Populism and the Future of Politics
By: Jared Morris
Tags: Populism, Donald Trump, 2016 Election, 2020 Presidential Race, Politics

So how does this tie to our recent elections? Both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders connected to a group of voters who had previously felt faceless in the process of politics. These voters felt, whether correctly or not, that they had been slighted by the elite; the establishment. How this happened features both a short and a long term perspective.

In the longer term, Congress has pushed off its responsibilities onto an executive branch that is not able to accomplish the plans. What this means for voters is that, for many, they are not simply voting for the head of the executive branch when it comes election time, but also for a one man legislative branch as well. When certain policies do not form (and we do not all get a free pony; dang it Vermin Supreme!), people become frustrated with the system itself and become disenfranchised. I’m not the first to observe this; I believe the best short treatment of this is by David French over at The Dispatch in a recent article. The whole piece is great, but to pull out one part in regards to this:

And so we continue the familiar pattern of overpromising and underdelivering. Why does this matter? For the simple reason that we are teaching a generation of polarized, angry activists that politics does not work. They’re being raised to believe that the system is fundamentally broken. They cannot vote their way into the policies they prefer.

The shorter term reasons for disenchantment that led to the rise of populism is unique for each side. For the left, much of the shorter term frustration comes in their strain of radicalism. Although both sides of the political aisle has their own version of extremism, the left has had a stronger idealism about many of their policies; with many seemingly believing and some explicitly arguing that “history is on their side”. This is why political defeats are taken much harder by the passionate left at times. This leads to the heavy opposition that Obama met in his term as president. Having been ushered in as the Grand Vicar of Progressivism, Barack Obama was shut down multiple times by the Republican forces in Congress. This particularly left a bad taste in the mouth of many young progressives who were first being introduced to politics through this charismatic man named Obama who was seemingly being unjustly stopped by a rebellious right. The pinnacle of this harm was done with the extensive rework that Obamacare received at the hands of the GOP; with articles being written about the obstruction that the Republicans caused as recently as this year. Obama was the face of justice and equality for many with the evil Republican’s in Senate standing in his way (insert some joke about Senator Palpatine for movie street cred). With this being in their recent memories, many turned toward a man who promised to get the job done more quickly and more thoroughly: Bernie Sanders. If the Republicans don’t want to give us Obamacare, fine. We will go for fully nationalized medicine. If the Republicans want to stand in our way of strengthening entitlements in America, fine. We will go for free college for all. You can see this short term coupling with the longer term issues to bring about a strong Bernie Sander’s campaign.

With the Republicans, the shorter term issue actually stems from a very different part of life; culture. It has been a long-term complaint of the right that many of their most respected beliefs and politicians are given little respect in the main stream media. How awful, many of the right complain, that we are so disrespected by those on CNN, MSNBC, or any number of other shows (I cannot drop too many talk show names or I lose all the street cred I earned in the previous paragraph.) Donald Trump very obviously hit on this nerve with great intensity throughout many of his speeches and statements. Anyone who followed the 2016 election, or followed Trump in any way on social media will find that he rarely misses an opportunity to throw an insult toward the main stream media. As shown here, Trump has sent out hundreds of tweets attacking “fake news” alone. Now, I don’t want to downplay how this played in the populist rise of our president since there were millions of Americans who have felt left out of the wider conversation in the country due to the disregard of their opinions by many in the culture.

The only other point I want to highlight that contributed to the rise of populism is the intense rise of anti-intellectualism. Due partly to the shrugging off of legislative authority in Congress, there has been a serious decrease of smart, practical policies out of both sides of the political aisle. This has had the unfortunate effect of lessening the influence of smart legislators and increasing the influence of rhetorical based politicians who have offered little to the actual motion of politics. This has led to a whole section of the populace on both sides who have never been aware of anything beyond clever one-liners or comebacks. To many of these voters, rhetoric is all that exists. None of that is meant disparagingly, it is all that many have been provided in recent years; especially younger voters just getting into politics. The much larger concern is politicians who tap into these lines of rhetoric to gain influence far greater than they deserve; you find the right “tune”, and suddenly you are the voice of the people.

Both Trump and Bernie, and truly any populist in politics, have taken advantage of this; whether consciously or not. Trump obviously came from outside the world of politics, and I don’t believe I have to dwell on how much of his politics were simply superimposed onto rhetoric that was, at times, far more radical than the actual policy it led to. Bernie has had a similar success, going far more for the “class angle” by attacking million and billionaires in America while having done very little to earn the right to do so. In a recent interview, Hillary Clinton reiterated her stance on Bernie: