I like the uneducated." Of course he," likes the uneducated, " as props and, potential prey. Trump is offering no respect when he makes this pronouncement.
5
Yes.
But there's Russia. We still don't know what they did inside Florida voting machines in 2016, and what they've advanced to now.
What happened in 2016 has not been properly investigated, and that worries me for 2020.
5
You're positing about Trump, the populit, betraying his base, Dr. Paul? You're correct that nothing Trump can say or do, has said or done, has alienated his poorly educated loyalists and enablers and red MAGA golf-cap wearers.
How can a member of the 1% richest people in America be a populist? When Donald Trump is re-elected, if he is re-elected, if he isn't impeached by the tidal wave of anti-trumpers leaning toward impeachment more every day, then yes, our United States of America's precious Experiment in Democracy will be dashed like fragile eggs falling off a brick wall.
3
The GOP wrote the 2017 tax cut for Trump. They threw everything and the kitchen sink to stimulate the economy. Trump did the deregulation of the EPA for his cronies which stimulated the economy even more. Of course the vastly largest proportion of gain from the economy went to the most wealthy. As they play a Hubble constant on the economy the richer they get the farther away from everybody else they become. A more pernicious act of misgovernment is hard to find. The stock market has reached the Ponzi level again for the Goldman Sacs of the world to short sell. Trump is a plutocrat and he and his family have hugely benefitted from the tax cut and the trappings of power. His populism was based on his ability to focus anger and hatred at the decline of white middle class on the strange notion that minorities and immigrants were benefitting at their expense. Big gov't elitists were purposely benefitting their clients at white peoples expense. The myth has been used time and again. Reagan famously blamed all the problems faced by loyal deserving citizens was caused by big gov't.
5
"Trump’s whole career shows him to be the kind of man who, if anything, takes pleasure in taking advantage of people who trusted him."
Textbook definition of a con man.
But as long as he keeps blaming things on immigrants, uneducated whites will continue to support him.
7
A lot of Trump voters just want to blow up the system and to them he has done extremely well. He also insults liberals with ease, much to their liking.
The ignorant believe in Republicanism because they have the thought process that all government is bad and that taxation is tantamount to stealing.
The ignorant really don't realize they are being used and denied benefits that could be theirs.
The ignorant are most likely to be racist, homophobic and xenophobic. In this Trump plays to their fears.
The ignorant are more apt to trust emotions than logic. Trump knows this and uses it.
The ignorant are mainly concentrated in the rural areas and they tend to be fairly homogeneous on their beliefs (see above).
The ignorant are just being used; not even knowing it.
To the religious right, Trump has installed a conservative court; ready to strike down Roe-v-Wade. I'd also like to say that this religious right is unaware of the Party of Death's overall feeling about life (war, arms sales, executions, incarcerations, ending welfare programs and you could go on).
To the poor, Trump is the devil. To the rich he's a "god." To the religious zealots he is "Cyrus" where the means justify the ends. To me a money-launderer and a serial liar; a man-child prone to fits.
One thing I take after what I have read and seen of this President is the need for a comprehensive reform package passed into law. Trump has at least shown us the fault lines in our democracy.
13
"unless we redefine populism as nothing but a synonym for racism"
That's the kicker!
4
Trump has pulled off one of the most successful, massive con jobs in American history. Barnum and Bailey had nothing on him. So what's the big deal with Trump conning the American voters? Just an ordinary day for him.
He promised we'd have health care for all, it would be far better and cheaper.......not happening.
He promised to build a big, beautiful wall at the southern border and have Mexico pay for it......not happening. Instead, he is sticking the military with the bill and building far less of it.
He promised to raise taxes on the rich......not happening.
Bring back coal? No.
Jobs to middle America? General Motors and Ford are cutting their workforces, making their individual decisions about what is best for their companies.
One of Trump's biggest con jobs was his on-going efforts to suppress information about his failures and inflate reports of his personal wealth over his 40+ years as a business promoter. The details were laid out in a Washington Post article: https://tinyurl.com/y36n3hf6
The BIG LIE he told during the campaign was that he got only a 1 million dollar loan from his father to start in business. Instead, the Times found he had gotten more than 400 million in loans and other transfers from his father's businesses, including being given a huge salary while still a small child.
There is no end to what such a massive con job can accomplish. The MAGA hats don't want to know because they would have to accept that they, too, were conned by Trump.
6
Some thoughts:
Namely--the troubling similarities between 1930's Nazism and early twenty first century Trumpism.
A retiring U.S. Senator (Republican) pointed out the "tribal" allegiance paid to Mr. Trump from his followers.
"Tribal." That word disquiets me.
And then--those Trump rallies. With all that bitterness--that anger--that sense of latent physical violence.
What's my point?
The point is--
--the real THRILL of supporting this man. The real THRILL of "letting it all out." The real THRILL (and I have read this) of "pulling down the system." "Wrecking the institutions." "Sticking it to the man."
The real THRILL of saying things--and, at least, dreaming of things--you're not SUPPOSED to say. Or dream of doing.
The Germans had a phrase--das innere Schweinhund. Untranslatable. "The inner beast." "The inner swine."
It wants to get out. Just a little. Now and then.
I think, for the "base" Mr. Trump is so habitually "sticking it to"--the pleasure (deep down) is worth it. Okay, he hasn't done much of what he said he would do.
So what?
The pleasure of shrieking "Build that wall!"--the pleasure of shrieking, "Lock her up!"--the pleasure of shrieking, "Tell the truth!"--
--that pleasure must be cathartic. Orgiastic. Worth all the lies, all the broken promises.
As at one of those infamous Nuremberg rallies so many years ago.
These are dark times.
I pray God (sometime or other) the light dawns--
--on these United States.
12
What? I always thought "populism" was a synonym for racism and am irritated at news media for not understanding that. Thanks Mr Krugman. It's a deceptive word which has nothing to do with "popular" and everything to do with xenophobia, white supremacy and bigotry.
6
In Hong Kong over 2 million people protested the loss of their rights yet we appear to be either exhausted or oblivious to the multiple losses this grotesque administration has thrown our way! Is justice possible?
6
There isn’t no opening with “poorly educated” whites for Dems, Mr. Krugman. Remember their t-shirts? “I’d rather be a Russian than a Democrat.” They’d cut off their fingers one by one if someone was to convince them that by doing this, they’d own the libs.
Rather than looking for openings in Trump’s rabid, racist mob of a base, Dems should focus on their own base and go for Obama voters that broke Trump’s way.
3
We have had diagnoses of the problem since day one of this presidency. Politics has devolved into superstition, two parties fighting over the burned over district, each promising that a messiah will be along shortly to deliver the chosen ones. Until a self proclaimed atheist is elected as President, I will continue to view the whole sordid process in the same light as I do the latest abominations of the various religious cults.
2
.
Imo there was never any doubt ab Trump's political stripe :
politically ignorant political charlatan,
& demagog
.
3
Thank you, Dr. Krugman: Via e mail I received from a relative the answer to the question of how the current resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue continues to do nothing but worsen things for his base and yet has their devotion.
In bullet points the e mail listed every single complaint we liberals have againt ‘45......and after every single statemnent there appeared the following: “and we don’t care”. So long as he assures them that America will be mostly white, the primacy of males a given, the religiosity banner held aloft
and the acquisition of guns guaranteed, he can bloody well destroy democracy and bankrupt them. They will still zealously sing “M.A.G.A.”
2
Almost every column in the NYT is a good one, including this one.
When I read them trying to explain Trump I get angry, concerned, distraught, sad, and sometimes giggly. But lately I am thinking more like Alfred E. Neuman. Remember MAD magazine? "What, me worry?"
Everyone must come to a simple understanding when trying to define Trump. He is nothing but himself. Period. The appetite for his ego is like a massive black hole.
He does not know the meaning of anything. Populist? Separation of Powers? History? Empathy? …..
He did not want to be President – he just wanted to win the Presidency. That’s it.
The more we grasp this painful truth the better for everyone. For Congress and the Democrats – don’t get MAD, get even.
Uf!!
4
They still can't put together that Reagan and the Republicans decimated their way of life so how would they have figured out Trump so quickly? Lily White Kings and Queens of their Bingo Game.
1
Recommended reading for Trump voters! However, do they read?
3
Trump is a populist in the Huey Long venacular.
2
If the Democrats don't impeach Trump, they condone him. I will never vote for a person who condones treason. I will vote for the traitor first, because he has won already!
I can see the simpatico between Trump and poorly educated white people. Yes, he sat in classes at Wharton but judging by his daily butchering of the English language and his woefully limited general fund of knowledge, one could easily make the case that Donald Trump is a poorly education white person.
Just like the term Socialist, the media plays into Trump's concept of Populist.
The media is playing into easily classified political memes.
American history has true examples of populists, like William Jennings Bryan and "Fighting Bob" LaFolette.
Trump is not a Populist, he is a National Socialist. I am not implying that he is like Hitler.
Beyond Hitler, the National Socialists were into having corporations working hand and glove with government higher ups.
That is what we have in the U.S. today, not Trump populism, but a president working hand-in-glove with power interests.
2
Trump's behavior has clearly shown that he is not really a populist. It's not clear at all what sort of ideology Trump can be labelled with. He's not a Fascist or even a Nazi. Those ideologies had clear definitions and were understandable. In 1934, Fortune magazine devoted an entire issue to a explanation of Fascism. Hitler wrote a book explaining National Socialism. Trump is unique. He has no coherent explanation for anything he does, except that he's against anything Obama or Hillary are in favor of.
2
betray his base?? he is making abortion illegal in america. as far as part of his base is concerned, he delivered.
1
Why isn't dump a real human being? Who cares, just so long as we're rid of this tired con act.
1
If one is going to use a single word descriptor for what Trump represents, that word should be "Demagogue".
See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demagogue
1
OK, so trump's reactionary regime is basically a scam. What's new? Have you gotten a load of who's in his Cabinet? Or the crowd down at Mar-a-Lago for that matter. It's all white, privileged and venal. Then again, that perfectly encapsulates what the GOP is all about these days.
3
Talk to just about any Republican and they will spout 4 things
1 The Laffer Curve for justifying tax cuts for the rich.
2 50% of people don't pay income tax.
3 Only 60% of people in America work.
4 Half the country lives off food stamps.
All of which are either false or based on a clear misunderstanding of the statistic being quoted. For example most low income employees pay very little income tax, but they do pay a proportionate amount of payroll tax. And so on.
The GOP has used these statistics, lies and damn lies for all too long now. They have become accepted facts.
So Laffer gets a medal. You can't polish one, but you can roll one in glitter.
5
From the Washington Post, this is Trump's version of throwing his base a bone, planned for next week:
"In tweets, President Trump appeared to reference a plan to round up thousands of migrant parents and children in a blitz operation across major U.S. cities."
Inhumanity is the only issue he has left, although he appears to be pulling the wool over the eyes of the "poorly educated" on tax cuts for the rich and the despoiling public lands, too.
3
Democrats don’t understand that Trumps base doesn’t want something for nothing. They don’t want Warren repaying their student loans, the don’t want Booker giving them free rent they want to earn their own way. The something for nothing part is the key to the “Identity “ party.
4
@Rich Murph: My take is that Warren and Booker want to even the playing field...not give something for nothing.
The wealthy , like our current president, can get away with not paying taxes, corporations can move overseas to avoid paying taxes, and those with money and the know-how can get the many subsidies available to the wealthy . In other words, the wealthy can get "something for nothing", but they, like the president, would call that "smart."
22
@Rich Murphy The tax code gives the monied class a lot of things for nothing. For example, a property can have capital gains deferred indefinitely while the renters can pay increased rents on the property indefinitely. This is called a section 1031 like kind exchange. There are are many more examples.
14
@Rich Murphy
"The something for nothing part is the key to the “Identity “ party."
I completely agree, although I'm just as certain we'd disagree on which party is the "Identity party".
2
This was a good quick analysis of his "gift" for conning people ( also, a brief list of his business dealings is proof that education wasn't a guarantee of resistance to his salespitch; greed is a good marker. The racism, white nationalism and promises to the financially dispossessed just come in handy to pull in the maximum number of those who feel disenfranchised. The message which might be seeping through, at last,is that he truly doesn't care about people except as they are useful to him. There's a lot of pols out there who might be this way - - but they try to present a better face to the public. His sociopathy is seen as being authentic!
Thankfully, Krugman moves away from fruitless (boring) obsession with how he got this way, to how he maintains power.
Not that Trump knows what populism means, but he betrays his base because he doesn't; care about giving them a better life.
I hope the message gets played loudly over and over. He'll never deliver on health care, on tax breaks for the rest of us,, and he won't protect the programs we need.
3
"why has Trump been unwilling to do anything, and I mean anything, to help the people who installed him in the White House?"
I think that is a very important question. I think the answer is simple. Politicians have two sets of constituents: voters and the people who provide the money to get them elected and directly or indirectly make the politician rich.
Politicians only answer to their voters at election time. At election time it is easy and customary to lie to their "constituents."
The real constituents are those that provide the large contributions. Large contributors have easy access as often as they want. Unlike voters, I am confident if a large contributor want to send an email they don't have to claim to be a resident of the area the politician serves. I'll bet they don't have to call in on the same line voters do, and if they did the person answering would be taking a message about when and where to call back, but for voters it is just to record a comment.
It is much harder to get away with lies when someone has easy and direct access to call and complain and threaten to not or reduce (implied or explicit) contributions. At election time it is as effective for a voter to complain about one particular vote, as it is for a big money contributor to call just before a vote.
Unfortunately most Democrats do this too. Just not to the same extent.
Both the Democratic and Republican parties are class coalitions between the capitalist class and subordinate classes, each offering a different version of identity politics to cement the loyalty of its popular base. This appeal to identity substitutes for a populist economic program that could help its mass base. The crux of the problem for the Democrats in defeating Trumpism is that the Democratic leadership shares a version of neoliberal economics with the Republican leadership, making it extremely difficult for them to offer an economic program that addresses the real material needs of its own base because it cannot afford to alienate Wall Street. Thus the Party's imperative to keep its left wing from power inside the Party itself gives perpetual life to the Republicans despite their minority status as an electoral machine. They cannot, as Mr. Krugman advises, take advantage of Republican weakness because they cannot counter right-wing populism without overthrowing their own neoliberal economic program. It takes left-wing populism to defeat right-wing populism.
1
What is a real Populist today ? What was it before in the USA ?
A populist can be the politician who appeals to the less fortunate and delivers some promises. I grant that. But, in the course of it all, the legislative sausage-making, the power harnessing, the image burnishing - it is more commonly just another set of elites rather than the outright capitalist, focused elites. Take three powerful men such as Robert Moses, Fiorella LaGuardia and Franklin Roosevelt who were dominant Democrats and populists in a shared political era. All three delivered to the people but did so by virtue of money, over-the-top ambition and co-option with elite money and conservative/ traditional power bases. LaGuardia being somewhat of an exception to that. Point being, to become an Elected Populist - you need to make Faustian bargains.
2
At least here in Europe the usage of the word ‘populism’ has gotten out of hand. In short, if one doesn’t like someone or agree on his/her political views or share same values, that someone is likely to be called a populist.
So what exactly is populism and how can it be separated from the concept of normally functioning democracy?
People do have different political views and in democracy politicians are ideally supposed to represent the views and further the causes of those who vote for them? So listening those ‘little people’ makes a politician a populist? Where’s the room left for democracy?
I do recognize the element of irrationalism or deceit that may lie in the pure form of the concept of populism (one knowingly promises more that can be delivered, for instance), but I’m not sure it manifests itself anymore from the way the concept is being used in the everyday speech and political parlance. It’s being used more like a political weapon (a display of a political disapproval) rather than an analytical tool. And where’s the politician who never promised more than was able to deliver or otherwise never polished her/his message to be more digestible for the masses? Where’s the politician who is not at least a bit of a populist in that sense? Yes, there are smaller and bigger lies, and different degrees of inaptitude, as we all can witness, but I’m still not convinced that word populism should have much room in an accurate speech.
Or am I missing something?
3
@Pekka Peitsi
A useful way of looking at it is that populism is liberal democracy when you subtract the liberalism.
It is heartbreaking to hear midwestern farmers, who are devastated by Trump’s tariffs (and now historic amounts of rain and flooding) and nearing bankruptcy, routinely say they support Trump because he “is a businessman” and must know what he is doing, and that they know he will ultimately “win.”
They live in areas where FOX and so-called right wing Christian radio reign supreme. Do they even know that this “businessman” declared bankruptcy 6 times, sustained over $1 billion in losses over a decade, has an abysmal record of being involved in thousands of lawsuits which indicate anything but good business practices, stiffing his contractors and subcontractors, and essentially committed fraud through his huckster Trump University? And those malfeasances are just the tip of the iceberg.
Perhaps the best way to beat Trump in 2020 is to take out millions of dollars of airtime and radio time in the Midwest, and graphically detail just how bad a businessman he is, and that he is now doing to America’s heartland and what he did so well to others - stiff them and destroy their livelihoods.
15
@J. "Perhaps the best way to beat Trump in 2020 is to take out millions of dollars of airtime and radio time in the Midwest, ..."
Call Hillary. She had a billion dollars 2 years ago.
It takes a lot of effort to get people to vote against their own interests, but the Republican party were experts at this long before Trump came along. He fit in perfectly with their deceptive political machinery and they're happy to back him in a malignant symbiosis as long as he tows the line on supporting their only real policy goal of making their rich donors richer.
350
@R
Actually, it takes little effort. All one has to do (which we've seen decade-after-decade) is promise to *get* those other people; the welfare queens, illegals, socialists...communists...anyone who can inspire fear & loathing. Rile up the anger, bigotry and racism and that trump's your own needs.As MLK stated quite eloquently:
"And when his wrinkled stomach cried out for the food that his empty pockets could not provide,he ate Jim Crow,[ a psychological bird ] that told him that no matter how bad off he was, at least he was a white man, better than the black man. And when his undernourished children cried out for the necessities that his low wages could not provide, he showed them the Jim Crow signs on the buses and in the stores, on the streets and in the public buildings. And his children, too, learned to feed upon Jim Crow."
Anything can become "Jim Crow."
62
@R As George Orwell pointed out long ago (in his great essay on style, "Politics and The English Language) the sure sign that a metaphor is dying from overuse and misuse is when we no longer remember what it refers to or where it comes from. He cites as one example "to toe the line" (meaning to start a race by putting one's toe on the starting line) which some writers mistakenly change to "TOW the line" because they've no idea where the expression comes from or what it means.
It means to conform to a standard view or party position, rather than thinking independently. Orwell advises simply avoiding what he calls these "dying metaphors," which encourage lazy thought and dull writing. His general rule is to "avoid any figurative word or phrase that you're used to seeing in print," a good but not an easy rule for us all to follow.
Here, although I agree with R's point, it's so obvious and oft-made that it hardly needs to be made again, and certainly doesn't deserve commendation as a "Times Pick."
In fact, it simply reiterates Paul Krugman's argument.
22
Trump may not have kept his economic promises to the “poorly educated” whites who elected him, but he is doing something they value far more—addressing their anxiety over the diminishment of their white privilege.
For both these voters and their better heeled and better educated counterparts, economic considerations pale next to their desire to preserve the respect and privileged status white skin once guaranteed. So as long as Trump continues to rail against the “political correctness” he contends prejudices whiyes, as long as he continues to fight for a wall to protect “real” Americans from “Mexican rapists” and other brown-skinned “criminals,” as long as he continues to talk big with vows to round up and “remove” the “millions” of brown-skinned “illegals” who are already here, these voters will continue to stick with him like white on rice.
9
It has been completely mystifying that ordinary working folks would believe, even for a second, that Trump cares about their needs.
Trump has never been any thing except a wealthy playboy and socialite. His business acumen is essentially a legend he created to explain the fabulous wealth he was born into.
He is all about the "brand", but nothing of any substance
13
We need a new movie like “Elmer Gantry”, (Sinclair Lewis), “All the King’s Men”, (Robert Penn Warren), or “A Face in the Crowd” to show America what Trump is and means.
5
Trump is a populist in the sense that he really needs the support and attention he gets from his base for himself, classic narcism. His rallies make him feel invincible and unbeatable.
His political choices have never been 100% populist, except for the racist things he said about foreigners and immigrants and all that talk about taking on the "deep state".
He's about to find out that 4 years of corruption, power grabbing, lies, and tax breaks to the 1%, that appeasing his base at rallies will lose him the next elections. While his shrinking base doesn't get past the "strong border" and "detain all immigrants" remarks, the rest of the country has had enough of the crazy.
All that matters now is for the Democrats to win not only the presidency but also take back the senate. Trump needs to take his GOP sycophants down with him, Mr. McConnell is the first that needs to be voted out.He's done more harm to this country than Trump.
350
@Dutchie
I bet Mitch McConnell never read George Washington's Farewell Address or attended the annual reading in Senate (just like most readers Senators).
One of the sections that should be heeded by all is Washington's view on faction:
They serve to organize faction; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common councils and modified by mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves thereins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
27
Narcissists cannot be populists, especially mentally disturbed ones. Trump thinks only of himself, not pleasing the popular will nor even having any empathy for the people out there. Emperors are not populists and Trump would dearly like to be one.
9
Trump's attraction to his base is wound-up in acting out against others, and a cult of personality. Most of his base could care less what policies he enacts that actually hurt them.
Even more insidious is how being dumb is a badge of honor for them. They love being part of Trump's stupidity, and hate on anyone who is educated and/or doesn't look like them and sound like them.
Trump's "willing executioners," to borrow a piece of a title from a well known book.
8
Professor Krugman writes, "Whites without a college degree are pretty much the only group among whom Trump has more than 50 percent approval." While true aren't you forgetting the Evangelicals, Kakistrocrats, Ineptocrats and self-styled super-patriot flag wavers some of whom aren't white? The better demographics are age, sex and urban/rural.
3
The largest obstacle in the path of Democrats trying to reach Trump supporters is the innate resistance of people to admit to a mistake. For Trump's supporters to turn against him, they would have to acknowledge that the people they hate with a passion - minorities, liberals, elites, the mainstream media - were right about Trump all along. Most of them would sooner go to their graves than do that. His betrayal of them does not matter. So long as Trump continues to hate the same people they hate, it will be hard for the Democrats to crack the one wall Trump has managed to build - the wall around his base. To date that wall has proven impervious to facts, logic, and reason. I can only hope that Professor Krugman is right and that at least some of Trump's supporters can be reached.
12
Trump’s lower income supporters sense of outrage is what drives them. That why the right-wing pundits played up Obama’s incisive comments about clinging to guns and the Bible. Like Antaeus in the Hercules myth, every time Antaeus hit the ground he gained strength. Every hit they take either real or imagined gives them strength.
We have perverse dynamics in our politics. The more peril our country has the angrier Trump’s base gets and the more support he gets.
3
I believe the mistake that many pundits make - including this one, Krugman - in talking about Trump is in considering that he is, in any way, shape or form, a politician, or some sort of bone fide representative of the American people. He is not. He is a grifter of the first water and should always be discussed from that perspective.
312
"Trump isn’t a populist, unless we redefine populism as nothing but a synonym for racism."
Bingo.
8
Professor Paul must be writing E. Warren’s plans. Tinkering with Federal regulations to decrease taxation on Corporations helps the rich and hurts the poor and downtrodden whereas increasing the tax take from Corporations hurts the rich and helps the poor and downtrodden. How do I apply for a Nobel Prize in Economics?
1
The vast majority of poor in the US are white, 66 million of them. I think they'd go for a 2 cent tax on anyone with more than $50 million dollars in wealth.
4
Correction: he's not betraying his base.
He's conning them.
Aided and abetted by Fox News, Mitch McConnell, and the RNC overall.
13
The best thing the DEMs can do is let Obamacare end. Then the base will see what they enabled and run. Stop trying to protect the base from themselves. They hate you for it and a disproportionate number of Obamacare recipients are the base.
3
“If Trump is re-elected next year, that could mark the end of America’s democratic experiment.”
So, according to a Krugman, if Trump wins a free and fair election democracy is over. Oh, Paul, you may want to check your hysteria and it’s clouding your logic.
4
Yes, he should have qualified that with “...and Republicans retain Senate control and continue turning a blind eye to a President shredding the Constitutional tenet of checks and balances.”
Then he would have been right. If Democrats wrest control of the Senate and retain the House, our democratic republic will remain so.
8
Quite candidly if we working class uneducated clucks are so foolish as to relect Mr Trump we will deserve every kick in the slats he delivers to us, but our kids and theirs, who have little or no voice in their future, will be the ones who will really suffer.
If MrTrump and his short sighted followers at the lower economic levels think their jobs will not further evaporate they are willfully avoiding our ongoing reality.
Pillars of our news democracy such as exist in DC, farm out even the low paying jobs of call centers to the Phillipines while major manufacturers follow suit by replacing high wage assembly workers with robots.
Our corporate leaders have been shipping jobs south to Mexico and Central America for over two decades while many historic American brands set up shop in China for the obvious reason of than corporate profits. The greed id absurd
We are not a stupid people and know, despite "The American Way", the disparity of wealth is overwhelming and if not controlled may lead to a real internal problem that no staged war will stop.
Our next election, if a repeat of our last, may be the last. Tough to take the judgements made by this administration as being made with more than our leaders, rather than our nations best interest as their basis.
This is a strong sentiment to express, but If we do not organize under these circumstances, our nation may never again have the opportunity to peacefully stand resolute in the face of tyranny.
And I'm worried.
4
“I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don’t know. They’re outside my ken. But sometimes when I’m in a theater I can feel them.” Pauline Kael, 12/28/1972
While I'm appalled by the proud, arrogant, haughty, lordly, insolent, overbearing, supercilious, disdainful scorn for MAGA voters shown by this board, I'm even more worried by the utter stupidity upon which it is based -- a stupidity which, it seems more than likely, will result in our loss of the House in 2022.
MAGA voters aren't poor; their average income is substantially above the average American's. They didn't vote for Trump expecting or even wanting him to increase their benefits. Indeed, even the MAGA voters who are poor -- see, West Virginia -- liked their ACA benefits and knew he was threatening to take them away. They weren't worried; they didn't think he'd be able to.
MAGA voters voted for community, and in a national election that means voting for the nation. Tariffs may cost them, but since tariffs appear to be the only way to achieve fair trade, they'll pay the price. They believe that a healthy community requires a common culture and that opening borders to foreign peasant cultures undermines community.
Paul Krugman, who lives in a bubble, may -- although I'm not convinced he does -- believe that Trump has betrayed his MAGA voters. They don't and for one simple reason. He hasn't.
2
@ellen1910 What about the peasant ancestors of Irish-, Polish-, Italian-, Greek-, German-, Scandinavian- Americans? They didn't seem to erode American national identity. Ironically, when they came here. the same argument you are making was made against them. The brown and black immigrants coming to the US today act and will act no differently than these forbearers and their children will, in character, be no different than you -- except that they will be more accepting of others.
2
Trump doesn’t need to come through for his staunchest supporters. They are drawn not to his policy but rather his personality. What so many find repugnant a significant portion of the population sees as his greatest strength. The only way to betray personality driven voters is to change the personality they were drawn to. If Trump is true to anything it is his repugnant persona. They are not going to desert him. No matter how badly his policies hurt them.
Don’t believe me? Ask his voters among the 23 million Americans he tried to remove from the health care rolls. If they can stand by him isn’t that proof that betrayal doesn’t matter?
4
Wow, that Trump is awarding Laffer a Medal of Freedom is such a perfect metaphor for the whole of republican politics from the last 40 years. A Grifter POTUS awarding a Charlatan Economist with one of the highest honors for civilian citizens, because he promoted a lie that helped undermine the largest middle class in history. It doesn't get any better than that if you're looking for an excuse to drink tonight.
6
By definition plutocracy is government by a minority . Since they are a minority the rich plutocrats need to ally themselves with somebody else . They found that ally in the whites without a college degree and their social and economic grievances . To sell their ideas the plutocrats needed a con man and they found Trump or Trump found them . That is the reason the GOP sold their souls to Trump . In the end this is going to end badly for both the plutocrats and uneducated whites , but more importantly , for the whole Country .
4
"Populist"??? trump is, among other things I can not mention, a demagogue. I suspect a good portion of his base feel lost in our "new" economy and the effect of globalization, and rightfully so. We can/must start changing that or we can kiss this experiment in Democracy goodbye.
1
The only explanation of the "voting against their own economic interests" phenomenon: The "poorly educated" place a higher value on cultural combat than on their own financial welfare. That means that fighting immigration, fighting women's increasing clout in many arenas, and fighting various identity groups (blacks, LGBTQs, the wealthy privileged young) has far higher priority than their own interests. And by leading with those "identity wars" issues, Trump's opponents give him precisely what he wants: Foils and straight men for his jokes, taunts, and main-stage strutting--in front of fawning crowds of poorly educated and just plain poor white folks who use a different measuring stick to determine where their own interests lie.
2
Indeed, he's a demagogue. Unfortunately, people today do not know that term. And the term "populist" misleads the public into the association with "popular." He is a demagogue, one who leads the people along with his false promises and superficial flair. He's cut from the cloth of the Athenians Alcibiades and Cleon or the Romans Clodius and Catiline. The one common thread is that they ultimately lead their people into catastrophe. Hopefully, we can avoid that fate next November.
1
"Trump’s whole career shows him to be the kind of man who, if anything, takes pleasure in taking advantage of people who trusted him."
I disagree. Comrade Trump's motive is to show people who think they can use him to make a few bucks that he is in charge.
The regular humiliations and degrading behavior are meant to put people in their places, namely below Trump. It's his way of showing how smart, great and powerful he really is.
2
Donald Trump's mental illness is on display every day. It has been for years. I don't say that with sarcasm, I say it because it is evident that this man is mentally ill and absolutely unfit to be in the White House. Under the circumstances, he has become the single most significant threat to our national security. He has become a global embarrassment and disgrace to the Office of the American Presidency and to America itself. Mental illness is a serious issue for many and, with appropriate treatment, lives change in positive ways. I'm certain that Donald Trump's family cares about him. If that is the case, they should encourage him to resign and get the help he desperately needs.
7
@Tom, I doubt his family cares about him. They have a business arrangement.
1
@Tom
Did you ever see Robert Altman's movie, "Nashville"? Our president reminds me of the character Barbara Jean, the country singer who has been mentally unstable for a while. Near the end of the movie, she begins to talk in a crazy manner onstage. Everyone around her, her staff and managers--they're all aware she's going off the rails mentally, but they're too focused on the money they're making from her career to try to get help for her. And we know what happens the last time Barbara Jean is on a stage.
So your suggestion that "Donald Trump's family cares about him . . . [and] should encourage him to resign and get the help he desperately needs" is just too rich for me to let go by without replying.
1
Does racism trump economic self interest?
We'll find out in the next presidential election.
Horrifying that the answer will remain unclear till after the election, Russian involvement or not.
3
Trump supporters - like most or maybe all of us - fall victim to the Sunk Cost Fallacy. To abandon Trump they have to admit that they were wrong. For most of us, that is very hard to do.
5
Many people held their nose when they voted for Trump, and will do so again, for one reason. They are either Evangelical or Catholic and only care about outlawing abortion. All the damage Trump is doing simply is the price we pay for serving this higher Godly goal. I have relatives that can't stand Trump but they think he is somehow divinely inspired because of his Supreme Court picks and his hyper-activity around appointing right wing judges. No amount of logic or rationality will sway them from their delusional "soul-saving" religious beliefs.
6
Populist or pompous-ist? A parasite puffed up with puffery.
That said, I highly doubt his base base is capable of seeing Trump for what he actually is, or themselves for what they actually are - according to P.T. Barnum they were born every minute. Truth insults them so they prefer being lied to.
2
It is a sad commentary on the quality of the typical Trump voter to know that, for every new supporter he might attract by becoming more inclusive rather than exclusive, he would lose a multiple number of his existing base supporters. They revel in their hatred of “the others” and would lose their defining characteristic by becoming more tolerant and less xenophobic. Trump is caught in the self-defeating math of his anti-populism.
2
“If Trump is re-elected next year, that could mark the end of America’s democratic experiment.”
More hyperbole from an individual who is consistently wrong on just about every thing he expresses a view on. Readers, check it out, it is hard to believe this prognosticator still has a job.
The quote isn't hyperbole..its common sense.
2
"It’s alarmingly easy to envision the U.S. going the same way, and very soon: If Trump is re-elected next year, that could mark the end of America’s democratic experiment."
Trump didn't even want to be President. What evidence do you have he wants to be an dictator? The guy is a peacenik compared to Hillary. He'll be 74 in 2020, 78 in 2024. It doesn't give him much time to do what? Build a rusted fence and create a beautiful health care system? Isn't that better than signing the economy over to the Green Party?
Maybe Ivanka, could take over as dictator and Alexander Ocasio Cortez could lead the revolution. It could be epic.
1
I don't think Trump actually want to be President. He want the attention but not the work - or the relentless critique from opponents. The only thing he will miss is the stadiums full of cheering fools. Last time he was preparing to become the guy who lost because millions of illegal immigrants voted for Hillary. Now he seem to be preparing for the same thing with Biden. There are huge opportunities for profit in being a martyr - and profit is the only thing he really care about.
3
Ahh...$16B for farmers hurt by tariffs? That’s pretty darn populist, to me.
Trump is at once a firefighter and an arsonist.
3
Why isn't trump a real populist?
Because trump is a selfish old man who only cares about himself. He uses his base to get what he wants which is only what trump wants.
And his base falls for it again and again. Says something about the base.
2
Trump has no compass, moral, political, educational, cultural, religious, or otherwise. Asking why he is not more populist is like asking why a dog is not more strategic in which dogs he runs with from day to day.
3
Democratic candidates should daily remind the electorate of the crass hypocrisy and exploitation in ways that get to the gut reaction of anyone paying attention. We need to pay attention. He’s robbing the working and elderly poor, for example, of any chance for relative security. He obviously has nothing but contempt for most of us.
1
Trump's version of populism has been market tested by Republicans since Ronald Reagan. It works pretty well for them. Rather than promising white working class people a better life, they promise to make things harder on non-white working class people. Trump just took the who approach to the most ridiculous lengths imaginable.
243
I'm not sure it matters that he doesn't help his base. They have supported leaders that actively work against their interests for decades now and they seem too wrapped up in their hatred, hateful religious ideology and petty greed to even notice. But let's not pretend that these people are a majority, they're not.They just happen to live in remote rural areas where their votes count more and their ignorant views persist unchallenged.
3
"Part of the answer may be personal: Trump’s whole career shows him to be the kind of man who, if anything, takes pleasure in taking advantage of people who trusted him."
I really think this is what it's all about. As far as I can see, he is simply evil. Thank God he is also stupid and cowardly, or we'd be in much worse shape even than we are.
But pair him with a complementary "simply evil," namely Mitch McConnell and the rest of the career-politician GOP, who are not stupid, and whose calculating cynicism knows no bounds, and we're in danger enough, thank you very much.
1
Trump's not even a real reality-show host. He's not a real anything. Well - he cheats and lies...does that count?
3
Having everything done to make their lives still more miserable, the poorly educated show the outcome of this by still supporting trump. Nowhere do we see where education improvement becomes a desired outcome. Insight could be dangerous.
2
Trump is a narcissist and a bully. He is a populist, Republican, coalminer, whatever when it suits him. His MO is himself first, family second. He is able to prosper because the FOX network has created a feedback loop that prevents his followers from understanding the truth. The owner of Fox does that not for the love of his adopted country but for the profit and gain of himself first, family second.
2
Your basic idea that Trump is not a real populist because he has not done anything for the people who voted him in power, is flawed. It is not that he did NOT do anything for the "poor", he actually has done a lot (most of that blow the radar) actively against the interests of those "poor". Eventually, that realization will filter through and hopefully that means "end Trump" (hopefully!!!)
The Democrats need to ask Reagan's question in the coal states, to laid off GM workers. and midwest farmers,
"Are you better off than you were four years ago?"
Healthcare, climate change, income disparity, infrastructure, and education, in that order, are what the Democrats should talk about. Leave guns and abortion alone. The latter is going to get to the Supreme Court at some point sooner than later.
Don't even utter the "T" word in stump speeches. Let him sink his own boat.
3
Folks are just wondering why won't those Trump supporters understand the Democrats and their cry for social justice want to help all working class folks.
Many working class folks were hurt by supposed social and racial justice schemes in the past.
One seminal event (there were others) in Detroit that turned working class folks away from the Democratic party was the forced busing for the Detroit Public School system. Here's a gem from a social justice liberal - a weaponized judiciary aimed at working class. In 1972 a desegregation order to the Detroit Public Schools, forced busing was implemented in Detroit, Judge Roth (JFK appointee"), who ruled on the case wrote in part:
“Transportation of kindergarten children for upwards of 45 minutes, one way, does not appear unreasonable, harmful, or unsafe in any way. ...kindergarten children should be included in the final plan of desegregation.”
This was at a time when neighborhood schools were the norm.
Fortunately the cross-district aspect was reversed by the SCOTUS. Unfortunately it was foisted on the Detroit Public School system. Each school's demographics was to reflect the overall student demographics. At the time 27% of the students were white. It all but destroyed it. People who had little or no financial cushion saw their homes become essentially worthless or drained of much of its value.
Now that is one massive betrayal of a core constituency.
OP-ED Board: Are your schools racially segregated?
1
We have already, almost universally, arrived at an answer to this question. A narcissist, especially a stupid one who who has been surrounded by sycophants all his wealthy adult life, cannot give, he can only take. He cannot comprehend people's expectations; expectations are inconvenient to him. A narcissist cannot control his rage when his machinations are thwarted and when he is not universally admired. He cannot control his reactions when he is in this state. He lashes out. He is also easily influenced by powerful people, and he is most susceptible immediately after an interaction with a specific individual, so he is ever-changing because he does not believe in anything. Consequently, he can take any position at any time, and then turn on a dime. Finally, and most important, he does not care about anybody else's suffering, only his own voracious needs. He feels no humility or remorse. He feels no loyalty; he has no discretion. He is simply driven by inner forces that are so deeply buried that he does not know they are there, and so is helpless against them. This is why he is not a "real populist."
1
Kyle Kashuv will have plenty of opportunities to attend Harvard if he amends his opinions (which are not approved by Harvard, a private institution) on some issues. At least, I hope Harvard will offer him the opportunity. Admitting Kashuv without his amending his opinions would imply that Harvard doesn't care.
Maybe the more mysterious question is why his base — poor whites without a college education — continues to support him, even though only 5% think Trump’s economic policies are good for people like them, and 45% think those policies favor the rich. Put another way, 95% feel that Trump’s economic policies work to their disadvantage. What is wrong with these people? Is hurting people of color or liberals that important that they will set aside their own interests? Or are American poor whites just more ignorant than Hungarian, Italian or Polish supporters of authoritarians?
1
Even if Trump's legislation hurts his "base," it doesn't matter. They share the one thing with him that gives him their undying devotion: a deeply held racism. His "delay" of putting a black woman on the $20 bill is just the latest example of his profound racism and 30% of this country stand by him no matter what because someone is finally expressing the racial hatred they have been afraid to show for decades. Voting against their own interests? Yes. Does that matter? No.
4
Trump university is a metaphor for the Trump administration. Trump is all about scamming people who are desperately seeking a better life. He may love the poorly educated because they make him feel intellectually superior but he cares not one whit for them. They exist only to feed his insecure narcissism. The truth is that despite his bought and paid for educational credentials he is likely more ignorant than the “poorly educated” people he claims to love.
4
Trump is a showman, used populism (and racism) to get elected, and now distributes the spoils to the rich. Romney had it right - Trump is a fraud. Wake up republicans - vote democratic (silently if if you have to) and take your party back.
Krugman is on target with this piece. Except he doesn't cite the biggest reason for his unwavering support. And that is due to propaganda from right wing media, particularly talk radio and Fox News. I know too many fairly intelligent and hard working people that are brainwashed by Rush and his ilk that fuel resentment towards an exaggerated left that takes advantage of their hard earned gains.
1
Populist if you think white racist reactionary is the the people yes.
If you think populist is about the basic interests of the people-not so much.
Trump? Stalking horse for dictatorship of the wealthy and the corporate interests.
If you believe this narrative you need to do a major re-think.
Or this-vote out the GOP every place at every time - forever.
2
Good news recent poll has Bernie Sanders beating Trump by the most points, Biden beating Trump is in second place and Warren in third place. Yippee. So honestly it does make the best sense to support Bernie for the primary. But will you hear about this poll in the NYT? Nope. Please Mr. Krugman do an article on this poll. Are you allowed to say anything positive about Bernie?
2
He's an expert at taking other people's money and squandering it. First, his dad's money. Then the banks' money. Now he's taking our money and throwing it into the wind. He is nothing more than a machine of self-destruction, glazed over with gold paint.
2
It’s useless to try describing Trump in rational terms. He is self-destructive, counterproductive, and malevolent. He represents mental illness as a political movement. Significant parts of his base are the same. He’s an ill wind that blows no good, the bad apple that spoils the barrel, and he cheats at golf too. Oh and yes, he is plenty stupid enough to sincerely believe he’s a genius.
2
American populism has always been embedded in America white racism because our country’s brand of populism has three primary feeder roots; rural, Appalachian, and Southern. Wiiliam Jennings Bryan is the archetype. Bryan was the Democratic nominee for President three times, electrified millions with his “Cross of Gold” speech, and was on the right side of many progressive reforms such as a federal income tax and direct election of the Senate. Unfortunately he was also a white racist and at no time could he have imagined a populist movement that united white and dark skinned Americans. Much like President Woodrow Wilson who he served briefly as Secretary of State, Bryan truly believed that black and Latino Americans were lesser humans, who might be suffered to remain alive in the United States, but not much else.
2
Trump was partly elected by the establishment Television industry who gave Trump a Billion dollars worth of free airtime with it's valuable name recognition that wins elections. Trump gave immense tax cuts to the wealthy represented by his fellow Manhattan Wall Street finance kings. He then taxed all American consumers with tariffs on the goods we buy from certain nations. He has lied profusely trying to cover up that fact. He diverted public attention away from his relationship with the Wealthy of Wall Street with a border Wall. He endangered our nation by refusing to aid the Russia interference investigation and now Russia is moving military assets into Venezuela just south of us becoming a land threat in our hemisphere. He divided the nation with his hate speech, repeated for the past three years in a fearsome sign that has us fearing his historical place in the world of past nightmares. He always walks the red lines of crimes.
Tomorrow his rally of hate will be in "Or Land O" at the Am Way Arena at 8pm Est and we should all watch and record so we can gather intelligence on his future plans which likely will be really bad news as he throws hunks of red meat to his raging fellow bulls. I will be recording for the purposes of having a record of his inevitable threats and taunts.
Just like 1984, it will be another "Hate".
I was happy to read that some of his followers got smarter. People always do sooner or later.
1
D.J.Trump is a fake at everything else, so of course he is a fake populist as well. The reason is simple. He loves himself and does not care a fig for anyone else, even his own believers that he has so blatantly deceived.
6
So populism is a good thing after all? Who knew.
krugman,
One of the most important and best voices going today!
1
I knew the country was in trouble when while driving around The countryside in Alabama I saw lots of Trump signs in front of falling down trailers. I thought are these people stupid enough to believe the lies he spouts at rallies about making their lives better. I guess I will need a return trip in 2020 and see if anything has changed. I’m not hopeful though.
2
His limos their limos, big difference.
Nope, those horses are still on the streets, blinders and all.
Would not get my vote.
You nailed it. Populism expressed as racism. People who vote against their self-interest to foment a culture war. They need to read up on FDR.
1
At some point his base (other than the uber rich) will realize that Trump is like the unwanted houseguest who eats all your food and leaves his dirty dishes in the sink. They will be left with nothing to eat and a mess to clean up, while Trump moves on to visit some other “friend” (likely in Russia).
As Paul Krugman inferred, Trump is not a populist; he's a racist pure and simple. Trump has demonstrated that uneducated American whites will choose race over their own self interest. The Republicans have relied for years on gaining the votes of this group by promoting social values over economic interest, but Trump has taken it to a whole new level - focusing on race alone.
While praising the intelligence of the American electorate, Trump secretly knows that they can be led around like a bulls with nose rings - only instead of bull rings, he uses their racial beliefs and prejudices to lead them wherever he wants.
