Trumpopulism

Yuval Levin has listened carefully to the GOP hopefuls, entire speeches at a time. He discerns an overall theme – variations on populist distrust of the establishment. It is a peculiar brand of populism, not a protest against a too-powerful elite, but a protest against weakness and incompetence at the top.

This, he thinks, explains Trump’s appeal and his limitations: “Donald Trump says that the establishment (and not just the Republican establishment) is weak and stupid, and that he would instead be strong and smart. The problem America faces, as he sees it, is not the dominance of the establishment but rather its lack of backbone and good sense. The alternative he offers is himself, rather than any clear or principled vision of government or of American life. He does suggest, however, that a key source of the establishment’s weakness and stupidity is our elites’ loss of faith in the meaning of the nation — and therefore in the existence of a distinction between Americans and others. Having lost sight of this distinction, Trump says, the establishment is not troubled enough by the prospect of America’s becoming a loser nation, and it’s no longer even trying to win. By keeping sight of the distinction between Americans and others — most notably, but not exclusively, by enforcing that distinction at the border — Trump says he will be able to offer strong leadership and help the country win again. More than any other candidate, Trump talks about the gap between elites and the broader public as a gap between losers and would-be winners. He doesn’t argue that the establishment is too strong and domineering, he argues that it’s pathetic.”

Trump’s fans and his critics focus on different parts of this message. Fans highlight Trump’s diagnoses, which Levin says are Trump’s strengths. “His fans like the way he calls out the blindness or weakness of America’s political class and that he points out the absurdity of some elite sensitivities.” Trump’s critics, including Levin himself, focus on the thinness or absurdity of his solutions: Trump doesn’t make arguments; he effuses. It is possible (if not easy) to take him seriously only as a diagnostician. When he moves from diagnosis to prescription, he shows no sign of having any grasp of what government does, what the president’s role is in our system of government, what the American Constitution is or means, or how he might even try to think like a conservative. Trump is also frequently vulgar, mean, crass, and callous, and the way he talks about himself comes across as a desperate cry for help.”

Levin sums up: “Trump’s strength is his diagnosis of a rot at the core of our public life, but his weakness is what he proposes to do about it — which in many cases strikes me as likely to make things far worse.”