I've been thinking a lot lately about populism
versus elitism, and the ways in which the two are sometimes clumsily melded not only by demagogic politicians like Donald Trump but
also by some Scamworld gurus.
Populism, of course, is nothing new in America, and
in various forms it has been a political tool of both the left
and the right, as the writer of this January 2018 piece on History.com
observes.
By the 1980s, politicians in both
parties routinely declared themselves populists, but they
pursued conflicting agendas and identified different enemies.
Since the days of FDR, Democrats articulated a message of
economic populism, railing against big business, Wall Street
and the wealthy for failing to understand the economic plight
of average Americans. After the social turmoil of the 1960s,
Republicans built a powerful political base using a language
of cultural populism, charging that Hollywood producers,
intellectuals and liberals were out of touch with the
cultural values of mainstream Americans.
Another truth that may be self-evident is that
populism is a double-edged sword:
While it has inspired great
political-reform movements, it has also been manipulated by
demagogues to promote fear, divide the nation and infringe on
individual rights.
Indeed. In the past several decades, populism
has become an egregiously misused tool of right-wing demagogues
in particular, and a significant part of their rhetoric has been
centered around their misuse of the word "elite." These
demagogues -- mostly composed of the "haves" -- long
ago appropriated "elite" as a tool to pander to the
"have-nots." It was of course the height of hypocrisy
for plutocrats to paint "the elite" as a bunch of
privileged left-wing (of course!) intellectual and social snobs
who not only looked down on the average American, but were also,
in ways never really explained, robbing these average Joes and
Josephines of the American Dream. As verifiably wrong as the
demagogues' claims were, the ploy was often effective, causing
Mr. and Mrs. Average to repeatedly vote against their own
interests. They were distracted by tales of mostly imaginary
enemies while failing to notice that the robber barons to whom
they listened so raptly had their own hands in the till and were
destroying what was left of the middle class.
The History.com piece cited above was framed around
#NotMyPresident Donald John Trump's populism, and his constant
attempts to paint himself as a "man of the people."
Absurd as it is to anyone who has actually been paying attention
to this boastful, ostentatiously wealthy blowhard since the
1980s, Trump's false self-portrayal as a man of the people has
successfully convinced many middle-class Americans that he is
truly looking out for them, and that, to name but one example,
his 2017 tax cut was a gift to them instead of to big
business and the one percent.
It's pretty clear, and unsurprising as well, that Trump hasn't
exactly followed the norms of modern populism as described in the
passage I quoted above. He is in so many ways the very
personification of the vulgarity derided by traditional
right-wing populists -- he is crass, boastful, amoral -- and
rather than deriding those supposedly obscene "Hollywood
values" he actively embraces them. Beginning with the 2016
campaign and continuing into his "presidency," he has
eschewed legacy right-wing cultural populism, instead choosing to
co-opt the economic populism of the left -- all in order to
appeal to the base who felt the American Dream slipping from
their fingers. In his jobs-plan speech in June of 2016 he read these scripted remarks:
Globalization has made the financial
elite who donate to politicians very wealthy. But it has left
millions of our workers with nothing but poverty and
heartache...
...I want you to imagine how much better
our future can be if we declare independence from the elites
who've led us to one financial and foreign policy disaster
after another.
Our friends in Britain recently voted
to take back control of their economy, politics and borders.
I was on the right side of that issue -
with the people - while Hillary, as always, stood with the
elites, and both she and president Obama predicted that one
wrong.
Now it's time for the American people
to take back their future.
Never mind that Trump himself was, for many
years, a member of that "financial elite" who donated
to politicians on both sides in order to advance his own business
interests. In any case, as noted in this June 28, 2018 piece in New York...
At some point, the ruse grew so
tiresome to Trump that he began to imagine the words he was
reading about his opponent had actually been composed by his
opponent. And no wonder. Trump’s public persona has been
geared toward manic puffery of his own success. A key element
of his grift has involved selling people on the notion that
they too can become rich if they buy Trump books or predatory
“university” courses.
Lately Trump has dragged the word
"elite" to new depths, appearing to employ it
simultaneously as the term of abuse it was intended to be by the
demagogues who preceded him, and as a compliment to himself and
to his hypnotized followers.
This rhetorical trend has not gone unnoticed by the late-night comedians, nor by the New York writer.
The newest complaint
President Trump has taken to airing out in his post-campaign
rallies is an unearned compliment given to his opponent. “They
call them the elite,” he declares, in his new favorite
riff. “Why are they elite? I have a much better apartment
than they do. I’m smarter than they are. I’m richer than
they are.”
It is obviously not Trump’s opponents who call themselves
the elite, but Trump himself, or at least the author of his
speeches.
But now he is also calling his supporters
"elite" (or "super-elite") during his
increasingly deranged campaign rallies. At his June 27 rally in
Fargo, North Dakota, he boasted that not only is he richer than
his enemies, but that his supporters are as well. "We got
more money, we got more brains, we got better houses, apartments,
we got nicer boats, we're the elite."
As the New York writer observes:
This is not, of course, how populism
works. It trades on either cultural or economic grievance.
One’s enemies possess all the privilege, and we the people
must take it back. Once you have declared that you already
possess the privilege, the whole basis for it disintegrates.
While Trump performed perfectly well among the rich, most of
his supporters are not rich (because most Americans are not
rich) and would have trouble recognizing themselves in his
portrait of lavish apartments and boats.
But I doubt that his fawning followers will notice
anything amiss. They will proudly embrace the titular promotion
bestowed upon them by their Cheeto Jesus (even though as the
writer above pointed out, very few of them actually enjoy the
lavish lifestyle of "the elite" as defined by Trump at his recent rallies).
And they will continue to proudly sport their red #MAGA caps,
chanting "Lock her up!" and "Build that
wall!" while their savior smirks, hugs the American flag,
and brags about his big crowds and the Big Win in 2016. The less
logical sense he makes, the more they cheer him.
[Addendum 30 August 2018:]
Like many A-list Scamworld gurus (e.g., Kevin Trudeau in his
glory daze, according to reports I've heard from people who know
him), Trump seems to harbor a thinly-disguised contempt for
his fawning followers, at least those
who aren't as "wealthy" and "successful" as
he. As the author of the linked NY Magazine piece
writes, "Conservatives have spent decades depicting liberals
as coastal snobs...But as is so often the case, the
accusation that was made falsely against Democrats turns out to
be true of Trump. For all his vaunted populism, he is filled with
contempt for average people in general and his own supporters in
particular." Trump, the writer observes, has built his brand on
attracting the working class, but the admiration is unilateral;
Trump wants to be envied and admired, but he views his admirers
as suckers.]
So what does all of this have to do with the Scamworld that is
the foundation of my original beat? I'll get to that in the next post. It's been a long day.
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