If DJT doesn't destroy our fragile democracy, he has published the blueprint and playbook for some other demagogue to do it later. If a democracy like America's is going to exist, there will have to be a paradigm shift in human thought throughout the world.
In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer based on a "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as to how we trick the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for destruction. These minds see the survival of a particular belief as more important than the survival of us all. When we understand all this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
1
Why won't Trump engage in actual populism and enlarge his base of support? Because he doesn't care about winning reelection--he only cares about staying in power. It should be clear by now that in Trump's mind, one has nothing to do with the other. He needs his angry base of white men, armed with millions of AR-15's and billions of rounds of ammunition, to back his play for a military coup.
Trump goes to bed each night shaking his head and chuckling: "These nitwit Democrats keep concentrating on winning the election in 2020. These fools don't realize that winning the post election civil war is the only important thing. I have now brilliantly installed an Attorney General who says I can do whatever I want because if I do it as president, it's legal. And I have a weak Acting Secretary of Defense of will tell my troops to obey my orders because it's their constitutional duty to obey the legal orders--William Barr just said so--of their commander-in-chief."
All of the Democratic presidential candidates should sign a pledge to observe the peaceful transfer of power--no matter how the 2020 election turns out. Then they should demand that Trump endorse the pledge as well. He won't do it.
At least then Democrats won't be able to whine about not seeing the 2020 coup coming.
2
"Seems" to betray his base? He's never had any interest in the welfare of the "base."
Trump is no more a populist than the traveling snake oil con man of the past was a doctor. The reason that his supporters like him is that, he's not a Democrat, he's not black, he's against everything that Obama did, says out loud what they've been saying for decades, and they aren't really even interested in knowing that they've been conned. Not one iota of Trump's persona is real and they don't care. Trump has found the mother lode of suckers, and he will milk them for all they are worth.
1
Bernie did very well in WI beating the representative of Wall Street, HRC, and his message could resonate again here in 2020.
Trump may not be fulfilling his economic promises to the “poorly educated” who comprise a significant part of his base, but he continues to feed their anxiety over their diminishing white privilege. So long as he treats the influx of brown refugees across our southern border as a continuing emergency, so long as he redirects money appropriated for other purposes to build walls to protect “real” Americans from the “danger” of brown-skinned immigrants, so long as he continues to rail against against the “political correctness” that respects the dignity of those with darker-pigmented skin in the zero-sum game he paints of economic and educational opportunity, he will continue to command the votes of his white, non-college-educated base. Like their better heeled and better educated counterparts, these voters care far less about his economic promises than they do about the respect and position their white skin commands and about preserving that privilege in perpetuity.
1
Listen ! DJT is the least populist/populist ever!
This is his greatest con. From a to z he is all about the wealthy and big corporate interests. His actions prove this over and over again.
While it is true that if you throw a great deal of stimulus on the economy, all not paid for, it will create short term growth and lower un-employment rates. Nonetheless the focus of those policies are directed at the rich and richer. That being said new policies directed at the needs of the people who need government services are either non existent or scheduled for elimination at the earliest possible time.
Clearly the blue collar, and rural, voters who vote red are responding to factors others than the actual policies that will help them.These are the dog whistle reactionary ones that most liberal citizens know all too well. No need to name them.
In short: A sheep in wolves clothing. A false prophet. A man selling sand to those desperate for water. A man who would, and has, done deeds with foreign actors of the worst sort to take over this country.
Make no mistake concerning who this man is.
Fact is there are powers that be,GOP ones, and their favorites industries,who care little for the American people, and our constitution, bill of rights, and democracy.
Power, wealth, control. Our new Bill of rights for the Ruling elite.
People absolutely have to think. If they can not do that then they are going to be food for this machine: ''Faces plowed like fields that once gave no resistance''
Well, if your base is a bunch of uninformed, uneducated individuals they’re easily betrayed. They have no idea how they were betrayed.
President Trump is a populist in the style of a fake-believer in what he says.
He’s the choice of people who have nothing better to do or think about than creating mayhem and assuming credit for being revolutionaries, armchair know-it-all’s who are sitting on their thumbs clueless to why nobody trusts them.
Reading Dr. Krugman's column reminds me that nearly fifty years ago, I read and studied Tom Wolfe's novel "The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test" under the great UMass English Professor John Nelson. Wolfe chronicled the legendary adventures of Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters as they shared the West Coast Experience in a raucous drug aided trip across America from San Francisco to NYC.
It was a time that symbolized great change and hope for a better America. Kesey was part of a wave of authentic populism that promised a freer more egalitarian society for America not the fake MAGA time machine goal of bringing America back to the 50's when white privilege ruled and women knew their place.
For the past few years it feels like Kesey's bus, Further has been loaded up with all those liberal ideas, dreams and hopes of the late 60's and been placed in reverse and pushed over the cliff by a bunch of joyless angry old white guys..yikes!
1
I changed my mind. I am for building a wall...between democrats and republicans.
"If Trump ever did anything that might hurt the rich or help the poor..."
Please stop, Professor Krugman, I'm spitting out my coffee.
Trump's "populism," like the rest of him, is a lie. He is a grifter and a con artist, well known as such by almost all who did business with him when he was a real estate developer. Trump has never, ever, spent any time with middle class wage earners (except at his putrid rallies) and he wouldn't care if a limo he was riding in ran over a janitor or window washer crossing the street.
The nation's best hope -- although a dim one -- is that those he conned into voting for him will realize they've been had. Big time.
Ok,Ok, so if we are doomed where do we go...what country would want us as refugees?
1
No matter how brilliant his pieces are, and they are very brilliant indeed, Mr. Krugman keeps forgetting Fox News and the Internet.
Trump's base swallows lies on a grand scale. It has done so for years and years. Those lies are ingeniously, professionally crafted.
They have a life of their own, just like antisemitism.
What Murdoch and Koch have spawned will haunt America and the world for generations to come.
I hope the Democrats can break this truth into simple talking points that show the impact on every day life. And then repeat them over and over.
1
The Republicans share a collective sense of misuse of freedoms in the US to hate and deny it. It's almost a joke of historical proportions. Cheney & Rumsfeld and WMD, "The Reagan Revolution", and yes The Laffer Curve all add up to snake oil sold by crooks and bought by fools. Yes America the jokes on you. Smile You're on Candid Camera!
On immigration
The eye opening comment below was in the top ten NY Times readers pick :
MikeG
Earth8h ago
@Jack
"Why would immigration be something we want to prevent? Don't these people feed us, do our laundry, mow our lawns, fix our cars, and contribute in many other ways at a reasonable price? I can't imagine a prosperous America without immigrants. But I could certainly imagine great prosperity without hedge fund managers who "earn" $1,000,000 an hour.
In Reply to MikeG112 Recommend Share"
This nails down the economic divide on immigration
The educated class profits from immigration, getting work done at “reasonable price”. Less educated Americans, that previously fixed their cars lost their decent paying jobs to people immigrating from low wage countries willing to work for less.
There was a time,when being a manual worker allowed you to send your kid to college. I know. No more.
Amazing:
The educated still wonder why the less educated are angry.
1
@Woof, the trump voters DO use these illegal immigrants to do chores for them, make their big macs, wipe their mom's tushies in the local nursing home, trim bushes in parks they visit. ETC.
2
Some of the white, undereducated fan base of Donald Trump are finally waking up to the fraud being practiced upon them by the phony-populist grifter and the Republican Party which profits from Trump’s con job.
Better late than never.
The problem is that as long as Donald Trump and the G.O.P. leaders encourage the latent anti-black, anti-immigrant, anti-gay and anti-Muslim prejudices of the Trump core supporters, most of the gullible will choose to remain gullible.
It simply feels too good being a bigot to stop. Even when you realize that you’re voting against your own financial interests, hatred of people who are “different” drives you onward and downward.
1
The problem Krugman is overlooking, or at least has omitted to mention, is: the white, no-college-degree voters who have noticed that things are not getting better for them, mostly don't blame Trump. They blame "the swamp", the "obstructing Democrats", the "liberal activist judges", and the "RINOs".
Dr. Krugman, we know this. Have known this since we were forced to become aware of incumbent three and a half years ago.
But as decisive as incumbent is he remains an inept, inarticulate, incompetent cartoonish buffoon. He does however provide digressive cover for a WGHarding, USGrant (administrations) level of viscous corruption.
The details of that is 'a' story.
Ms Pelosi is correct that she can make not headway in articulating the Democratic narrative (needed to sell anything) to the public due to incumbent's domination of the 'news hole'.
In that Nat for-profit Media are not only complicit but co-dependent facilitators. Even if being a populist is what country needed 'we' know incumbent is not never was. While I suspect that 'populism' is the least significant part of incumbents appeal to MAGA-core, your oped ed piece telling them what they already know will have little impact.
So? how 'bout more Wonk, less Bigley?
Among others, Trump represents fervent racists, sexists, and xenophobes. He is giving that large group a leader who thinks and acts like they do: Build walls to keep out the nonwhites. It feels good; finally, Archie Bunker is in charge.
Trump Nation doesn't want bones tossed their way. They want white Christian America from sea to shining sea; all others can depart ASAP. That will solve most problems, for white people can take care of themselves and act civilized.
Although fictitious, unethical, and unhistorical, this schematic, this mental template is the only one that satisfies tens of millions of Americans. Further discussion is pointless.
1
Lyndon Johnson once told a joint session of congress, during a voting rights speech in 1965. He told the chamber, how he felt being a school teacher in a small town in Texas, and how the “scars of hatred and bigotry were written on those Mexican children’s faces”. He went on to say, that, “I never thought in 1928 I would be standing here in 1965 or never occurred to me in my fondest dreams that I might have the chance to help the sons and daughters of those students, and to help think I would be in a position to help people like them all over the country”. Johnson went on to say, “But now I do have that chance-and I’ll let you in on a little secret-I plan to use it”. The best part of that speech, is when he said that “the enemy of the people is, ignorance, disease, racism, not your neighbor”.
But that was when this country had vision, and leadership, those who were willing to really help those who were impoverished, he got electricity to very small rural towns that didn’t have electricity in the 1950s. That was when this countries leadership dared to dream, dared us to go to the moon, and other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard.
Johnson was a man that came from poverty, he saw first hand what Poverty does, he wanted to be known for creating tax payers from the poor, not tax eaters, he wanted to extend the American promise to everyone, not just a few. But as Johnson said in that speech, that promise hasn’t been kept, for any American.
2
Will the media again parrot the lies of this snake oil salesman in the coming election? Trump did everything he could to destroy our only health insurance safety net. Lately he again promising he will get us “great” healthcare. He has no intention of improving healthcare. He will say anything to get enough votes for another term. We are dealing with a con man.
It is stunningly ironic that such a large group of people who have consistently shown their disdain for city-slicker con-men have elected a city-slicker con-man to lead them.
"But in that case, why has Trump been unwilling to do anything, and I mean anything, to help the people who installed him in the White House?"
You misunderstand his base. Every day, his actions speak to the people who voted for him. Whether on Twitter or to his cheering crowds, Trump's actions say, "I'm a racist and a misogynist. You can be too! Climate change is a lie. You can believe that too. Let's bring back jobs in coal mines and offshore drilling. Those are great jobs for white men. Immigrants are ruining our country. Let's make it great again by deporting them and building a wall to keep migrants out. With me as President, you can hate immigrants too! I am all powerful and can say and do almost anything. I know you can't, but I'll be your proxy. I will say and do what you cannot. I will normalize all your anger and hatred. I will normalize ignorance. Oh, and want to cheat on your wife? Go ahead. I highly recommend it."
I wish I could feel confident that the 60+% of Americans who do not support Trump could successfully elect a Democrat to the White House in 2020. Our country and lives depend on it. Let's not make the same mistake twice.
1
"A new Fox News poll finds that only 5 percent of whites without a college degree believe that Trump’s economic policies benefit “people like me,” compared with 45 percent who believe that the benefits go to “people with more money.”
Hatred means more than money. They can blame "others" for life failures and ulcers: it's their pre-existing condition.
1
The base is all about anger over having had a black president. It doesn't matter what else Trump does, his base loves him because he is not black. Don't count on this changing or the Democrats being able to take advantage of Trump exploiting the poor and middle class. His base don't care whether they are hurt or not. They only care that Trump is not black.
1
Some things are simple. And one of them is why Trump is not a populist. A populist gives priority to the interests of the people, or at least to those people who support him. Trump gives priority to his own interests, nothing more and nothing less. Trump is egotistical, self-centered, and self-serving. ge has no room in his agenda for anyone but himself.
Imagine how bad off we'd be right now if Trump had even the slightest bit of restraint when it comes to his sociopathic behavior. He reminds me more and more of Senator Joe McCarthy as he gradually ran off the rails in the 1950s. But even then, and even after he was confronted with the question, "Have you no shame," the McCarthy era stumbled on for far too long afterwards.
A century ago, just after the end of World War I, Henrik Van Loon wrote the book, "Tolerance," about the history of intolerance over the previous 2000 years. And what he concluded is that the dark side of human nature is driven by fear, ignorance, and greed. And 100 years after Tolerance was published, obviously nothing has changed, and probably never will.
Of course Trump isn't a real populist. The only thing about him that's real is unprintable and rude.
And he keeps favoring the WORST economists, like Arthur Laffer, who's "Laffer Curve" hasn't found been able to find the point where cuts increase revenue because the ONLY data point where that happened is when taxes were between 75% and 90% of income--and the cut that worked was in 1964!
But PK has it right: When Trump said "I love the poorly educated" it clearly meant: Trump loves a chump.
W.C. Fields almost expressed Trump's philosophy:
"You can't cheat an honest man,
But never give a sucker and even break,
And don't wisen up a chump!
Except Trump thinks he CAN cheat honest folk. Because he thinks they are all chumps.
When PK points out Orban's actions, it was what Khrushchev called "Goulash Communism", meaning, as long as you kept people fed, clothed, and housed, you could get away with anything. Not sure Putin understands this, but I AM sure Trump "I love a chump" doesn't.
1
The Laffer curve seems useless as originally proposed, but variations on it backed by some data could have some merit. This essay illustrates such a case: https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/october-2013/higher-taxes-for-top-earners-can-they-really-increase-revenue
George Wallace would be so proud.
1
Let me take a stab at where Mike is going. We have to remember that the Founding Fathers, all immigrants but white male immigrants, did not acknowledge African American (slave) men or any women in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Constitutional protections for minorities, women, disabled and, to a limited extent, LGBTQ citizens have come primarily thru the US Supreme Court decisions.” Mike’s concern that we have “departed from our nation’s founding principles of natural law and natural rights” doesn’t provide me with any comfort in 2019. “Natural law” and “natural rights” were terms defined by and limited to white males. Too many of us whites believe the pie has only so many pieces. I’d rather not go back to the “good old days.” We have jumped back to the 1950’s during the past 30 months under DJT, treading loudly on the Civil and Human Rights progress of the past sixty years. trumpf is a racist who surrounds himself with like-minded men. All that has made the USA the international beacon for humanity is being eroded day in and day out by this administration.
1
“I love the poorly educated.” And he REALLY did love the poorly educated!
An affidavit filed in a California law suit against Trump University by a former Trump University said, in part, "...Trump University was a fraudulent scheme, and that it preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money.”
So, bring on the dumb suckers and I will empty their savings accounts. Detestable man.
Was surprised he won last time and it would seem much of his agenda -- bring back jobs from China -- is obsolete given the fairly good economy. Next time, instead of a "drill down" into supporter's demographic data, how about read Uncle Remus' story about the tar baby? I'm double-sure you are going to get it, right off!
1
Mr. Trump has never had any contact with the lower middle class blue collar worker until he ran for President. In fact, he has contempt for that group of Americans. It has been said that you can fool some of the people................
The Republican Party marketed Trump well. Trump is the perfect Walmart special. He’s everything ignorant, fearful, bigoted individuals want. He represents everything they want to be but never will. To the lowly white male, he’s a super hero. He can mate with all the beautiful women, break laws, buy expensive things. To the lowly white female, he’s everything that the men in their lives are not, namely, successful. Also they enjoy feeling dominated a alpha male which they see in Trump.
Trump is the perfect product for mass consumption for this dysfunctional America.
2
Of course. This configuration has been seen before. One doesn’t have to recount the twentieth century’s claim to immortal immorality to understand how fascists appeal to the mass of the population. This is the playbook Trump and his Republic Party cult are following. It is up to the rest of us to resist this at every repeat every turn. And may all the gods help in this endeavor.
Now that everything is beginning to look so “Dismal”
under this regime, the one phrase you rarely hear these days from the right is “drain the swamp”.
Why is Paul Krugman-of-all-people posing this question? Donald Trump is a con artist; Three-card-Monte with a suit and tie. Donald Trump has no political ideology except the ideology of self-dealing.
Trump is a prolific liar- to his base, his banks, employees and everyone else saying whatever is needful for him to get his own way.
I simply cannot imagine Krugman wasting time on an inane attempt to "explain" why Trump has chosen to lie and use his base to further enlarge (literally and figuratively) himself.
The only purpose I see for this piece is to segue into another round of exposing Trump for the impostor he's always been.
1
@Candlewick
The purpose of the piece is to point out to the dems how to expose and fight Trump.
His base will (probably) remain loyal. The key is to get the majority of the 46% who didn't vote to realize the evident truths as stated by Paul Krugman.
1
Trump's success comes down to a combination of strange combination of talent, luck and hard work.
He has a talent for being in the spotlight. He has practised this art diligently for the several decades.
He feels no embarrassment or shame in lying or deceiving. This gives him a huge advantage over most conventional businessmen and politicians.
Twitter gave him a megaphone.
He found soulmates in Fox News and conservative talk radio , folks who were equally cynical about truth and decency and who could brainwash millions from their platforms
His popularity in the republican party has made him immune to any pressure from republican members of congress.
He has the uncanny knack of bouncing back from disasters. His blunders should have sunk his career fifty or hundred times over but here he is, occupying the most coveted office in the world and all set to win a second term!
He has no incentive to anything for the poor and all possible incentives to keep his donors satisfied.
It really is a perfect storm!
84
@AM I'll grant you luck, but I've found nothing in his history to indicate he's A) talented or B) a hard worker. I suppose you could argue that he's a talented enough grifter to be able to spot a mark easily enough, and no question he has found that in his supporters, but that's about it.
37
@AM
Don't forget that pact he signed with the devil.
12
@AM
Bouncing back is a lot easier when you inherit $700 billion.
19
Trump is a trumpist. He is the center of his own little universe in which all he hears is "me, me, me." Every single other human in his orbit and on the planet are of interest to him only inasmuch as they can provide something he wants, usually money, adulation, and approval.
115
He may not be "helping" them, but he has been providing for his base. He has treated POC like dirt, banned Muslims, encouraged hate crimes, tried to take away women's reproductive rights and basically stuck his thumb in the eye of anyone he thinks is "liberal". When his followers talk about promises kept this is what they are talking about. How can the author not see this?
2
Trump isn’t a populist, though he disingenuously adopts populist language. He’s a nativist with strong fascistic leanings.
2
Why isn't Trump a real populist? The obvious answer is that Trump isn't a real anything. He says whatever he thinks needs to come out of his mouth at that moment. There is no sentiment beyond making the sale and what's in it for him.
215
@DebbieR
What kind of populist marries models and has never worked for an hourly wage in his entire life, and in fact stiffed contractors who pay hourly wages?
16
@DebbieR Right on the money. Anyone in the habit of listening to and thinking about the implications of what Trump is saying is doing more than Trump and his sycophants are doing and has trouble understanding how anyone can listen to him with anything but contempt.
20
In America, capitalism is the opiate of the people.
2
Trump's main appeal has always been racism. His rhetoric to help the working class has been basically a scam to get votes and belongs in the category of his Trump U scam. The two main pillars of his presidency are the wall and the Muslim ban. He has made efforts on both of them and his white nationalist supporters should be satisfied even though they so far haven't got all that they hoped. Trump's core white nationalist supporters are still with him and no doubt will show up his fascist-like campaign rallies with calls for violence against protesters and chants for putting the political opposition in jail. This country has a long history of racism and Trump's supporters are apparently determined to turn the US into a racist state.
I believe that Trump might like to be a populist but he has no capacity to formulate policies and programs or competently oversee their formulation. And those he must rely on to do the the heavy lifting have no populist inclinations. Trump is like a quack that would really like to heal the sick, if he only knew something about medicine.
Subtract any populist inclination he might have, and we are unfortunately left with his appetite for vengeance, easy cruelty, arrogance, unbridled mendacity, and a breathtaking lack of awareness in all things but his own self.
113
It bewilders me that some call "populism" to the proposals of the politics that improve the lot of the poor and the middle class: 90 % of the people in a society like ours, and being a democratic republic, they call that populism.
What do they want? for politicians to promise to poison de environment in the quest of more profits, less taxes for the super rich and make the poor to pay for the government and its foreign aggressions and wars?
Warning
Trump can win re-election.
He’s brilliant (yes, brilliant) at maintaining his base and discouraging opposition from turning out and voting for his main opponent.
Don’t take his unpopularity for granted.
2020 is going to be brutal.
3
@Brad, and so far every democratic candidate is someone trump could destroy, through his name calling, goading, bullying. A young gay man? Toast. A black feisty woman? Got it. The ONLY exception might be a) Biden or B) a hidden in the wings candidate like Oprah.
Many with a college degree are functionally ignorant .
Many without a college degree are rich in common sense and good judgment.
What makes a citizen a responsible person is open mindedness, honesty, respect for others, dignity and not least responsible , accurate and true information.
As an European I find many Americans poorly informed or dogmatically attached to a personal , often fake , political doctrine.
175
Prof Krugman condemns Laffer, even though he has written a statement that is in complete agreement with Laffer. Laffer drew a curve on a napkin, with top marginal tax rate as the horizontal line and total tax revenues as the vertical line, and the curve had its peak somewhere between 0% and 100% top marginal tax rate. Prof Krugman says he thinks that number is 70%, and Laffer never said what the number was, so Laffer's curve does not contradict Prof Krugman's 70%.
The Lafferites, on the other hand, must be ridiculed by anyone who can do simple maths. They claim that total tax revenue is inversely proportional to the top marginal tax rate, so one collects the most total taxes when the top rate is 0%. They always argue that, whatever the current rate is, total tax revenue will go up if that rate is lowered.
I think Prof Krugman is probably right about the 70%, but I remember when the top marginal rate was 91% Federal and 10% state and local for any executives paying themselves more than 5 times the average wage. Which meant executives paid themselves 5 times the average wage and put the rest of the money into employee compensation and building up the business, which doesn't happen with the current tax policy.
So I like Ike (even if total tax revenue increased significantly when Kennedy lowered the top rate to 70%).
Trump is first and always a con man. He's worked hard to fool people his whole life. When he "wins", he takes great personal pleasure in doing so at the expense of the "loser".
Now Trump is running his biggest con of all. Trump successfully conned enough voters, in the primaries and then the main election, that with 'a little help' from Russia, and a lot of help from the Electoral College, he pulled the big con.
The only thing left is for Trump to string it out as long as he can... trying to grab as much for himself as he can (another lifelong pursuit) while doing as little as he can. Trump figures that the longer he can keep his "base" fooled, the bigger "winner" he is, and the bigger "losers" they all are.
Trump's constant chaos, his endless dissembling, distraction, and deflection are designed to distract the public from wising up that he's taking the presidency for as much loot as he can for himself and his plutocrat buddies. His big thrill comes from keeping the "base" so agitated, upset, and distracted they don't catch on... and every day they don't is more thrilling.
The rest of the Republicans party is in it for themselves, spotting the opportunity, and as long as Trump is pulling the distractions, they will go for more - power, political advantage, anything they can get. McConnell knows that he's got a big chance if he can push enough judges through, he could stop liberals for a generation. He won't stop Trump. He's "winning" too. It's just us all losing.
269
Prof Krugman condemns Laffer, even though he has written a statement that is in complete agreement with Laffer. Laffer drew a curve on a napkin, with top marginal tax rate as the horizontal line and total tax revenues as the vertical line, and the curve had its peak somewhere between 0% and 100% top marginal tax rate. Prof Krugman says he thinks that number is 70%, and Laffer never said what the number was, so Laffer's curve does not contradict Prof Krugman's 70%.
The Lafferites, on the other hand, must be ridiculed by anyone who can do simple maths. They claim that total tax revenue is inversely proportional to the top marginal tax rate, so one collects the most total taxes if the top rate is 0%. They always argue that, whatever the current rate is, total tax revenue will go up if that rate is lowered.
I think Prof Krugman is probably right about the 70%, but I remember when the top marginal rate was 91% Federal and 10% state and local for any executives paying themselves more than 5 times the average wage. Which meant executives paid themselves 5 times the average wage and put the rest of the money into employee compensation and building up the business, which doesn't happen with the current tax policy.
So I like Ike (even if total tax revenue increased when Kennedy lowered the top rate to 70%).
1
Trump's based in built upon race---when race enters the equation, as the history of southern politics illustrates over and over again, then material benefits become irrelevant--what matters most is the race to remain on top of the bottom.
13
Sigh. A real populist would have to give up his real estate developer's tax benefits and strong arm Congress into passing laws that keep CEOs from taking home billion-dollar golden parachutes when they run their corporations into the ground. A real populist would know to invest in the re-education of men whose factory jobs will never return to these shores.
A real populist would vow to preserve our environment for the health and enjoyment of the hoi polloi's children and grandchildren.
A real populist would worry about workdays and working conditions and OSHA and the NIH and CDC and understand that such entities help all Americans. Ditto inspections of pig farms and poultry farms and use of antibiotics in both.
A real populist would strengthen the IRS and go after wealthy tax evaders. And maybe even release his own taxes.
Donald Trump is no Theodore Roosevelt.
11
@B.: Most, if not all, of the US states are most heavily influenced and governed by real estate developers and their lawyers.
2
True, Steve. Real estate interests would like to develop our National Parks too. Trump is working on it.
But some real estate projects have been magical. The Empire State Building gave us hope during the Depression, Lincoln Center told us that classical music, opera, and dance are meant for all of us, Rockefeller Center gave us an intimate, lovely gathering place, and the Twin Towers -- unattractive as they seemed at first -- became a symbol of our cohesiveness and capacity for wonder when that charming Frenchman -- ah, what was his name? -- performed airy ballets on a thin wire strung between them.
Like so many others, I wept to see them smoldering, and not just because (as I learned only later, reading the names as they were identified) I knew four people who perished there.
Not all builders are wreckers. But more and more certainly seem to be.
1
Paul, you're missing something fundamental. It's ot something about Trump but about his supporters. It's this:
There's a poll out today that was taken of Brexit supporters. The majority of them support Brexit even if it means the United Kingdom dissolvesand that they'll personally be poorer. In other words, to Brexit supporters--and to Trump supporters by extension--it's not about money. It's really not. It's about their resentments or their problems with cosmopolitanism perhaps; but in any case it's not about who gets which tax cut.
10
I agree with Krugman entirely, but he could have added this to make me nod with enthusiasm: People who voted for Trump do not trust laws based on evidence. They have been raised with religion, after all, which has lasted a very long time without evidence. They tend to dislike any other authority aside from God, and the government has been demonized as the replacement for God.
14
@Charlene Dots
"Religion" is not a monolith. Despite the efforts of right-wing fundamentalist Christians to persuade the rest of the world that they are the only kind of Christians and that Christianity is the only real "religion," none of that is true.
Right-wing Christian fundamentalism is actually a very recent development (barely over 100 years old) and is a fear reaction to modernism. "Religion" itself is far more nuanced and complex, and is not intrinsically incompatible with science.
5
@herzliebster - nice rationalization but the demographics don't work. Our democratic experiment requires the separation of church and state. Indeed, freedom from religion is more fundamental than freedom of.
3
@Charlene Dots, so true. And the anti- abortion group of the religious right wing is the most fervently in support of trump. It is no accident that red states like AL and purple states like MO are going on the roe attack at this moment. They want to get their voting base ginned up. They need to be reminded that though trump is surely a revolting man, he HAS brought them close to the end of a woman's right to choose her own path. For that-- and the promise of more draconian treatment of women-- they will come out to vote in droves.
Dr. Krugman, did you happen to see Chris Matthews in Dayton last night? He asked for a show of hands among the republican and democratic crowd of those that benefitted from Trump's tax cuts. I would say less than 10 people in a crowd of over 150 raised their hands. Working class Americans, independent business owners, corporate types. Hardly anyone in this crowd believed they were helped by Trump's voodoo economics.
There were many Trump supporters in the crowd, Matthews did a 50/50 mix of supporters and non-supporters.
The other telling moment was when he asked for a show of hands or verbal agreement when he asked, "Do you believe that Trump is truthful?" Not a single person raised their hand and the crowd was silent. In middle America, in Ohio, we see Trump for what he is more everyday.
22
@Lock Him Up
I wouldn't be so convinced by a show of hands if I were you, I think what you're observing is shame in group dynamics and not sincere answers. There's a reason unions prefer to hold votes by a show of hands rather than the secret ballots preferred by the bosses : everyone gets to look each other in the eye and it is proven that changes the end result.
The only poll that counts will be held in November 2020. And in a secret ballot I don't think Midwesterners are any less hypocrite than any other Trump supporters.
Not by a country mile!
2
@Andy, spot on. In CA we call it the "tom bradley effect;" a qualified black man dem did not win for governor though the polls showed he would. People simply lied in polls and in public, then voted what they really believed. This is why the only thing that will turn this election and the country around is voter registration and voter turn out. It's been a long time since we had much of either during a presidential election. Even then, there is the perhaps insurmountable barrier of the EC, which in a civil war type era works in favor of minority views. And the GOP loves it.
1
Elizabeth Warren has proposed numerous policies that are designed to help the people who supported Trump and now realize the error of their vote. And she is sincere about helping the 90% to a better economic future.
19
Trump could never be a populist because that would conflict with his lifelong desire to be an elitist. Try to imagine Trump bringing the rally crowd around to Mar-a-Largo for the weekend. Try to imagine his super-model wife having anything to do with real working women and their families.
No, Trump is about the image of gold. Any overture to working people is a con that is easily seen by anyone but the most severely under-educated.
17
@Henry Crawford
The thing about under-educated white people is that many of them have the same lifelong desire to be an elitist, and deep down feel that they are entitled to **something** just because they are white. They would rather try like anything to join the "elite," or sit and sulk that they have somehow been kept from their rightful place among the elite, than join forces with the equally economically oppressed who do not look like them.
And the actual elite have been very deliberately exploiting this racism for generations -- mostly, so far, with remarkable success.
Trump may not be a populist but he remains popular not only with men without college degrees but more importantly with Wall Street. Although Trump pretends to aim his concerns at the plight of those fearing the cost of the next doctor visit, he is actually winking at the medical insurance industry allowing them to sell insurance that is worthless in real emergencies.
Tariffs have been sold to men without college degrees as a way to bring back industrial jobs, at the same time Wall Street knows that this can hurt their long term prospects and have already been to Washington to make the point and are encouraging him to put pressure on the fed to cut rates...to support, naturally the market, not workers.
When Trump cut corporate taxes he sold it to men without college degrees as a way of getting the corporations to expand and create new jobs , which actually went to men with college degrees, but even worse mostly went back to Wall Street in the form of buy-backs. Yes one might say Trump is a sort of Populist on Wall Street at least, a sort of Robin Hood taking from the poor and giving it to the really rich !
13
I wholeheartedly agree that Trump has been even more anti-populist than many Americans expected and that Democrats must capitalize on this in 2020 if democracy in America is to survive. But.. The Fox poll referenced in the piece included a "reference question" asked in June of 2015 respecting President Obama. Of Obama's policies 30% of respondents said they mostly helped people richer than them; 25% said they mostly helped people poorer than them and only 6% thought they "helped people like me". Take that in - only 5-6 % of working class whites think the policies of either Dems or Repubs help them. It goes beyond the poll data but I believe that a similar percentage of working whites think both parties are contemptuous of and perhaps even actively hostile to them, their families, their friends and their values and beliefs. If Dems want to win in 2020 we need to nominate a candidate - Bernie, Warren, Harris or Mayor Pete who actually care about all Americans - including working clad whites - and whose policies actually would help them and their families. Poorly educated is not correlated with intellect - especially in America where money plays such a role in who has educational opportunity. The oft heard refrain "But why do they vote against their own interests?" is arrogant, offensive and bigoted. Let's please stop with that and start seeking to help rather than demonize working class Americans - all working class Americans.
9
@KenC
Thank You.
I have noted the same thing. When the much touted tax roll back was instituted I had to tell folk where to look to see it. Some of these folk saw a whole $10.00 per week I saw a $12.50 per week. I appreciate any extra money I am able to get as it's so for most folk. But if I remember correctly Mr Trump was to see approximately $90 million dollar savings. In-addition the major tax breaks for major corporations are permanent while the "rollback" for the rest of us will expire in a short time. Then there was the capping of taxes folk who own property can declare. Then there is the increase of the national debt by over a trillion dollars over a few years making the national debt half or more of the GNP of the U.S.. Add in the damage to the ACA the EPA ,Consumer Protections, the Department of Education, on and on.
When do most folk wake up to what's happening?
I shudder over what I see.
9
@KenC
Intellect does not equal smart. One may have an IQ of 150 and be as prone to logical fallacies one doesn't recognise as someone who isn't capable of following a high school algebra lesson with the help of private tutors paid for by daddy's money.
So "The oft heard refrain "But why do they vote against their own interests?" is arrogant, offensive and bigoted" is just, like, your opinion, man.
I don't know where this gets the Democratic party, but my opinion is you are being overindulgent with some wilfully obtuse people, and that the question is ever more valid as time passes.
1
Trumpites will never give up on Trump because they have invested their entire ego and sense of self identifying with him. Not unlike fans who identify with their favorite sports teams as it competes. If the team "wins" they feel like "winners". When the team loses, it's "wait till next year". As Trump fails to deliver, hope still springs eternal for his fans. They will become more loyal to him to prove a point, though most of us recognize their zealotry as a fool's errand. The net result is that Trump does not really have to deliver Anything to his supporters. He just needs to keep telling them he's fighting for them. For Trumpites, it's not the results but the fight that counts.
29
@KB
And that's a sad comment on those folk.
2
Dr. Krugman, please, credit where credit is due. The tax bill, actually just one of many raids on the US middle class over the past 40 years, was conceived, nurtured and birthed by speaker Paul Ryan. Leader McConnell and the President simply performed as ordered. Sit, roll over and fetch.
18
@Eric Carey
Mr Trump stated on a few occasions that he would rollback takes... Most folk thought they would see more... But then many folk bought into Snake Oil as a cure for most ailments. And we are hearing the benefits of Snake Oil almost daily. The blather coming from the White House is constantly trying to drown out science and logic.
It's frightening and frustrating...
1
Hold on, I thought that even Art Laffer himself had admitted that tax cuts for the rich don't actually result in increased revenues, and that his legacy as the father of the now infamous Laffer Curve would be as a laughing stock, if not among his ignorant base, at least among economists.
Did I dream it, or didn't Professor Krugman even write an article lightly praising him a year or two ago for acknowledging the fallacies in his "research" and conclusions? If so, he should decline the medal, and if he doesn't, he should be roasted and shamed by a panel of real economists until he does.
9
@Gary Henscheid The issue is that Trump is giving him a medal for this work.
3
@Gary Henscheid
Your conclusions are unsupported by your own references. Haters will hate...
This also says a great deal about the despairing spiteful revanchist self destructiveness of so many trimpulists. It’s very sad, but also extremely dangerous. These people’s pain needs to be recognized and addressed.
trimp won’t do that. Will any Republican leader? Let’s hope the Democratic nominee is someone who cares more about our polity than the comfort of fat cat donors.
2
The policies Trump actually implements are so deeply unpopular that it can ONLY be his populist rhetoric that keeps his base in such intoxicated enthusiasm for him.
So why doesn't someone else try appealing to the populists? Now that even Dr. K admits populism is not a synonym for racism it would be respectable, and we KNOW it wins votes.
And just think if someone actually PRACTICED populism!
2
@Green Tea
Bernie Sanders.
Elizabeth Warren.
2
News media often describe Trump as a “populist”
Parts of the media have a strong anti-democratic streak. They cheer when the Supreme Court knocks down laws restricting abortion, and are horrified when Trump tries to reverse it. But Trump's actions have nothing to do with a devotion to democracy. He is basically what is known in Spanish as a caudillo, a strong man who will do anything to incrase his power.
4
I really have no idea what it is. His narrative doesn't appeal to me the way it does so many others. For me, it is summed up by the quote from the federal prison worker, who in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael said something to the effect of, "He is hurting us, he was supposed to hurt other people."
12
What pundits seem to miss is the motivation that his base has for supporting DT. Think. Why do people have a facination for celebrities? We have People magazine! People fawn over the latest exploit or manufactured crisis of a "Brad" or "Kardashian." We have "reality" programs. DT is another "reality" star. People read about celebrity and it makes them feel they are part of the world of celebrity, fame, and money. DT's supporters have no deep seated philosophy they have pondered. They want to be in his celebrity world. For an hour or so at his rallies, they can.
9
The day that the GOP tax plan went through he went back to his Mar A Lago club and told his members"I just made all of you a lot richer". I'll bet most of his supporters have no idea about this. Rest assured that Fox did not report it. Every person in the US should be made aware of that statement.
33
Not that fast. Let us see. Except for not giving anything material to whites with no college degree, all the rest does match the average populist: nepotism, disregard for the letter of law, the creation of parallel facts, the melomaniac personality, the conflict of interests and, the rest.
So Trump skipped that step of giving away "some bones" in order to get to the stage that populists desire: being in power, probably getting rich on their jobs, bulling, implementing authoritarianism, ending the separation of powers and, giving nothing material to his base but just the "circus" as in the Roman Empire. That circus may re-elect him.
I totally agree with your conclusion: "If Trump is re-elected next year, that could mark the end of America’s democratic experiment."
24
The US economy is not delivering sustainable improvements in the living standards of many.
Why is this and what can and should be done about it? Somehow productivity has to be raised. At the margin the large numbers in prisons, in security, in the legal system, the military and in weapons production (all activities that might add to security but add nothing to the stock of consumer goods) needs to be reduced.
More importantly raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2025 would have both an immediate and long term beneficial impact.
Equally important would be a break up of the oligopolies in housing, healthcare and education so reducing the price of these important spending categories that are demanding ever higher subsidies to be affordable.
6
@wjth
"Why is this and what can and should be done about it? "
Because the country's wealth is being siphoned off into the pockets of the 1%. What can be done about it? Raise taxes on the rich. Under Eisenhower they were above 50% and the country could afford huge projects like the highway system, anti-poverty programs and NASA. Nowadays it's "we can't afford it".
Punishing bribery would help too. It's through bribery (disguised as campaign contributions) that the 1% can get government to do its bidding.
5
I think that Krugman is not giving sufficient weight to Republican reactionism. Much has been written about how Republicans, rich and poor, are concerned that they might lose power, especially in a more egalitarian democracy. However, simple concern for loss of tribal power can also lead to a sense that the ideas and aspirations of a rival tribe are intrinsically wrong and bad and must be opposed. This (I hope) reached a high-water mark during the Obama administration, when many Republicans began to reflexively oppose any ideas or policies that Obama supported.
Reactionism, as opposed to simple partisanship, has toxic side effects if the opponent group should ever embrace good ideas or effective policies. In particular, Obama promoted a number of policies and approaches that had long been a part of Republican and mainstream conservative thinking. Two of the biggest were the healthcare plan from the Heritage Institute and standard macroeconomics from mainstream economists. Suddenly, formerly sensible Republicans were trying to argue that healthcare involving private or semi-private markets and strongly based on employer support was totally unacceptable. Equally troubling, the GOP starting stridently arguing that we needed to provide economic depressants when unemployment was high and stimulus when the economy was reaching capacity limits.
15
It is, as FDR and the briefly alive Democratic Party noticed (which effectively gave up its primary reason for existence and ended in 1968), well past time that this enormously wealthy country break the LOWEST glass ceiling: the persistent want and daily and anxiety and humiliations endured by the working blue collar poor, the unemployed, immigrants, and the white collar poor.
The DNC has it criminally wrong, as it did in 2016. It continues to betray the "economic" parts of "political economy," only less grotesquely than the Republicans. Can they please get it right this time and stay on message about what an utterly unprincipled evil the Republican represents.
Money is the word that the Democratic party dared not utter for at four least decades.
Bernie has not stopped talking about it, and the Times sees this issue as a divisive one, and a dinosaur. Other candidates have now to speak of it, but prudently, and in a way that does not upset the overly-comfortable class. Please continue to report on this issue as though it is an outdated losing strategy. We shall know you by your works.
Highest glass ceilings can wait until the US has the moral courage to smash the florid disgrace of our very, very low glass ceiling. The DNC needs to begin caring a bit more about the issue of simple want and well-grounded fears in this country, and pointing out that these have never mattered at all to the gilded orange noise on the golf links.
Remember.
6
I have a few Trump-supporting relatives in Pittsburgh who are working-class Catholics. I asked them a few months ago if they thought Trump was living up to his promises. I did not get the sense that they felt "betrayed" at all. They felt that Trump had kept his promises. What was most important to them is that they felt--for the first time in a long while--dignity about the lives they were living. I think they understood that Trump was often a liar and a cheat, but it was more important that he at least talked about working-class people front-and-center and that on abortion--a critical issue--he was keeping his word.
Most people want to be noticed, and Trump at least gave the sense that working-class people were finally noticed. It's a mistake to under-estimate the impact of that. Democrats need to put away the "deplorable" labels and start genuinely reaching out to the working class in ways that go beyond simple economics. People want jobs, yes, but they also want to be told that they are loved and that their way of life is not a mistake or some sort of anachronism. Therein lies his power, and why, I fear, he may be re-elected in 2020.
25
@Dwarf Planet It's so "funny" to hear Trump supporters' need for "dignity about the lives they were living" as long as it's at the expense of everyone else. And as the son of "working-class Catholics," they are some of the most racist, bigoted, misogynist people I've every known, Second only to the evangelical conservative Christians in this country. Two groups of people who have historically, for centuries, been the least "Christian" in thought and action.
2
@Dwarf Planet
He kept his abortion promise, which is more than any other Republican did for years. Otherwise I don't know what promises he has kept. Infrastructure, anybody?
@Dwarf Planet yes, and it is easy to get such people riled up and feel aggrieved by the Master Showman drumming up Fake News to plant Fake stories to generate fake insults. They get all their information from their echo chambers which only the Master's tweets penetrate. To them, it does not really matter what the Dems do or dont do. They live in their own reality. They may be getting flushed down the toilet in the real world, but the Master's tweets make them feel good.
1
“... many Republicans might suddenly discover...” Please, please, this is the bigger problem. There seems to be nothing Trump initiates that the GOP doesn’t either fall in line with or simply ignore. The growing counter wisdom is that Trump is getting nothing done, it is McConnell who is orchestrating everything. The target has to be to retake majority in the senate.
22
Krugman, usually on the money, misses the key point here:
Trump isn’t a populist because every populist policy would help “the others.” The brown people, liberals, the atheists, the teachers, the blue-staters, the gays, the others.
His base, like him, would rather suffer than share prosperity.
39
@Josh Wilson
Most Republicans subscribe to the old Russian parable, when a genie offers them something for free , but says their neighbors will receive double, the Russian says "blind me in one eye"
That's the Trump base .
2
@Josh Wilson
Yes. It reminds me of that old Russian joke:
A man is so mean to and jealous of his neighbor that God decides to teach him a lesson.
God says, "I will give you anything you ask for on condition that your neighbor gets twice as much."
The man thinks for a minute, then says, "Gouge out one of my eyes."
3
Traveling to countries which actually practice democracy and put tax money to work for the benefits to all citizens should be a requirement of US education. Free speech alone is not democracy when it is just hot air.
33
Trump isn’t a real populist because the US is not a real democracy. We’ll keep getting these characters, first Bush and now Trump, until we realize we have to do the work required of us in a democracy and stop letting the rich make all the big decisions.
35
@Judith MacLaury
Bush and Trump both got into the White House via the Electoral College, not the popular vote. That is why the US is not a real democracy. By the way, I have heard very little discussion about this among Democratic politicians.
4
trump has zero respect for anyone without money. When told about someone he doesn't know his first question is always "How much money does he have"
Pretty much the signature of the shallow, hollowed out nothing that he is. I'm sure he has a great deal of contempt for his 'base' , but he needs them, so...
54
@Plennie Wingo: Most billionaires are snooty about lesser mortals with less money. Trump fakes it by being as snooty as they are.
His only real concern is being accepted into the club of the ultra wealthy. Walking on the little guys to get there is just a tool. He is gambling, so far well, that the little guys will not notice because they are, as this article points out, poorly educated.
38
That MAGA disenfranchised 30% of the lower socio economic order don’t play golf, eat or stay at Trump properties. Where is there benefit to his bottom line?
12
"But Orban’s success has depended in part on throwing his base at least a few bones. Hungary has instituted a public jobs program for rural areas; offered debt relief, free schoolbooks and lunches; and so on, paid for in part by a significant rise in taxes."
There's your answer, Dr. Krugman. No Republican president can ever raise taxes--EVER.
Call it the "Read-My-Lips Rule", or call it whatever you want. But Trump is trapped, just like any other GOP president would be.
But luckily for him, a lot of his supporters don't even understand that gov't needs to be part of any solution to their problems. So, around and round the political nonsense on the right goes!
14
@Bryan
The recent book "If we can keep it" said the Republican politicians took a secret oath to their donors that they would never raise taxes. If the book is correct, we should hear a lot more about this. It would explain things like why Trump faked a temper-tantrum to get out of a discussion on US infrastructure.
2
@Charlesbalpha
I believe that's right. But back in the Bush 43 days there was also a less than secret "pledge" that Grover Norquist forced most of them to take as well. But I'm not sure what the state of that pledge is today!
1
It is obvious from the rallies over which Trump presides that he appeals to racists, to those who hate and disparage others, and stirs them to greater heights of rage and disparagement and denial of altruistic instincts. Apparently he also appeals to some in the group of people who genuinely have been left behind by our current mad untamed state of capitalism. I have heard interviews from some in this group, seemingly good people, who profess from their hearts that they love Trump and they know that he "loves" them. They have swallowed the Kool Aid, that is the avowals that he will give them better health care than anyone has ever given, that he will bring jobs back to America, and are impressed by the glitz and glamour of the Trump show, the avowals that only he can solve things, that only he can negotiate our trade problems away. I hope the real populists in this group will see the truth and vote for one of the Democrats who actually have programs to help them.
28
Trump is not a "real" populist because he has absolutely NO idea how 99% of this country lives. He is a con-man, and his "base" are his marks. He suckered them in 2016. He will sucker them again in 2020.
I chalk it up to the insidious power of television. TV creates an illusion (the hard-nosed, wealthy real estate magnate), packages it as "reality," and then markets the product to an unsuspecting (and unthinking) public. "The Apprentice" was pure nonsense. The whole thing was scripted, from beginning to end. The "winners" were chosen in advance, based upon their willingness to lie, cheat, steal, and otherwise engage in amoral behavior that Trump considered "good business."
For too many people, it isn't "real" unless they see it on TV. So they see The Donald bragging, shouting, insulting his opponents, and promising his voters the moon and the stars. They see HIM behaving the way THEY wish they could--and they fall for the con.
Naturally, they will vote for him again. Even though he has done NOTHING to improve their lives. They are emotionally invested in him. Some believe his lies that he has "made America great again." Some believe the good times are "just around the corner"--when The Donald will magically double their paychecks, get rid of "those people," and of course, "stick it to the libs."
And when Trump finally leaves office (through death, defeat, or the end of his second term), his base will look back on his Presidency as a Reaganesque Golden Age.
51
@Jack Connolly
"The Apprentice" made it look like Trump was a genius in hiring the right people, but one look at the White House staff will show what poor judgement he actually has
1
@Jack Connolly - well said! The "alternative reality" show is on, to fool these people again and again. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. There is no shame with these folks. They will be happy to be fooled a third time and fourth time as well..... and "demand" that a Trump stay in office for the rest of the century.
1
I wonder if Kansas mothers who must now drive their children 60 miles to an emergency room because of hospital closings driven by Laffer’s tax recommendations and former Gov. Brownback’s refusal to expand Medicaid under Obamacare will support Trump this time.
70
@Jack
Conservatives don't consider hospital closings as being driven by Republican policies. They consider it as how the laws of economics work. Nobody told them that Adam Smith considered government services as part of a healthy capitalist system..
8
I think most observers of the 2016 election believe support for Trump was always based on hate, which just happens to be the one true thing he has in common with the rest of the republican party of the past 60 years.
While mainstream Republicans wrapped their hate in so called principles such as states rights, less government, and low taxes, it was always really about the right to bigotry with less government to prevent it, and no money to stop it.
The main difference between Trump and Republicans is he didn't even bother to pretend it was about anything other then the hate. Mainstream republicans may have pretended to come kicking and screaming to get behind Trump, but I think secretly they have enjoyed no longer having to hide their hate any more. Thanks to Trump they don't have to pretend any more. Thanks to Trump hate is now mainstream American politics.
92
During the 2016 campaign, there were times when Trump lifted whole paragraphs of Bernie Sanders speeches and used them at his rallies and campaign stops. The crowds ate it up. Once he got into office there was almost no way to make him do what he said.
What will his base say when he drags them into a war with Iran?
33
@Mark
"Once he got into office there was almost no way to make him do what he said."
Great Britain has a mechanism called the "no-confidence" vote. Too bad the US doesn't.
3
The support for Trump is not based on facts, it's based on emotions. He is a master of playing to peoples emotions to make them feel like he's their guy. He likes to play the victim card so that his base can feel connected to him because they too feel like victims.
This won't work forever of course, and when real consequences start to hurt his base, he will eventually lose it. Talking about great economy doesn't do much if it's only benefitting the rich.
39
@Trond Zaphirax
"The support for Trump is not based on facts, it's based on emotions."
This explains his alliance with evangelicals. As a theology book I read once pointed out, evangelicals believe in a "God of Miracles" who will intervene and rescue them if anything goes wrong. Why learn facts if their deity can override them at will?
The theologian also went on to say that mainstream Christians don't conduct their lives this way, which means the Times makes a serious mistake when they identify evangelicals as representing "Christianity".
1
Why Trump remains popular with a base made up mostly of people for whom his policies have done little or nothing, remains a mystery. Perhaps it won’t remain that way for long. Dems must concentrate on proposals that will really impact salaries, health care and other things that really matter to 95% of the country. They must get out the vote as effectively as they did in 2018. If they do that, they could probably spend most of the campaign without even mentioning what’s his name. Wouldn't that be a sound for sore ears ?
20
Trump's appeal is that he has become a Biblical figure in the end times melodrama of apocalyptic Christians. A couple of Old Testament parallels are in play, including an analogy to Persian King Cyrus and his relationship to the Hebrews. TV evangelists are breathlessly reporting new Trumpian prophetic dreams on an almost weekly basis. Or as Mitch McConnell says, it's all about the new army of anti-abortion judges. And the new embassy in Jerusalem.
The abortion issue is capable of uniting both the Protestant evangelical and conservative Catholic constituencies, potentially providing a majority for Trump in key states if abortion becomes more important than Democrat-leaning health and economic issues. It's hard to see any other way for Trump to assemble a winning combination for 2020. So, no, Trump is not primarily a populist. He sees his political salvation lying elsewhere.
16
Many people write here that the US is a democracy, but it is still fundamentally organized as a system of state-optional liberty to enslave, and radically unequal representation which provides pressure points where outside money always prevails.
17
@Steve Bolger
Your definition of the US is the best I have read in a long time !
Anti-immigrant policies are also populist, and we can expect Trump to ramp up deportations, to the cheers of the mob.
12
I hope you are aware of something that is second nature to me because of my knowledge of history in America; The name "Laffer", as in "All the way to the Trump Wall Street Banks".
3
A better title or question might be: Why isn't Trump a has been?
This "show" has gone long beyond what should have been its final curtain, and I am sorry to still see so many Americans hoodwinked by the phony populism.
The hoax Trump's been mentioning over and over is the hoax that he's perpetrated on the people who voted for him and that still believe he has their backs.
15
Democrats should be ready with a few key stats, to help address those Republicans who use the economy to rationalize their support for Trump:
1. The number of people without health insurance is up nearly 2 million (about 7%) since Trump took office, thanks to his ACA sabotage.
2. In 2017, we had the first increase in uninsured since 2010.
3. Job creation was faster in Obama’s last 28 months than Trump’s first 28. The gap will continue to widen. The unemployment rate has been improving since late 2009.
4. The budget deficit was up 60% in 2018 vs. the CBO forecast when Trump was inaugurated. The forecast for the 2018-2027 period is up nearly 40%. This is due to Trump’s tax cuts and additional spending.
5. GDP growth in 2018 of 2.9% was the same as 2015, but the budget deficit was a lot lower back then, so it gave GDP less of a boost.
6. Tariffs are paid by U.S. consumers. Hundreds of companies have announced they have or will raise prices due to tariffs. The trade deficit grew from 2017 to 2018.
7. Mortgage rates and inflation are higher in Trump’s first two years vs. Obama’s last two, while real wage growth is slower.
8. Tax cuts for corporations will make inequality worse, further polarizing the electorate.
Don’t cede the economic argument to Trump. This is not a record to brag about.
197
@David Doney I'd like to share this, but do you have documentation for 1-7? I've given up arguing with Trumpers, but when I do hear from one, I like to offer sources before they automatically claim my sources are flawed.
10
@Bill Bush
See the summary section of the Wikipedia article: “Economic policy of Donald Trump.” There is a table with each statistic cited back to a definitive source.
See also NYT Rattner “2018 The year in charts” and “trump’s economic claims are overblown”.
5
I suppose a populist is someone who thinks of themselves as better than everyone else as opposed to someone who really just wants to lead a nation to good times and prosperity like the Democrat Franklin Roosevelt did. I think Trump is the first. He is so unaware of his faults that he once said he could pardon himself. That must mean he knew he did wrong if he brought up the idea. We all missed that.
15
Yea, but narcissists and sociopaths have no conscience ... ie doing wrong is not a problem.
It’s past time for some NYT columnists to focus on the far-reaching effects of our Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. It effectively muffled the voice of the majority of citizens in the once 'greatest democracy' and amplified the voice of a minority of elites. Or is that a 'taboo' topic--except for reader comments, which often cite it?
Our media commentary seems to avoid like the plague this underlying cause/effect of much of the problems discussed with outrage. It’s like our media accepts the money/politics collusion as an inevitable, if regrettable part of our system, so no use talking about it. Yet most voters and many politicians see clearly that we must reverse Citizens United.
The S. Court pretended that the old limits on corporate donations to politicians was blocking 1st Amendment Free Speech.
Thus, our own Constitution is being distorted to remove power from We the People, the opposite of its purpose. A disguised dictatorship is then more easily erected. And a con man TV personality can step in to enflame latent racism and mask the true cause of our problems.
Quite a coup in America the Beautiful, once a model for the world. If our news media and pundits don’t frankly discuss the ripple effects of the Court’s legalization and normalization of big money politics, then the media are contributing to our ever worsening political maladies that they then lament.
103
@Meredith: All of US politics is now scored by the amount of money raised.
The Supreme Court is a peculiar collection of very sheltered people.
4
Trump isn't a class populist.
He is a race populist.
Different thing.
It is what the oligarchs use to divide the working class and stifle working people from real collective power.
112
In 2016, Trump appealed to everyone's hate and anger instincts. It worked then and up until now. Let's watch after Tomorrows hate rally to see how Trump ascends, or descends in the polling. I will be observing the audience and recording for tells about the effects of his psychological lynch mob rants that will inevitably arise, and I predict, under some self control with those immediately next to him as a moderating force. Look for veiled threats and I'll do my best tomorrow night to give my analysis.
15
Trump can't be a populist because Mitch McConnell won't let him. Also I would be surprised if Trump knew what a populist is.
35
Trump doesn’t want to be a populist, has never been a populist, never will be a populist. It’s an obvious act. He has gold-plated toilets and stiffs contractors. He’s a draft dodger who doesn’t know the words to the national anthem. He employs undocumented immigrants at his golf courses and outsources his manufactured goods to Asian sweatshops. He doesn’t pay taxes and launders money for oligarchs. He’s enriching himself while in office while seeking to end affordable health care and cut entitlements for the most needy. He’s a narcissist without a cause. Cobbled together a coalition of one-issue voters to win a squeaker with the help of the russians, Comey and a bunch of gullible, Hillary-hating blue- and white-collar men and turned-off black voters. But a chastened electorate will do better in 2020, and this national nightmare will be over.
1
@Thomas Weeks Oh, he i a populist in that he talks the talk He doesn't walk that walk, but who does?
I don't know who is the bigger con artist: Trump or the Republican party. But it sure says a lot about the American people that both have been elected to manage the country, it's economy, finances, military, international relations and social progress.
What will it take for people to wise up?
We in Australia are gullible at times but not in the same league as Americans seem to be. Our so-called Liberal Party (currently in power) is a Republican light. But the leadership in the US has a significant effect on the wellbeing of people in every country.
That such a significant number of people live a week to week existence financially in the richest country in the world is astonishing. And these people think that a Trump presidency is good for them.
71
@Barry Long....I'm curious....how does your Australian 'liberal party' ---Republican light --- differ in main policies from our U.S. GOP and our Dems? Say in health care, gun safety, tax fairness, govt regulations, whatever.
Because the definitions of liberal and conservative vary widely between the U.S. and other democracies.
And do you let individual states or provinces make policy or does the federal govt set policy that affects all citizens?
5
@Meredith
Generally speaking, our Liberal party's ideology is small government, tax cuts for the wealthy, less regulation, deficits are always bad, cuts to social welfare and government services. They pay lip service to climate change but only because the electorate demands recognition of the problem. I refer to them as Republican light because they are far more moderate than your Republicans. I doubt whether a party like your Republicans could ever be anything but a small fringe party here. What we might call right wing, you would probably call centre and what we call centre you would call left.
On some of the matters you mention like health care and gun safety they are probably on the same page as your Democrats. Our Liberals know full well that if they tried to dilute the health care system they would lose government in a landslide. Likewise with gun control.
Our constitution sets out the powers of the states and the federal government. But control over policies can be muddied by the fact that the feds provide funding for areas where states have powers (eg., hospitals, education). Only the feds can levy income taxes but the states can levy property taxes and fees for its services.
Importantly, there is much less inequality in Australia and as we know, that leads to less division and crime. But the Liberals are just now trying to pass massive tax cuts for the wealthy. They will need the support of the independents in parliament to succeed.
13
It is much more difficult to take advantage of people who don't trust you than those who do.
13
"Orban has effectively turned Hungary into an authoritarian state, retaining the forms of democracy but rigging the system in such a way that his party has a permanent lock on power."
Isn't that exactly what the Republican party has already done here? Doesn't that mean we already have an authoritarian state?
50
@R Kling
An authoritarian state is centred around the use of violence and threats of violence to achieve compliance and conformity. At this stage, however, the rule of Trump and the Republican Party is based more on the gerrymander, strategic appointments - such as the stacking of the Supreme Court - and the use of effectively-crafted propaganda. Things might change of course.
22
@philip proust I see you've likely not seen the USA's many police forces in action. If you had, you'd realize that "the use of violence and threats of violence to achieve compliance and conformity" are right there, bubbling just under the surface of everyday American life.
6
@philip proust Well, cries of treason about an NYT article show that we are approaching the end of American Democracy.
This old voter and taxpayer certainly agrees that re-electing Trump "could mark the end of America’s democratic experiment." However, in addition to re-electing Trump, the re-electing of a Republican majority in the Senate and losing the House to the Republicans in 2020 would certainly make the "end of America’s democratic experiment" a sure thing.
The only Republican in either the Senate or the House manifesting any reverence for our Constitution and making democracy work is Representative Justin Amash of Michigan's Third District. The others are little more than Trump apparatchiks. They are elected officials on the government dole, "deadbeats" whose loyalty is to him, but whose oath of office to "support and defend the Constitution" requires no real sacrifices on their part. The words of the oath of office are mouthed so they can receive their government paychecks and the rich benefit and pension packages we taxpayers provide them. What a waste of our money!
130
Best news! Some working class white people notice that DJT is not on their side. The peculiar thing to me is many seemed to vote for him because they liked the way he entertained them with his hits against the elites. They were voting on visceral issues- resentments of elites, fear of “the other,” and revulsion with abortion. Somehow these voters need to place their resentments where they belong- DJT and all the GOP who have been using their votes all along to help the wealthy get wealthier. We need an awakening of sorts.
56
If 5% of Trump's voting base truly believes that his policies fail to benefit people like them, then the only rationale that comes to my mind is that Trump, with decades of generous help and encouragement from the Republican Party, has so poisoned the minds of GOP constituents that they are conditioned to hate their perceived enemies more than they love themselves, their interests or their families and children. No other explanation occurs to me.
44
@John LeBaron Right on the money. As long as their "perceived enemies" are people of color they will hate them more than they love themselves or their children.
@John LeBaron
And they are terrified of living in a country where people who look like them are not the majority.
1
@John LeBaron
This is the correct interpretation. Or, simply: they hate you and want to hurt you, AND THAT’S IT. There is literally nothing that matters to them more than that.
1
The high & low income Trump supporters around here are now rather silent in discussing the man himself. The low income types continue to use federal food stamps & depend on the Oregon Health Plan, somehow giving him credit for not abolishing those programs & indulging themselves because "If I didn't, only the immigrants & the unworthy would."
The well -off have seized on global warming issues as a cudgel. Many are now parroting the idea that we're still slowly emerging from the ice age. No hand of man at work here. Let the forces of nature & the Lord have sway.
This position is not taken with any particular zealotry however. Like so many opportunists, they'll take what they can get while it lasts. Around here for instance, lots of heavy timber is being harvested, larger trees than we've seen on moving log trucks in years.
They're really quite pessimistic about Trump's re-election prospects, but then this is the West Coast, where radical thinking has flourished from Wobblies to Birchers & social change has been seen & experienced by many in the West Coast proving grounds.
Most will exchange greetings with neighbors regardless of politics. Only the hardcore rednecks are unpredictable.
17
There was never much doubt that Donald Trump would betray the support base he cultivated as soon as he got their votes.
That's why his remark about loving the poorly educated is so sinister -- because it was actually one of the few times he told the truth.
Anyone familiar with the man and the myth with an almost pathological need to always be right, and to always come out on top could've predicted what would happen to this country if he ever became president.
It's just shocking to see it happen within the short amount of time he's been in the White House, and how successfully he's co-opted the Republican-controlled Senate and Department of Justice in his favor.
To say that Trump is appealing to our lesser angels with his racism, sexism and xenophobia would be an understatement. Especially as he seems ready to install himself as a president-for-life, intent on giving to the rich while starving everyone else.
It's a wonder the white poor and working-class haven't figured this out yet.
But at least the same can't be said for American farmers who have watched their livestock die and crops fail from too much rain or not enough, not to mention the tariff on China which has no end in sight.
They see what's happening.
And if this is what making America great again is about, we already know for whom.
41
Please stop equating a lack of a college degree with being a Trump voter. A college degree states that you are able to complete a curriculum in an advanced area. There are many conservatives that hold college degrees and are Republicans no matter the candidate. Yet, the college degree did not inoculate blind loyalty to a party.
19
Trump is a salesman, who doesn’t care what he is selling.
Also, Conservatives have very cleverly distorted the very definition of “patriot,” and created an atmosphere where it is wimpy to seek government benefits. Many Trump supporters benefit from social programs, but they will NEVER admit it.
The end result is no concern for one’s well-being as long as it is better than some minority.
11
" . . . takes pleasure in taking advantage of people who trusted him."
That is integral to the art of the con. And speaking of con men (or at least mostly men); who appreciates a good con more the the evangelical "christian" con artists that are in bed with Trump? They are enamored with his ability to con his base (their followers) as they have done but only better and with no pretense, however cynical, of morality or ethics. Has Trump ever even pretended to be a Christian? I don't recall an instance but perhaps one or more of the enraptured will set me straight and provide us with some comic relief from this nightmare.
18
There is some hope, if only some of the base will raise one eye. The real populist in this 2020 race is Elizabeth Warren, but she's a Harvard elite person (raised in Oklahoma and educated in Texas, but who notices?), somebody who has actual plans based on empirical evidence (instead of steady streams of lies and slanders, but who notices?) and is not ashamed to admit that a well-regulated capitalism can provide benefits to the people (she is not now nor ever was a socialist, but who notices?). Speaking of well-regulated, she's even in favor of the Second Amendment, if it is read fully and literally (but who notices?)
97
@beaujames
Not the press. They are neglecting coverage of her, favoring the white male candidates shamelessly.
7
"On the other hand, health care — where his betrayal of past promises was especially obvious — seems to have played a big role in Democrats’ midterm victory."
Democrat calls for "Medicare for All" is a vote loser, will raise taxes and will drive experienced doctors out of the system. It's a disaster worse than Obamacare.
Democrats listen up, there is a much better solution.
@Michael Hutchinson Seems to me that the US doesn't rank well with many other countries. You can fetch this data with a quick search. When you see the data, you realize that the US is doesn't fare well. Medicare for all would be workable. There are other methods, but our system leaves too many without adequate care and have too many burdened with costs. I hope that the Democrats spend a little time and effort to show how badly our people are treated. Almost any solution would be much better than the present.
17
@Michael Hutchinson. And that is....
@Michael Hutchinson
What is it?
...Because the Republican formula is to embrace the positions on social issues that are coveted by single-issue voters who will vote against their own economic interests just to promote the only issue that motivates them to vote.
19
Great essay and good question.
I am reading your column after pondering the 30 hour interview and tour of the places of presidential power afforded George Stephanopoulos. The Sunday night program was a ratings disappointment, but as I see it, the staff and advisers are doing test marketing of the future Trump message to see what attracts the attention of the media universe. They will tailor positions and the tweets of homilies and stage moves (like hugging the flag) to expand their base and voter turn-out. The goal will be to get the most clicks, ink, radio and TV time for President Trump.
His strong stand on border security and pumping the images of illegal immigrants with ZERO effort to recognize the international economic, environment and social conditions that are generating refugees the World over and appears to be one of the strong forces driving the acceptance of authoritarian government leaders.
Bottom line: Democrats must nominate candidates to deliver and persuade voters that we are NOT on a productive international track -- economically, immigration, and on the climate issue.
Democrats must develop positions and persuade voters that Dr. Laffer's tax cuts for the wealthy, did not, will not and will never pay for themselves.
We must make a full effort to develop technologies to replace fossil fuels as the World energy source and we must work out a plan for the employment of fossil fuel workers. This is a huge challenge, but it must be done.
19
One of Trump's worst dangers to America is to lower our standards of acceptability of what our govt owes its citizens.
Because he is so bad, to use the simplest word, on so many fronts--economic, rule of law, personal, etc. that just about any Democrat can gain the loyalty of millions, even with mediocre policies.
In health care, if we can prevent GOP/Trump from destroying Obamacare, we'll be so thankful, even though it's an inferior HC system that leaves out millions, overcharges millions, and puts millions in profit as 1st priority, as it subsidizes insurance companies.
Other democracies wouldn't tolerate ACA. Their govts show greater respect for their citizens. But ACA is still a big improvement and the best we can do--in the 21st Century.
Our political culture is out of balance. The new Dems want to correct this, to represent the interests of the citizen majority. That's called left wing, radical, big govt interference in American 'Freedoms'.
The biggest lie of the GOP is to pretend our lack of govt support for health care & other protections proves that we are a free, independent people who value 'small govt'. Many liberals have been cautious and defensive ---staying in the middle while appearing humanitarian and rational.
What's 'left wing' here has long been centrist in other capitalist democracies. HC for all in Canada started 1960s, UK 1940s, France 1970s. Our politics and media shaped US public opinion to not be too outraged at our lagging standards.
22
@Meredith
It seems to me that Americans have been subjected to propaganda (rugged individualism, greed is good, flag hugging) for so many years that their negative attitudes towards collective action through government has been cast in stone. People in other countries recognise that they can often achieve much more collectively than as individuals. That's why businesses people form companies and governments in many countries create government led institutions and programs that collectivise such things as health care.
Trump is all about dividing and conquering: within American society and across the world.
16
@Barry Long...yes, I've been trying to figure this out. Corporations are really collectives or 'bodies' of investors who combine to create and sell a product or service for profit. Individuals couldn't do this on their own. They are in effect 'unions'. These collectives of business are idealized as the protectors of our American Freedoms.
But unions of employees, also collectives with legitimate, common interests, are downgraded and weakened in the U.S. far more than abroad. They just don't get respect. Our political culture keeps workers/employees individualized, on their own, thus powerless.
And a large collective of non profit health care is put down as anti American Freedom. But the larger the insurance pool, the lower the cost for each person. See NYT op ed by a Finnish journalist "The Fake Freedom of American Health Care".
And our states rights credo is idealized as giving more power to individuals, but it also removes protections of the federal govt for citizens, no matter their zip code.
6
@Meredith
Sadly, unions everywhere are being weakened by being demonised by big business and right wingers. This is partly why wages are stagnating across the world.
I find the argument about the loss of individual freedom in collective action is often over exaggerated propaganda. Sure there might be some loss of individual freedom, but done properly, it is repaid in spades by the benefits. The difference between Australia's and America's health care systems is a good example. Here, health care costs and insurance costs are a fraction of those in the US.
4
You know, I read the 'All' comments to get a sense for what the other side (the Trump supporters) are thinking. Why can't I find any comments from them here. Ah, I know, Trump would way they are his 'silent majority.' Someone else tried that trick once before, it didn't work.
9
@Jimmy
Well, he did win a second term: Nixon, 520; McGovern, 17.
The evocative word is "resentments" regarding Trump's support. This is nothing new, the segregationist right wing of the Fifties and Sixties was propelled largely by resentment, as was Christianity itself, which was repurposed early on to harness the resentments of Rome's large slave population. "The last shall be first," was the promise, but after Constantine's vision and the ascendancy of Christianity to state religion, the old social order reasserted itself.
11
What I read and hear over and over from members of Trump’s base is that they’re more than happy to take it on the chin for him. Whether it be soybean farmers, small businessmen or blue collar workers, they are less prosperous, even facing ruin, yet believe that Trump’s incoherent policies will yield some future benefit to the nation, however ill-defined. It’s the definition of insanity and it’s not something progressive economists, with their rational empirical models, are prepared to accept. Krugman speaks of zombie ideas, but it’s the Republican base that has sacrificed all pretense to objectivity when it comes to the damage Trump is doing to them and the country.
27
@AlNewman
They know the damage he’s doing to them. It’s just that they believe he’s doing slightly more damage to YOU, so they love it. They hate you and want to hurt you. Just ask them— they’ll tell you!
Mr. Krugman does not do justice to Mr. Laffer. I'm sure the Medal will also celebrate his brilliant insight that devaluing currency should reduce exports.
9
Krugman is right about the racism. But it is also combined with misogyny (hatred of women - especially Hillary Clinton), Russia's need for climate change denial to get at arctic oil, and the greed of the wealthy (largest tax break in history). Such forces can only ultimately be destructive and they are starting with the environment and human rights. It is time for a new leader who can turn from the worst in us to the best in us.
49
Great piece. I would suggest reading or re-reading Larry Goodwyn's insightful analysis of the first populists in US History, "The Populist Moment." As Goodwyn argued in the 1970s, they have a lot to teach us. Still. About the authentic meaning of populism in North America.
4
In reality, Trump disdains the people he claims to love. His has been a life of priveledge and wealth among the GOP elite. And we know where the real loyalties of GOP politicians lay. In my lifetime it's always been with those of the priveledged connected. That's how it was with the Bush's, Reagan, Nixon, and now Trump. Gerald Ford, not so much.
In Trump's world, laws are for rubes, money and power for the beautiful "winners". Trump loves the adulation and the applause of his base. And he'll do for them what he thinks he must in order to get elected. But he will never be able to really respect those he knows he has conned.
38
Dr. Krugman hit the nail on the head with this column. I hope Democrat candidates at all levels pay attention to his final paragraph.
16
The Laffer curve. Supposedly good for everyone.
A formula for higher incomes and increased revenues. In reality, irresponsible tax cuts.
The heritage institute: a place where immigrants are quantified and borders seen as savings.
In reality, more immigrants are needed.
How do we convince Trump supporters that Medicare was cut and social security is next?
15
Never a better name for an economic philosophy...Laffer Curve. Yes, it has been proven to be a laughter of economics since the Reagan era.
18
I’ve read this “Laffer Curve” as it’s called, and the only people that believe the idea that if you cut taxes on the rich and corporations, that revenues would rise....huh. So then, following that logic, a cut in my hourly pay, would make my paycheck bigger....huh.......it’s no wonder, only a Republican would believe that idea. Those of us with two brain cells, and tons of common sense, we seem to know that’s just not true.
@East Coaster in the Heartland
Isn't that the origin of the term term 'laff riot' for comedy?
On the campaign trail in 2016, Trump promised to do something about student college loan debt and college costs. And what has he done? Nothing. Nada. I am really perplexed as to why the media and his followers haven't held him accountable for this. Did they just forget? I guess it was just another big lie by the grifter-in-chief. And an utter lack of memory or attention by the media and Trump's followers.
34
@JS
Promises made, promises forgotten.
The picture with this Op-Ed, like almost every other one I have seen of Trump supporters in those red MAGA hats, don't look as though they are suffering financially. If they never earned a college degree, they look to me nonetheless like people that are not doing badly. To me, they have the expressions of people who do not want anyone of a different skin color to take away their position. In this particular photograph I see 100% middle-aged white men (one blurry woman in there). They are Trump's fans from the Apprentice TV program days. They think he is the boss that knows how to fire people. They dream that they, in each case, would not be the one he got rid of.
105
@Jeff They'd be the first to go.
1
@Jeff
You can tell all that from one blurry photo where details of faces are a rarity? That is truly amazing! That you can even tell what they dream is even more incredible.
To me, being the cynic, I think that they could have been hired by Trump for fifty dollars a head to wear those stupid hats and raise those stupid signs. That's what he did to kick off his original campaign as he glided down the escalator at Trump Tower.
3
@Jeff
Perhaps some are paid to show up or are given time off and bus rides from nearby mills. The crowds are always surprisingly homogeneous.
4
A walking contradiction. He projects Ralph Kramden---a populist projection. Dwell not on his amassed fortunes, in money and wife. He is a bloated, bundle of single minded aim squelching discernment of what he is actually saying or doing. Of course he isn't for the average. The Poor. This whole sham is to benefit only one--Donald Trump. And it's total disaster with constant, constant narrative that it is a success. As George Will said today on Jake Tapper show- This is what happens when the Presidency is treated like an entry-level position.
72
Trump’s 2020 budget slashes social security and Medicare, which virtually no one supports. He appeals to rural white Christians’ racial and cultural anxiety through his authoritarian, racist, anti-intellectual, and sexist promises to protect their declining way of life. He’s a neoliberal capitalist, transferring wealth from the people to the corporations, more extreme than Reagan or G.W. Bush. His hard line against reasonable gun control, some level of abortion rights, gay marriage, and taxing the rich is opposed by the vast majority of Americans. He’s made the Republican Party a permanent minority among voters, that can hold power only through unconstitutional gerrymandering and voter suppression. Will Trump end the American Constitutional Republic to hold onto power even if he loses the 2020 election, with the support of his base and most of the Republican Party?
26
@Bruce Shigeura If Trump loses it will be because of "electoral fraud" or something similar and then he can stay in while that is being investigated!
5
@Bruce Shigeura - well, he did say the campaign trail in 2016 something to the effect of how much he loved “the Second Amendment people and how much they loved him, and if Hillary won that they might have something to say about that, and I believe he followed that statement with the phrase of “I think you know what I mean”. I don’t know if you saw that or not. But it certainly sent a chilling message right down my spine.
Michael Lewis, Money Culture: "‘Every blue-collar worker wants to be treated like a high-roller, not like an ordinary guy,’ writes Trump about his troubled casino. ‘These people gravitate toward the symbol of success. They want to touch success. Knowing this, I wasn’t surprised when (a neighboring casino’s) blue-collar ad campaign turned out to be a total failure....’ ‘Success,’ (Trump) writes, ‘is so often just a matter of perceptions.’”
10
Again, Dr. Krugman makes the mistake that so many others have made, about Trump's "failure" to take the interests of his base into account. And the underlying assumption is that economic considerations come into play with Trump's base. They do not.
Dr. Krugman and other commenters have often decried Trump's actions as "betraying" his base, with his tax cut helping only the very wealthy, and his disastrous trade war that will only hurt his base.
But nearly three years on in the most horrific presidency in my lifetime (and I remember presidents back to Eisenhower), Trump's voters remain in lockstep with him. Why? Because if forced to choose between racism and populism, they'll pick racism. Every single time.
Put simply, Trump voters don't care that they cannot afford higher education or good healthcare. They don't care that there aren't meaningful job retraining programs for them. They don't care that medical treatment for one of their sick children will bankrupt them.
Because Trump's voters' interest is race, and only race. As long as he tells them that as whites, they are the only "real" Americans, they will stand in soup lines for this man. Trump voters aren't voting "against their interest". Why, Because race is the interest that drives their votes. Trump voters have gotten exactly what they want from Trump - a president who tells them that they are the "true" Americans. A president who is as bigoted as they are. And this is all they've ever wanted.
714
@Robert Neville-I would say more is afoot that involves alt-right/Fox distortions that play on and gin up people's fear. Examples:
* Dems want to let more people in (at the Border) when we can't even take care of our homeless, and
* Climate change is just a smoke screen for raising taxes
53
@Robert Neville You can also think of it in terms of class. Houseowners in The Netherlands get a large monthly tax deduction for their house, easily twice a full social security benefit, but all they do is complain about the lazy unemployed.
Many people definitely do not want to see the lower classes rising up.
35
@Robert Neville
I would agree with this only if that voter votes for him in 2020. I know many republicans who voted for him in 2016 because either he had an "R" next to his name or they wanted to shake up Washington. They were not particularly fox watchers, but they were not very politically aware either.
If they continue to vote/support him after all the clear damage and unlawfulness that is plainly evident, then your description is spot on.
Republicanism, as a whole, has their driving force of greed and power first and whiteness second.
43
Neither the GOP or the Democrats have taken action in regard to the huge job disruptions created by the digital revolution over the last few decades. (It must be somewhat like the scope of change caused by the industrial revolution). Soon many of us will be replaced by robots. No wonder people with less education and lack of technical skills may feel uncertain in the changing economy. I can't imagine the GOP caring about retraining or anything that would involve investing in working people. I hope the Democrats will come up with some ideas that will be helpful in keeping the US competitive globally..
21
The economy will continue to evolve as it always has. Government has no place in managing or impeding such change, lest we cause unintended consequences. Capitalism may not be pretty but it beats every other system that has been devised. The problem is that in the last 243 years, we’ve become extremely soft and entitled.
I really hope Mayor Pete is the last man standing on the final debate stage, we need a generational change and someone in charge who will still have skin in the game in 2054. And someone who can talk to the 4-5 states that will decide the next election.
He represents the best of America, Trump the absolute worst.
43
When Trump's tariffs start hitting the1%, and oligarchs, bottom line, you will see how quickly "Skull and Bones" and "Masons" do their handiwork. Trump is serving at their pleasure. Trump has visions of being president for life; even though it is against the constitution. Trump trampling on the constitution, and rule of law, has become an art form.
Some of his minders are starting to get antsy. The Stock Market, which rose greatly in Trump's first year, has been on a roller coaster and is not less than what it was than in January, 2018. Tariffs, scandal, love of autocracy would do those things.
Meanwhile, manufacturing jobs vanish (see Lordstown), farmers are getting hurt by tariffs and bad weather, "king Coal" has abdicated, and many middle and lower salaries workers are waiting for their tax cuts.
The GOP is also getting pressure from their minders. The last thing the want is a recession take hold before the 2020 election. Trump is doing everything possible to cause one. And, they are really antsy that Trump want to open up the health care can of worms; the third rail of 21st century politics. Also, it doe snot help that Trump wants to start a new war, and up the ante of a tarde war with China.
Eventually, this will come crashing down on the working class kitchen table, as well as the MAGA kitchen table.
Elections comes down to "It's the economy, stupid". And, right now the "rust belt" and the "farm belt" (his base) see a grim economic future.
12
The term "con" as used in the moniker "con man" stands for "confidence."
First, the perpetrator tells his or her mark what he or she knows the mark wants to hear.
Second, after obtaining the mark's "confidence," the "con man" uses it to defraud the mark.
The Most Hated Man in America isn't a "populist" unless that term means playing people for chumps for his own personal benefit and ego.
31
@Didier
All foretold in Melville's 'The Confidence Man: His Masquerade" which commences on April Fool's Day and was published that day in 1857
Ever since the Reagan administration, Republicans have perfected techniques for convincing millions of chickens to vote consistently and enthusiastically for Colonel Sanders. Of necessity, they masterfully concealed their real agenda of redistributing the nation's wealth to the wealthy donors they exclusively represent.
Their secret is an appeal to the basest aspects of human nature. "Voodoo economics" appeals to greed: The tax cuts and deregulation that enrich donors will ultimately enrich everyone when the wealth trickles down. And with low taxes, we'll all get to keep what trickles down! They hide the painfully obvious failure of trickle-down behind a "social conservative" smokescreen: Keep the base sufficiently inflamed about guns, gays, God, and fetuses and they'll rally around Rush Limbaugh and not notice that the Republican agenda is impoverishing them. Behind it all is thinly-veiled racism and not-so-thinly-veiled hatred of "the Other," particularly the reviled "Liberals" who oppose the growth and success Republicans claim to offer.
Trump sowed his demagogic seeds in well-fertilized ground. In pandering to his "poorly-educated" white base, he made the thinly-veiled racism explicit. More importantly, he came along just many loyal Republicans were finally realizing they had been bamboozled by trickle-down promises. By mingling that outrage with longstanding Republican tropes he managed an even bigger swindle, at which he surely takes narcissistic pleasure.
38
“I love the poorly educated.” So sayeth Individual-1. This belief is in total congruence with the concept that "like likes like". This position also explains the lack of competence in Individual-1's administration as no one can appear or act to be more intelligent than the head of the WH mob.
14
He "likes" them because he's on a stage saying whatever he thinks they’re buying. Luckily for them it ain’t Koolade,,,,so far.
21
Resentment, hate and fear are powerful motivators. People who love power more than anything realize this and use it to their advantage. This is Trumps true genius.
26
@bobby:"Resentment, hate and fear are powerful motivators."
Sounds like Blow's recent OP-ED piece about the fear of shooting during a Pride parade.
"But that could change. If Trump ever did anything that might hurt the rich or help the poor, many Republicans might suddenly discover that self-dealing and accepting help from hostile foreign powers are actually bad."
I wouldn't bet on it. For all the fault of Hump he still is a very "good" Flim-Flam man. Remember "I can shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and wouldn't lose a vote"? I think that is still by and large true. The "poorly educated" may realize they are losing economically under him but, hey, the non whites are still getting bashed. Isn't that good enough?
19
Campaigned as a populist but governs as a corporatist with a dollop of intolerance for gays, spite for liberals and apathy for minorities.
As long as they think he is punishing those they love to hate, his voters will think he is doing a lot of really great things - bigly.
21
"Part of the answer may be personal: Trump’s whole career shows him to be the kind of man who, if anything, takes pleasure in taking advantage of people who trusted him."
Krugman pounded that nail squarely on the head. It's more than narcissism, lack of empathy, political ideology or religious pandering. It's genuine sado-masochism (remember Stormy and the Forbes magazine paddle?) played out 24/7 on a global stage.
It's not enough for Trump to squish an ant or roach -- he has to trap or trick it and watch it suffer, imagining himself to be the ultimate pest exterminator of all those so foolhardy as to trust someone so openly contemptuous of them. For stupidly thinking Trump is benevolent he feels the need to inflict his personal malevolence.
Of course it takes two to tango so the willing victims of Trump's S&M are like abused children compelled to seek the approval of an abusive father, who in real life alternates between bullying and emotionally manipulating his own children based on how well they reflect his greatness.
His emotional range is more limited than a Central Park pigeon but occupies the higher part of his brain associated with complex reason and intelligence. So he can't think and instead just emotes.
Trump isn't a real populist because he's not a real anything.
163
@Yuri Asian
Trump is several things and one of them is exactly what this post says: a sadist. His other characteristics include narcissism, sociopathy, attention-deficit and impulsiveness.
His strength is his ability to sell, abetted by complete disregard for the truth, additional amorality and an instinct for what certain people will buy.
Our President possesses virtually none of the traits that match the American ideal.
5
@Yuri Asian "His emotional range is more limited than a Central Park pigeon..."
Yes. Love this line.
3
Look at his poor decision making. Read his semiliterate tweets. Listen to his inarticulate speech patterns. If he loves the poorly educated, it’s because he feels an affinity to his own kind.
51
@Tom
"In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."
quote from Desiderius Erasmus
The most pathetic thing is that Trump has a low opinion of his supporters. They scarcely realize that he was mocking them when he boasted that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, presumably 12 noon, and his supporters would still vote for him.
They think he was just bragging about his chances of winning. He was, on a superficial level. But on a deeper level he was calling them low information voters, which is his euphemism for “low I.Q. person”, an insult which he loves to hurl. But he knows how to correct that by saying they’re geniuses for voting for him.
24
75% of Trump's support is from white, Christian nationalists.
20% is from the clueless and gullible who follow the leader
4.9% is from Americans who benefit from the tax bill.
0.1% are wildly enthusiatic about the tax b.ill.
21
“And Democrats would be foolish not to make the most of this opening.”
Who would make anything if this opening? Pelosi? Biden? They are Trumps in sheep’s clothing. They have no interest in upsetting the oligarchs either.
7
@R Rhett Yep, you nailed it. I am waiting for Trump to shoot someone on 5th ave and Nancy saying it still isn't quite enough to charge him with a crime.
11
Trump is first and foremost a liar. Nothing he says is credible. Lying is very popular just now.
It is amazing that anyone is still doing business with any American.
15
trump never cared about his base and never will. He blindly follows the money wherever it leads and can be easily purchased by anyone with a check to write. All it takes is a stay at his hotel or some lobbying of his secretaries. Pathetic but completely expected.
11
It is a matter of concern that many Trump followers share characteristics of cult members--like living in adverse socioeconomic conditions--and we should be aware that some of his followers may need deprogramming rather than persuasion. Many seem to be true believers.
As Eric Hoffer said "the quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world".
22
Those of us on the outside, that can see both the forest and the trees, will tell you that there seems to be very little substantive difference between the Dems and Reps. All of whom are mostly white, mostly rich and mostly represent the 1%. Those that aren't rich or yet part of the elite, are working hard to get there and as such follow the same course as their brethren. Don't take my word for it. Chomsky and Vidal and others have said the same in the past.
4
@Mike Bonnell
You are not myopic, and you do see the forest as well as the trees. Chomsky, Vidal, and others were right. The only hope I see is Bernie Sanders, or maybe Liz Warren - though I don't see much to be happy about in her foreign policy so far.
A lyric for the occasion:
So I cry, and I pray for you to
love me, love me
say that you love me
fool me, fool me
go on and fool me
love me, love me
pretend that you love me ...
I can't care about anything but you.
(The Cardigans)
So the white working ppl serenade their Dear Leader. What is so tragic here is that they can't figure out that it was their hero Ronald Reagan who did them in in the 80s. It has taken that long for everything to crumble to the point of undeniability. They blame the Dems who abandoned them for Goldman Sachs in the 90s (yes, Clinton, I am referring to you, both).
Meanwhile, Rs want permanent one-party rule just like Soviet Russia, the "Evil Empire" they supposedly hated all these decades. The one good thing about trump as president is all masks are off. Totalitarianism is definitely on the table. Someone famous once said that those who would opt for security over liberty deserve neither. If 2016 brought us to the brink, 2020 will see whether we pull back or jump off.
14
@JB:" What is so tragic here is that they can't figure out that it was their hero Ronald Reagan who did them in in the 80s."
The manufacturing base started its decline in 1973. But blaming Reagan makes for a better polemic.
Reagan was spot on about the Soviet Union - it was an Evil Empire.
Reagan was also right about that welfare queen. Well, maybe a welfare prince. We had one living next door to us in Detroit.
At the beginning of the month he would try and sell his mother's food stamps. Near the end of the month he would ask for cash because his mother was hungry. In the interim there was partying in the evening. His mother seemed none the wiser for it and one felt sorry for her.
Spot on President Reagan.
1
How could any one have ever ever believed that he was on the side of the white working class?
25
@judy He thumbed his nose at the same people his supporters have been conditioned to despise. He behaved as his supporters would if they were in a position of power. A significant percentage of the American electorate runs on spite. That is what happens when voters, as opposed to funders, are left totally unrepresented.
2
"Jimmy Carter used to walk off the airplane carrying his own luggage. Do you remember that? I don't want my president carrying - I want the freaking Marines to be carrying his luggage, and they want to carry his luggage."
Donald Trump
"All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me - consciously or unconsciously. That's to be expected." Donald Trump
What a guy. I wonder what he says about his base when he talks to his rich friends.
Maybe his dip in the polls are an indication that his fans are beginning to wise up.
"I'm a believer in the polls, by the way. Rarely do you see a poll that's very far off."
Donald Trump
16
@interested party - except for a “fake poll”.
While Trump's style has been boorish and uncivilized, his policies are just a fulfillment of the Republican wish list, the policies that any of his 2016 primary rivals might have promulgated. Maybe Mike Pence has more influence than the public is aware of.
6
@CH - your right because we could very well be talking about the perils of a second term for Ted Cruz.
Please, please, Mr. Trump, whatever you do, don't demolish Obamacare!
Oh please Brer Fox, don't throw me in that briar patch!
1
talk to Trump voters:
Democrats want to help the poor (who mostly don't vote.)
Trump voters don't want what little they make going to free health care or other benefits to poor while they're working hard and paying towards their health care and insurance.
(they don't care about the rich, they do care about their taxes and lack of benefits.)
Simple. If you know any Trump voters.
4
@Oreamnos
I do know a couple of Trump supporters who were saved by Obamacare when they hit a rough patch. We’re all in this together.
2
What you and most Trump voters don’t seem to recognize is that most of the poor work.
Because Trump largely lacks his own independent knowledge and understanding of policy, economics, the mechanics of government, etc., he is mostly reliant on others to explain the ramifications of policy-setting. If those people seem otherwise loyal to him personally - which is how he knows whom to trust - then they can probably pull the wool over his eyes too, when it comes to who will benefit from various policies and decisions. As far as he may know, in the alternative reality bubble he inhabits, he IS doing things that will help his base... Any opinions to the contrary are just the infamous "fake news" at work again.
6
I've always believed that The Donald is but a symptom of something very wrong in the modern USA. Certainly his ignorance and self-absorption make him a "pencil", and his "pencilness" could well play into the hands of various characters in government with an agenda, who could easily be playing him like a fiddle to further their own agendae. After all, one of the commenters mentioned that Mike Pence may have more to say about things than we can know. This is not a new idea.
Trump is a Trumpist. He cares only for that which favors Donald J. Trump and no one else. Not a single other person other than himself.
16
Trump loves nothing more than punching down on the little people, the weak, the powerless.
It's the go-to move of a coward.
41
"If Trump is re-elected next year, that could mark the end of America’s democratic experiment."
That's the scariest, and regrettably, likely outcome of our next Presidential election, and if it does occur I will again blame the Pelosi Schumer democrats and their so obvious anointing of Joe Biden as their choice, regardless of how the electorate may feel.
Which leads me to conclude that it's not about representing all of the people, but in fact is all about insuring that corporate America remains firmly in control of the business of government in America, including Federal, State, and local governance.
7
Government Tax Revenues Decreased In Fiscal Year 2018
According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, "while individual income tax receipts have increased in nominal dollars since last fiscal year, this statistic paints a misleading picture in a number of ways. Specifically, it ignores reductions in other sources of revenue, doesn't account for inflation, and relies in part on revenue raised by last year's tax code. Considering the entire tax code and focusing specifically on this tax year shows that total revenue has declined between 4 and 9 percent."
https://www.crfb.org/blogs/has-revenue-risen-2018
12
If they are catching on to him, its a well-hidden secret. Everything I read says he has rock solid support among the most fervent of his base who love him more for what he says, than what he does.
They like the irreverence, the swearing, the swagger, the "us against them"--whoever "them" are.
But at some point they could turn if things get bad enough. Which they will if he gets reelected and his Senate comes gunning for their Social Security and Medicare.
After all, somebody has to pay for those tax cuts. and it certainly won't be the ones that really keep Trump in office: his donors.
84
@ChristineMcM His base still thinks they're the cast of the greatest reality TV presidency ever. It will hopefully be the only one.
18
@ChristineMcM
“They love him more for what he says than what he does” — and it seems for many Trump supporters, they believe that he did what he said he did: “you can sleep easy, no more nukes in North Korea thanks to me,” “I brought back coal”, “I forced Mexico into new border action with my tariff threats.”
3
Don't we know it, Paul! The more urgent question is why don't his base know this betrayal?
Why are they not bothered by Trump and his family profiting off our office of presidency and essentially scamming us the taxpayers? Why are they not bothered Trump openly obstructs justice? Why are they not bothered Trump is damaging our rule of law and the people and institutions that uphold it?
Why do they not know his only big legislative achievement, a tax cut bill, does not benefit them but the rich and Trump himself?
If all the above are too complicated, what about this -- why are they not protesting Trump trying to repeal health insurance coverage of pre-existing conditions? Who in this age do not have pre-existing condition?
20
@Doodle Trump voters may listen mainly to Fox News, and not hear any questions about Trump's activities. Their bond with him seems to be related to hating the same people he hates. He hasn't done anything for them except voice their fear, anger, and prejudices. Nonetheless, in comments they credit him for improving the economy (although data show job growth was trending upward before he ever took office).
12
@Bonnie
You mean “they” don’t realize he hates them? Boy, is he good at acting.
1
@Doodle
Most politicians claim that Americans are smart. A large group are not. It may be because they work too hard to get the facts and are instead influenced by those they believe will give them the facts, but instead serve up pro Trump and anti-other rhetoric. It really is that simple.
4
Maybe Trump will have a moment like in the film “A Face in the Crowd” when a mic will be left on and his true feelings toward all those who show up to his rallies will be unquestionably revealed. Maybe those adoring masses will turn on him in an instant.
I can dream, can’t I?
232
@TOM
My wife and I watched that film a few months ago and I've been hoping for that very thing for some time.
27
@TOM A wild mic wouldn't add anything that his base doesn't already know no matter what he says. They already know he hates them and is taking advantage of them. All they care about is that he feeds their fear and hatred of the Other.
Sorry to spoil your dream.
12
@TOM
Maybe not so much a dream. If memory serves, right before the Iowa caucus, he basically insulted the people of Iowa. And he lost. So there is a limit to how much people will take - a very high limit - but it's there.
12
I suppose Sanders could be considered a populist, but he will draw votes away from the Democratic Party.
6
Don't forget that Trump was a largely blank slate wanting to do "big things," and as Republicans recoiled in initial horror, Democrats could have swooped in with offers to make Trump "historic" in his concern for the working man.
Democrats displayed, instead, a spectacular lack of imagination. (And they showed their shackles to the "nicer" oligarchs who backed Hillary and thus gave us Trump.)
Democrats did nothing but push Trump into the arms of the tax-cutters, who came to love Trump as they could control him to do more to help them than to hurt them (and, yes, some of his economic madness may yet unhinge them from nave to chops). Democrats learned nothing from 2016, or thereafter.
Democrats appear to be ineducable, shouting "inconceivable" every few days.
6
If you’re arguing Democrats should have embraced a cruel, racist, misogynistic, sexual predator in the aims of populism, I think you’ve gone the wrong idea.
15
@Craig Mason —wait, it’s the Democrats’ fault for not taking Trump into their warm embrace? And not anything to do with Trump being a hypocritical, self-serving con-man from day one? And Democrats are “ineducable” because they didn’t buy into this looney theory?
17
@Craig Mason
Chuck and Nancy tried to do just that with an immigration plan that gave Trump $25B for his wall. Trump chose punishing helpless migrants over a real plan.
11
Keeping people "Uneducated" is a broad Republican strategy, engaged in, for example, by the Ex-Gov. of Wisconsin who tried to change the charter of the universities from 'educating' the young to 'training' them for low paying jobs. See DeVos on charter schools, etc. etc. It's the reason one Trump voter I spoke to could wonder why the mass media won't stop hounding Trump since he's accomplished 'more than any other president,' by for example, bringing back coal, 'getting that Korean deal done' that no one else could, etc. etc.
152
@DaDa
In other words those who can do and those who can't LIE and say they did.
17
By my reckoning (and there are a lot of zeros) the national debt is set to rise by about $3,000 per person in 2019. Not all of this is from the tax cuts, but ...
think of it as a tax in itself: that is money you each owe, and your parter, and your children, and your parents, just in this year. I just don’t see how he can be popular with people who are not rich.
21
@Gerard
Because it's not a matter of logic. It's more like a lizard-brain kind of thing.
13
Trump was always going to betray his base. The issue is when, or whether, they catch on to this madman. If not, the lesson is going to be that we humans might not make it after all.
44
This base is so dedicated that they can only want to cut off their noses to spite their faces. Anything to stick it to the man. Their own well-being is not a primary concern, a lost cause in their own eyes.
36
@Hal Kuhns Not as simple as "stick it to the man" it's the black man they want to stick it to.
13
@Hal Kuhns
They are the descendants of the poor whites who fought to preserve slavery so a handful of Southern families could continue to prosper at everyone elses expense. They have maintained their subservient, sharecropper mentality to this day as just witnessed in the voting down of VW unionization in TN. Still happy to grovel before the bossman.
A lot of Trump’s base wanted to get rid of Obamacare, so it’s hard to see how his attacks on it hurt him there. The base doesn’t seem to have a very clear idea of its own priorities, and the Trumpian showmanship--the constant bating of everyone in public life--clearly appeals to the base no matter what Trump actually does. The base believes the lies they’ve been told about how useless, clueless, and evil the federal government is (a long-term Republican strategy that has been very successful), so they don’t care if the federal government is rendered impotent. In their view, they never got anything anyway. So no, I don’t think the base cares that Trump hasn’t done anything for them. And I don’t think the Democrats will profit from his treatment of the base.
35
@BG Trump is an outgrowth of 40 years of GOP brainwashing that government is bad. George W Bush cut taxes while starting an unnecessary war, creating huge deficits. Trump is heading in the same direction. He is basically following the standard GOP playbook - do whatever the rich donors and key industries want to see. Trump voters don't believe Obama helped the country out of a near depression in 2008; they think he personally created the current budget deficit.
16
@BG
But don't you know? Trump's base hates Obamacare, but they love their ACA coverage. That's how health-care is now a problem for Trump.
1
Democrats would indeed be foolish not to make the most of this opening. And Democrats will be foolish.
But the foolishness is not new. It began a while back when identity politics drove non college-educated White males out of the party. There is nothing Democrats can do before the 2020 election that will cause them to come back.
Democrats recognize this reality, which is why identity politics has been ratcheted up even more. Better to show ideological purity to your base than risk alienating any existing voting bloc in a fruitless pursuit of a bloc that is not going to support you.
Even if some in the White working class conclude that Mr. Trump isn’t on their side, they’re not going over to a side that offers them nothing.
And given how strong the economy is, it’s an uphill battle to convince anyone already in Mr. Trump’s camp that they should resent that the wealthy have done even better than them. Resentment is a potent weapon in weak economic times, far less so when the economy is strong.
6
This “identity politics” critique is just a mask for racism - so any gains minorities receive are perceived by Trump’s base as attacks on them, although all evidence shows working class whites are still much better off than other minorities. And that great economy? A gift from Obama. Far from getting nothing from Democrats, working class whites owe anything they still have to Democrats, including those programs like Social Security and Medicare that they rely on so much. So you’ve basically shown why Krugman is correct.
11
Trump plays to the anti-abortion crowds - rural and evangelicals. 'nuff said.
21
Anyone doubt the Democrats are foolish? Anyone noticed the Democrats booted out of governments all across the nation?
1
@stewart bolinger
Like in the 2018 elections?
13
@stewart bolinger There were Democrats in "multiple governments across the country"?
7
Maybe someday the poor and poorly educated will realized they voted for Don the Con.
Imagine how much more quickly they'd realize this if not glued to the State News feeding them lies about their Dear Leader.
73
You do realize, Paul – fewer Trump supporters will pay any attention to this column...
Than Progressives will, to this comment...
As Trump so insightfully commented – once they realize he’s a shoo-on for a 3rd term...
“...They get bitter, they cling to pens or redistribution or antipathy to people who aren't like them...
PS
This just in – moments ago, Trump fired the Electoral College, because it looked like they might not see things his way in 2020...
It’s all over Breitbart and Drudge – do you guys live in a cave, there in midtown???
Pelosi’s already gone on record saying “There he goes again” – doing the right thing for the wrong reason...
Anyway, he’s asked McConnell and Graham to chair a special panel to create a new college, more in his likeness...
They’ve already decided to redistribute 70% of the electors that any state has, over 10...
To states whose economies have been disrupted by curtailment of coal production...
4
Sadly, when people either never learn history or forget their lessons, they get to repeat it. My generation read--and many remembered--Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" (1960).
In many ways, Hitler would be classified as a "populist" today, as would Mussolini. They certainly delivered more in the line of jobs that paid a living wage as well as infrastructure improvements than Trump. As for the victim classes, my own family were among them, but since 1980 the GOP has created far more from far more groups: the poor, the elderly, the sick, LGBTQ people, Muslims, people of color, and "illegal immigrants." Many had been there before, but not like today. Romney's "47%" speech in 2012 told the whole ugly story and would allow a person to see that some 150 million fellow Americans are at risk.
Vote R for malign neglect, and D to fix the mess the Repubs have made and continue to make (and blame others for).
25
@Carl Ian Schwartz
And that is what worries me Carl.Trump is in no way comparable to Hitler.Trump's base might like the things that he says but deep down they know that he is not one of them.Hitler did not go to a prestigious school and was born poor.He was at some point homeless in Vienna and experienced extreme hardship.He fought valiantly for 4 years in WW 1 was awarded the Iron Cross twice never asking for a day of leave.Yet he managed to take a broken country and made it into a military superpower in only 6 years while raising living standards for regular folks to a point never seen before.These facts are conveniently omitted today.I will never condone what he did.My family in Greece suffered enormously under the German occupation.But the truth must be spoken.My point is the following.Do not be afraid of Trump.Be afraid of the one that will come at some point in the near future who will be a fellow without Ivy League education but with extreme charisma probably a decorated veteran and with the life of an average hard working American
11
@george
Very good observation.
2
He’s the barstool teetotaler.
Something seems amiss.
6
Yes. "It’s alarmingly easy to envision the U.S. going the same way ["an authoritarian state" like Hungary], and very soon: If Trump is re-elected next year, that could mark the end of America’s democratic experiment." At the rate Trump is going with little or no push back from Democrats in the House, we could easily find ourselves under "the rule of Trump" before the election in 2020. The corruption is so massive and blatant with Trump counselor, Kellyanne Conway openly flaunting and mocking the Hatch Act, Treasury Sec. Steve Mnuchin pushing aside the legal requirement to provide Trump's tax returns to Congress, and most ominously AG William Barr working to turn both the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. into Trump gestapo-like agencies, our democracy is folding and sinking before our very eyes. We are left asking, "Where's Nancy?" when the Constitution and its "rule of law" is being ripped asunder for all to see by Donald Trump. This is the time to defend the Constitution not fret about the politics of impeachment. If no one will defend it, we will, as it seems, have no Constitution very soon!
17
@Paul Wortman Flouting, not flaunting. BIG difference.
Trump hasn't developed any policies favorable to the poorly educated -- but then, he really hasn't developed any policies at all. He doesn't care about policy, he only cares about the ego boost he gets from his rallies and his possession of the presidency. He outsourced tax policy and health care policy to congressional Republicans, who of course weren't going to do anything to help the working poor.
139
@Steve
Exactly. As soon as he became president, he didn't hasten to work. Instead, he kicked off his reelection campaign and did a "thank you (me)" round of rallies.
It's all about him playing a leader and getting adulation for it.
9
Trump's overwhelming motivation is making money, milking the presidency for everything he can extract for himself and his family, and enriching cronies who will make pay-offs. It also gives him great satisfaction as a thug to smash and break - America's international trade and defense partnerships, the Fed, laws and the system of justice, the powers of Congress, truth, regulations. Beyond that, Trump has absolute confidence in his ability to lie and manipulate, to keep firing up his base, and to threaten and blackmail the GOP in Congress to back him. So why would he also need to plan on hand-outs for his supporters?
58
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, Prof Krugman, Trump hates ALL the right people: powerful women, migrants, people of color, China, the media.
Trump's people call it "fighting back" when he lies, slanders, and makes up conspiracy theories about his critics. They too would be crude, rude, and grossly insulting to "elites" if they had the chance and could do so with impunity. He's just speaking for them.
And then there's the time honored Republican trope: get the unsophisticated and the bigoted to vote against their own interest by diverting them with wedge issues like abortion and gay rights. Republicans may take your health insurance away but they "protect the little babies."
It will take more than a little drift in Midwest polls to convince me it's worth spending a nickel reasoning with Trump's base.
36
Appeasing the Republican elites doesn’t hurt him with his base at all.
The racists love him for his racism.
The evangelicals love him for his judicial action appointments.
The gun rights crowd will never vote for a Democratic President.
The GOP base is a collection of single issue voters. They’ll never abandon him and that’s why he gets away with mistreating them so badly.
If the Democrats can’t pull in the moderates and turn out their own base in 2020 we’re going to have four more years of this abominable administration.
120
"At least some in the white working class seem to have realized that he’s not on their side. And Democrats would be foolish not to make the most of this opening."
Alas, Dr. Krugman, it's not much of an "opening." At the end of the day, whites without a college degree (and millions of them with a college degree--and more) support the president because he is a white man. There's not a whole lot of nuance there.
Two states that you mention, Kentucky and West Virginia, almost posters for the "redneck South," have many folks who love the Affordable Care Act but who have been seduced by politicians into thinking that President Obama has worked tirelessly to take away their health care. These poor folks don't have the sense to understand that they've been taught to hate what actually works for them. And those who know better won't allow their white pride to admit that, yes, a black man, has actually worked to improve their lives. It's a lot like not being able to say "please" or "thank you" to a black person for even the smallest kindness.
Disaffected whites persist in their deification of Donald Trump. There may be some cracks in the fissure of the granite wall that is MAGA nation but there's always some prod that works against any instinct of generosity to another, especially if that "other" is not white. It's what America has largely been, and is greatly now.
I doubt that Joseph Biden can "call home" the blue-collar votes that Trump won in 2016. Race matters. It always has.
50
@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18 I think the entire Trump phenomenon can be seen as a reactionary response to the Obama presidency. Sad, but true...
28
@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18
There are indeed “deplorables” (Hillary called it right) for whom their primary concerns are having their prejudices affirmed and their need to feel condescension met. Forget them; they want a hateful man justifying cruelty. Trump.
But that’s not every person who voted for Trump, and this is the group that can be redeemed. The segment who wants their vulnerabilities protected, and who would get behind a candidate that speaks plainly and is ready to fight when the occasion calls - things some thought they found in Trump - could vote for the right Democrat. I think Biden is that person but we will stay tuned...
As always, thanks for what you wrote.
9
@Bonnie -- I agree with you completely! #45 has never forgiven Romney for losing in 2012 to Obama, thus thwarting McConnell's grand strategy to make Obama "a one-term president". Hence, the comments about "I inherited a mess", "Obama tapped my wires", "Obama created ISIS", et al. This president has been totally obsessed with everything Obama...he can't stop venting about his predecessor.
The president would die of anger, shame and frustration if he loses in 2020, hence another failure to measure up to Obama.
3
He has solidly delivered half of what what the Roman Juvenal said should be delivered.
6
“I love the poorly educated.” So declared Donald Trump back in February 2016“.
Yet more self-love from DJT.
16
@Paul McGlasson - don’t forget “I love Wikileaks.
1
Being an economist, Mr. Krugman fails to notice that Trump IS giving uneducated whites what they want in some respects. He is not only feeding their resentment with racism and nativism, he is feeding them anti-intellectualism and evangelical theocracy. Trump is at his most transparently phony when he starts talking flag-waving jingoism and religious bigotry, but his base doesn't care - they're getting what they want on abortion. Don't be fooled by their whining about wages and jobs - abortion is huge and Trump is milking it for all it's worth.
18
Trump isn't a populist, but he gave the masses bread, circuses, racism and Know Nothingism and that's good enough for about 40% of Americans.
Trump caters to cultured stupidity, which is the heart and soul of the Republican Party platform.
Beautiful clean coal.
The Birther Lie.
Climate change is a Chinese hoax.
"I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great great wall on our southern border and I’ll have Mexico pay for that wall."
And what are his major accomplishments besides daily chaos, alienation of our allies, separating babies from mothers and sinking the office of the Presidency into a sewer of amorality and disgrace ?
Rigging the Supreme Court with Corporate/Christian Shariah Lawyers and a giant greedy tax cut for billionaires and the country's largest corporations.
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
Trump represents the worst of America's collapsed IQ.
May the country's collective IQ rise above room temperature for 2020.
843
@Socrates
That's some big talk from the party that dominated Mississippi's legislature from 1865 to 2006.
2
@FreddyB
Of course the only reason they were Democrats is because Lincoln was a Republican. Of course they are now all Republicans because of Nixon's "Southern Strategy",
The reason Trump was elected is he convinced the so called "base voters" that he hated the same people they did.
103
@Socrates
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
- Martin Luther King, Jr
39
What you're saying, Dr. Krugman, is that Trump is actually a mere puppet for the plutocrats, and he has little power of his own.
I think that's about right.
22
"...[Trump] still needs the support of the G.O.P.’s big-money interests." If his idiotic tariffs have the incremental effect of causing a significant downturn in the economy, expect the Banksters of Wall Street to turn on Trump, not that he would believe such a ridiculous idea; after all, "Trade wars are good, and easy to win."
5
In the 2016 election Trump took over the populism of Bernie Sanders, while Hillary took the route of the corporatists saying that everything was just swell with the economy. Everything was fine with the economy for those in the bubble of Wall Street , but communities that depended on factory jobs were in despair. This while Obama was pushing for the TPP (NAFTA on steroids) that would further hurt these factory towns, up to the election. No Bankers went to jail for the 2008 crash after Obama named Citigroups picks of Cabinet members that year. People were and are mad that the Democratic Party since Clinton has been the Party of Wall Street, while abandoning Unions because who else will they vote for they told themselves.
The people who voted for Trump were deceived just that same as those voting for Obama who were looking for Hope and Change, yet they mostly got an neoliberal agenda. If Trump does not deliver on his populist agenda as he has abandoned so far than a populist such as Bernie, Tulsi or Elizabeth will certainly beat him. If Trump is not facing a populist then he will certainly win.
So far the leadership of the Democratic Party has done everything in their power to reject a populist agenda in favor of policies favorable to their Wall Street donors. Sadly they would rather have Trump win than a populist. I really hope that the Democratic Party realizes the urgency of replacing Trump and is just not looking after getting more wealth and power.
11
@steve
The leadership of the Democratic Party - what leadership? As you say, they dance to the tune of their corporate paymasters on Wall Street, and do just about nothing for everyone else. And I agree - they would rather see Trump win than Bernie Sanders. They don't approve of Medicare for All, the "What's it called - Green New Deal", and abandoned the working class long ago. I'm not sure about Warren - her domestic proposals look good, but her foreign policy not so.
We have our own faux-populists on the Democratic side, Bill de Blasio for example. Although he poses no threat to anyone except those in the immediate vicinity of his SUV, he parades around like the lovechild of Fiorello LaGuardia and Teddy Roosevelt, yet if you stacked all the plutocratic towers in NYC which have gone up during his tenure, they'd reach to the moon and back. He has another thing in common with Trump; they've both built exactly the same amount of affordable housing.
7
He's not a real populist because his base doesn't care if he is or isn't.
What it wants, and what he gives it at all costs, is for him to enact pageants of racial, ethnic, and gender revenge for the reforms of the 1960s and 1970s. He doesn't have to deliver on any of his promises but that one: To put the Other back in its place.
Deplorable, but very much politically correct.
534
If you want to understand how or why Trump's base would stay loyal, come to Iowa and figure out how Steve King keeps getting re-elected (8 times!), surviving even last year when the rest of the state booted two Republican male incumbents in favor of Democratic women and one Dem man (I will point out that King's district is more rural [yes, even in Iowa that is possible]).
17
@Thomas - perhaps just as telling - what percentage of Rep. King's district is minority, and what percentage is white? Trump's policies have done no favors for Iowa's farmers, but they still support Trump and King... gee, I wonder why. It seems that far too many of them are eager to vote against their own economic interests.
1
It’s seems to me there are (at least) two very different kinds of populism in American history. They need to be carefully distinguished.
One is a social and political movement oriented toward the good of the common person. The best example is William Jennings Bryant, despite the tarnishing of his career through his Ill-advised involvement in the infamous Scopes trial.
The other is a type of populism in which appeal is made to “the people” as a political tool to acquire and wield power. It is of course the way of the demagogue in every age and society, and the epitome is Donald Trump.
The former is a positive social force often folding into progressivism. The latter is a cancerous and deadly growth in the body politic, which if left unchecked, will kill democracy.
The world is full of demagogues, including our Demagogue in Chief. There are far too few populists, if by that one means the former definition above.
Personally I hate to give a good word away.
66
@Paul McGlasson
Thank you. At first, it took me a couple of reads when I saw Trump and populism equated as I naturally went to the earlier use of the word. It slowly dawned on me what the current use of the word is. Thank you for addressing this issue for us older ones (smile)!
2
Trying to tie Trump down to a label is a waste of time. He does what is expedient in the moment. The label that fits him best is Exploitative Opportunist. Trying to label him populist or not gives him too much credit.
160
@Just B He is looting your country at a level nobody knows; take this post from the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/15/jared-kushner-cadre-corruption-ethics-foreign-funding
15
@yves rochette
Thank you. Not surprising, but quite clarifying.
5
Trump is no more a populist than he is a "very stable genius". If he loves the "poorly educated" it's in the same way a wolf loves sheep.
I suppose any legitimate news media outlets that calls Trump a populist is doing so only because they blindly believe the labels "con man" and "white nationalist" belong in the opinion section when referring to elected officials.
Still, his base is unlikely to desert him because he is hurting them as long as they believe Trump is hurting "Those Other People" more.
Eventually this Trumpian/GOP con game, like all frauds, will stop working but that is of little concern. Crooks steal; they don't invest.
54
The answer to the question as to why Trump doesn’t support programs beneficial to his most loyal base is answered within the column: populist programs are not in the interest of the plutocrats who control the Republican Party. Trump is himself the useful fool of the real power that funds and moves the party. If you are curious what those interests are, watch Mitch McConnell, who knows who is paying the piper and what tune he is supposed to sing.
307
@Chris Manos
Exactly right.
21
@Chris Manos
These people walk around with huge "kick me" signs on their backs. McConnell, who has treated Kentuckians with even more disdain that Trump, for six terms, has one big worry, and it's not going up against a qualified Democrat; it's being primaried by someone even more craven, hypocritical, and nihilistic than himself - and losing bigtime. Apparently, being poisoned by coal runoff in the air and water, opioid addiciton, unemployment, and vanishing prospects is just not sufficient anymore as a campaign platform.
70
@Chris Manos....yes Mitch sings the tune, with rationalizations all ready.
Quote: “All Citizens United did was to level the playing field for corporate speech…. We now have, I think, the most free and open system we’ve had in modern times.” – Mitch McConnell.
Free and open for elite influence. But too expensive and closed for average citizens, who can't compete.
Enter Trump in 2016.
I'm waiting for some NYT columnists to explain how Citizens United's far reaching effects have muffled the voice of citizens in the once 'greatest democracy'. Or is that a 'taboo' topic--except for reader comments?
15
Trump is doing a big, albeit symbolic thing for his base - The Wall. As for the other stuff, it was all phony baloney - spouted by him in order to win. He is a total false populist who identifies with other reactionary autocrats around the world. The real deal (someone whom Trump voters also liked and voted for in some real numbers in 2016) was/is Senator Bernie Sanders. I fervently hope he can win the nomination because he will take Trump to the cleaners in any debate.
5
He's an old school tv guy. Keep the audience happy and you keep the sponsors happy. Why do you think he freaked about the polls? Bad ratings book. Sweeps are next November.
26
Trump's formula for success includes large portions of anger and resentment. Many of his supporters care less about policy than they do about punishing the arrogant liberal elitists they believe have been behind the decline of white working people. In Trump they've found a politically incorrect champion who shares their contempt for "limousine liberals" and godless scoffers at the truth of the Bible. If and when Trump is blocked on policy, there are always scapegoats, especially immigrants, the press, and Nancy Pelosi. Trying to place Donald Trump within a rational universe is fruitless. His appeal to working people is visceral and his boundaries are established, as Mr. Krugman notes, by the Republican donor class.
42
The media focus on Trump's words and conclude that he is a populist. Krugman, and most folks, focus on Trump's actions and conclude that he is The Republican President. Oh so Republican, oh so crony capitalists and oh so willing to act in the interest of the wealthiest Republicans.
14
I agree with the assessment that the republicans will turn on him and knife him in the back if he doesn’t play ball with them. He is deeply compromised and a dangerous situation for us with the people he surrounded himself with.
Didn’t McConnell tell him to drop medical as a nonstarter. Isn’t Bolton and Pompeo pushing us to war. The problem with putting a crook in that only cares about himself is the other crooks now have his number.
So Trump has to do whatever they want even go to war and no populist agenda will be coming to his base that doesn’t agree with the real republican ideology. If he doesn’t do what they want and take the fall for their agenda they will feed him to the people who want him in prison the rest of his life.
Hard choices for a despicable soul. We do know one thing though about Trump. He will do what he believes is best for him.
16
Unfortunately, while I agree with much of what Dr. Krugman has to say he is missing a critical point. For much of the demographic that supports Trump the key principle is “As long as “they “ are worse off than me, I will support Trump”. Insert whatever demographic group the respondents are concerned about for “they”.
24
The "opening" the author describes are the counties that voted for both Obama and Trump. The reason Democrats won't make the most of them is a combination of coastal hubris, as in Sen. Schumer advising Hillary to forget about western Pennsylvania because of magical "demographics," and disdain, because it's irresistible to dismiss people as "deplorable." Democrats regularly label Trump a "con man," but then they go on to ignore the dupes that epithet implies.
5
I think Trump, being utterly incurious and unread, is an easy mark for people who seek to play him (early on, it was a problem because people were showing him fake articles and charts to get him to advance their interests). add to this the fact that he mostly is around rich (mostly white and male) people, and it's not hard to see why he's pushing for policies that favor the rich: it's the classic syndrome of a gullible person always believing whatever the last persuasive person told him.
12
"And Democrats would be foolish not to make the most of this opening." that would require that Democrats actually come up with programs that benefit the working class. I'm waiting.
Trump gave his supporters a feeling of condescension to someone else, namely immigrants and racial minorities, and that false sense of superiority was enough to compensate for everything else that he failed to deliver. This group will probably vote for him again. It’s those swing voters and Republicans who don’t support his irresponsibility that we need to win over.
13
@NM -- esteemed daughter
Krugman makes excellent points but the fact remains that his supporters don't care about being snookered by this president. They're hooked on him because of his bellicosity, pugnacious attitude and scorn for American democratic institutions. It's the "very fine people", the Charlottesville torch bearers who truly believe that he is the Second Coming.
9
@silver vibes
Great to see you back, my friend!
Maybe, someday, an expert on cults will weigh in on how Trump has this hold on some people. He somewhat fits the prototype of a (well, not to me, but) charismatic leader with a message, and the believers just do not, or cannot, realize that they are being had. Perhaps we need to hear from psychologists and sociologists instead of political pollsters.
As always, thanks for writing.
4
@NM
It is the same scam wealthy plantation owners used to get poor whites, who were not much better off economically than slaves, to go and die to defend slavery while they themselves were exempted from fighting. That’s why Trump loves the poorly educated, but not for the reason they believe he does.
Trumpian populism is simply race, religion, and guns. Economic concerns are not motivators of his base.
But the economy may influence those who are not true believers but who voted against Hillary or to “blow everything up”.
6
This question presupposes that Trump actually understands things. He does not. He operates on instinct. Scamming (including cheating, lying and otherwise operating in an unethical manner included in this) and racism are the only instincts he seems to have developed. Every action is based on these two traits.
11
",,,Trump isn’t a populist, unless we redefine populism as nothing but a synonym for racism."
Sadly, maddeningly, the media continues to misuse the term populist in exactly this way. Huey Long was a populist, and his threatened run for the Presidency turned FDR into a "populist-lite" out of which came the New Deal. Policies and programs that help the ordinary American - of ANY color or gender - are populist policies. Trump's pandering to white nationalists , racists, misogynists, and xenophobes who happen to be working class does NOT make him a populist.
We need a return to Long/FDR populism to reverse decades of economic warfare by the 1%, of whom Trump is a gold card carrying member. That anyone believed - or now believes - that he would care one whit about working people is either living in ignorance or delusion. Look at all the contractors he's stiffed over the years! All the union members he's fought against! If you're a working person and you vote for Trump, you're cutting your own throat.
This is just another example of the MSM helping to keep the majority ignorant of what's actually happening to them by our own oligarchy who own the media. The media needs to return to its own duty of being the Fourth Estate and the watchdog of democracy instead of the lapdog of the 1%.
6
@Kingfish52
I'm not sure when it was that the media abandoned its Fourth Estate duties, but it's seemed to be a long time ago now. We need the right kind of populist leader - an FDR - but the 1% are doing all they can to pour cold water on such a notion.
2
Trump, like many other populists, uses populism to get the support he needs for a hidden agenda. That agenda depends on the populist, but in Trump's case it is to help himself and the corporate autocrats sack the commonwealth for their personal gain.
44
@W
And that's the truth. (raspberry)
Trump managed to eke out an Electoral College victory by convincing enough of the economically precarious that he would do something about that precarity.
And he was certainly aided in that by the fact that many of those are ill educated and knew of Trump mostly from a reality television show that absolutely created a false image of his business acumen. (It's notable that in NYC, where we all knew how false this image was, he barely got a double digit vote percentage.)
The history of populism, for the most part, is that of autocrats pretending to be for the interests of "the little people" but not fighting for them; they merely espouse that to get enough support to then self-aggrandizingly loot the treasury.
And Orange 45 is merely the latest in a long line of such I-me-mine autocrats.
9
Excellent analysis. There are only two problems:
1. Democrats have consistently demonstrated that they are unable to take full advantage of such opportunities due to infighting and many other destructive and divisive strategic blunders, and
2. People who would vote for Democrats have consistently demonstrated lower turnout at the polls. It's been said that anger motivates voters more than good will, and that probably explains the 2018 turnout (pro-Democrat voters were angry, for once). But that may prove to be an anomaly if they go back to sleep in 2020. And with the expected help from Putin, Zuckerburg, and voter suppression, we can already predict the result.
17
@MikeG
If 2018 was about anger at Trump and not some wild coincidence that half the country was mad at their own representative in Congress, there is little reason to think that this will be muted in 2020.
5
@Alan
I pray that you're right, but fear that you're only partly right, and maybe not right enough. In which case, as Dr Krugman says, our democracy may be doomed.
3
Trump, for all his money and education acts like he's poorly educated. He says what his supporters want to hear and he says it language that is unmistakeable in its scorn, pettiness, and yes, ignorance. He doesn't qualify what he says with any ifs, ands, or buts. It's (pardon the pun) black and white to him. That his tax break isn't and our medical care is still unaffordable (premiums and all), that our infrastructure is deteriorating rapidly and that tariffs are a bad idea hardly matters to some.
The more perceptive supporters, well educated or not, have noticed the discrepancies. If it disturbs them enough they'll change their vote in 2020. The problem is the Democrats. This country doesn't trust intelligence or reflectiveness. We appear to love bad behavior like Trump's. He's a tough guy and that's what gets things done. Or so some think.
The best thing that could happen in 2020 would be for voters to realize that liking someone and knowing that someone is competent are two very different things. I wasn't in love with Hilary Clinton but she was competent. I'll take responsible competence over the lies, bluster and corruption we have now because the former can get things done. All the latter is good for is more of the same.
6/17/2019 7:26pm
435
@hen3ry
I would qualify your description of how Trump speaks. He qualifies what he says by not finishing the thought, leaving it to his audience to fill in. His sentences often trail off before an explicit statement. This gives him deniability and, more important no doubt, it gives the listeners' emotions free play. This is his version of the dog whistle, or sly hint.
360
@Thomas Zaslavsky
I've heard that is true, but I don't know, it could be, maybe yes, maybe no. There are good dog whistles, and bad dog whistles....
27
@Thomas Zaslavsky ah yes and then they assume and you know what that means... (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
24
Everything written in this op-ed is on the money. Trump is not helping his base one iota. BUT, he does continue to lie to them, and tells all who listen, how great he is, and how he's helping them. His base buys into it because they see him as their only hope. And Fox News, a.k.a Propaganda, verifies that for them.
And this wall around his base is almost impregnable. And I can't visualize anyone on the Democratic side braking through.
Best bet for the Democrats is, get every single eligible vote to go to the polls in 2020.
656
@cherrylog754
To those who say Trump can win next year:
One of his greatest gifts to the Democrats is his inability to change who he is as well as his consistent playing to his base (who he believes will provide his re-election). Given that his polling in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin (where he eked out his victory) has been bad and has grown worse (because some of his voters there have wised up), he would need one or more states that went for Clinton in 2016. Which ones are up for grabs? Plus, the Democrats will probably have a historic turnout. Of course, the choice of candidate will have an impact.
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@cherrylog754 - This presumes there will be 2020 polls where we can all go vote; Extremely Stable Genius 45* will try to postpone the election under 'National Emergency' auspices if he thinks he will lose.
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@Fourteen14
If the Democratic leadership is making contingency plans in case 45 refuses to leave the WH when he loses (I can't see him winning) the next election, they should be doing it very quietly. What do you expect, that they will be tweeting about it?
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I have been following the legal case - the investigation - of Trump and his associates: Manafort, Flynn, Trump's son, keep going. Their contacts with the Russians that they lied about.
Trump himself appears to be lying. A lot. We've had considerable experience with tin-pot dictators, tyrants, interference in our internal affairs by foreign governments - like the CIA - and we take it very seriously. That's our history that we learn about in school.
But somehow, in America, it seems to an outsider, that many people are not very concerned with this pattern of disturbing behavior from Trump. (I think he said he could shoot somebody and get away with it.)
Race-relations seems to be a big problem in the US. We don't have that so much down here. I don't know: is it a distraction?
Seems to me that there are bigger and more important problems in the US than race: trade, tariffs, income-inequality, jobs, pollution, rigged-elections, and - maybe the biggest problem in the richest country in the world - poverty.
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@Omar Temperley You're right about our problems here in the USA, but it's a huge country and there are millions of citizens--the majority of whom don't vote at all. Those of us who voted for Obama thought we had put together a promising path to the future, but Trump--who narrowly won the presidency with a minority of votes thanks to an antiquated voting system and Russian manipulation, among other things--has reversed the direction, and many of us are alarmed and determined to eject him from power as soon as possible. I'm hoping that the great majority of Americans will come out and vote against him--and against every other Republican who has been enabling his shady dealing--before the country slips any further into his corrupt darkness. (He'll yell "treason" and bring lawsuits, but we can handle it.)
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@Jackson
Jackson,
He didn't comment on what to do about poverty. He simply stated that the US has a poverty problem -- and it does.
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@Omar Temperley Racism has always been a huge problem in America, but more importantly today it's a tool and opportunity used by the right to ensure that income-inequality rules the land. So long as Republicans stoke racial resentment in their white working-class base, they don't have to do a thing to improve their lives or raise their standard of living. It's unfair to credit Trump with betraying these people, since they've been betrayed by their Republican overseers ever since Reagan, and Trump is not one to pass on an easy scam. Simply said, Trump's base consists of stooges that have been groomed by Fox News and right-wing nuttery to be exploited; the only way Trump would betray them is if he refrained from picking their pocket.
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Unfortunately, Dr Krugman thinks like an economist, instead of feeling like a poet. I find that, as a rule, the more important a decision is (whom to marry, where to live, whom to vote for) the more we decide based on our guts, and then gather evidence to support our feelings.
Thus "liberals" loved Obama long before they did the detailed math on his proposed legislation. And diehard Trump supporters like his toughness, and his support of legislation that supports laisez-faire attitudes towards taxes and regulations (many Americans are convinced they are the next Bill Gates or the next Honey Booboo and thus want low taxes). Add to that his voicing of a desire to put *some* limits on abortion, and they will very happily ignore his numerous personal flaws.
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@Doctor A
Thinking with your gut probably explains why there are so many divorces. For all big purchases (e.g., house, car) it turns out that people are far more rational than you are led to believe by commercials. Political parties try to get the individual to respond emotionally, not rationally, to choice of leaders.
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Oh my gosh, Trump is no laissez-faire capitalist.
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@Doctor A
I find the reality in Krugman's writing to be poetic, perhaps a form of concrete poetry. Especially compared to dishonesty.
I think Elizabeth Warren is the most poetic Dem candidate as well. Reality, that's what poems are about.
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In this neck of the woods the argument is more -pro life vs pro choice. Democrats should not underestimate the power of religion or religiosity.
Too, there is a huge middle in the middle class. Folks who do not identify with the rich or the poor.
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@Texan
By contrast, the GOP should not overestimate the role of only one issue in American religious life.
Christianity is far bigger than that.
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@Paul McGlasson
So you say, but the support of evangelicals for Donald Trump, one of the most transparently immoral individuals in American life, is difficult to account for on any other basis.
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@Texan
A big question is: What happens when the dog bites the paycheck?
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Paul is overlooking the other thing Trump is doing that his base really wants - control of illegal immigration at the southern border. Trump isn't actually controlling it very well, but he definitely seems to be trying despite impediments like the Flores Consent Decree and asylum laws with loopholes you can drive a truck through.
The Dems need an answer to this, something that's genuinely effective instead of just more resistance. They showed they were willing on a grand compromise back in 2015 or so, but since then the Dem base has moved so far left that the candidates are running away from any talk of immigration enforcement.
It's a classic mistake every election that Dems assume the less well off will vote their pocket book and in favor of candidates offering more government assistance or programs. There's is just a huge percentage of voters that perceive a cultural crisis by massive influxes of illegal immigrants into their communities and vote accordingly. An irrational fear that the Dems will take their guns is another big driver of their votes to the R side.
Hopefully one of the Dem candidates and the ultimate nominee will have a policy that deals with illegal immigration that's tough but also compassionate.
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@Jack
Why would immigration be something we want to prevent? Don't these people feed us, do our laundry, mow our lawns, fix our cars, and contribute in many other ways at a reasonable price? I can't imagine a prosperous America without immigrants. But I could certainly imagine great prosperity without hedge fund managers who "earn" $1,000,000 an hour.
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@Jack
The ideal Democrat you posit here is a miserable centrist schlub -- the kind who loses more often then not and who will never build a base for enduring political change.
Just look at Obama's timid "legacy", nearly wiped clean. And remember what happened when John Kerry "reported for duty"?
Attempting to woo persons who believe Democrats are coming from their guns or that immigration is a grave threat to apple pie is a fool's errand. You win elections these days by exciting the base. And you don't excite the base by nominating a Hillary or Uncle Joe.
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@Jack Trump is not controlling immigration at the southern border. Numbers are way up over the Obama years. What Trump is doing that his base likes is being as cruel as possible to the people who come here seeking refuge or seeking employment. It feeds their racist inclinations and gives them someone to blame for their problems. That way they don't have to accept any personal responsibility or spend any time trying to understand the real causes of their problems....Republican economic and social policies.
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