Will Trump Rebrand GOP As White Nationalist Party? [View all]
By JOSH MARSHALL
Is Donald Trump a 'populist', the candidate of resentment and privilege or simply the final embodiment of the Crazy, the Crazy made flesh and coming amongst us, the Jesus who was foretold by Michele Bachmann's John the Baptist. One of the great injuries Trump has already done to America and our collective dignity is that we are now forced to take him seriously in terms of understanding what he represents in political terms since he's not going anywhere and only appears to be gaining strength.
Much of what has driven the GOP in the Obama era has been anxiety and resentment about losing out to rising forces in the American political-economy and culture - the decreasing white share of the national electorate (embodied by but also partly connected to Barack Obama's election), changing social and cultural mores (support for LGBT rights) driven by Americans under the age of 35, a renascent and assertive women's movement and the increasing defensiveness or even paranoia of organized wealth.
Trump brings all these together with better messaging and fewer apologies - which is the core of his political potency and why his electoral strength seems to cross many common ideological divisions. In Trump world there are winners and losers. And right now you're a loser. And you should be ashamed of being a loser when Mexico and China and the illegal immigrants are winners. But Trump will show you how to be a winner again because he's a winner. He'll help you get back what's yours - which is basically the textbook definition of the politics of resentment.
Most interesting to me is how Trump appears to be making a bid to rebrand the GOP as a white nationalist party, just with better marketing and better hair. Trump's response to that anti-immigrant hate crime in Boston remains very telling and has not received enough attention. Today we see a similar response from his campaign manager to people chanting 'white power' at his big speech in Alabama. Said Corey Lewandowski: "I don't know about the individual you're talking about in Alabama. I know there were 30-plus thousand people in that stadium. They were very receptive to the message of 'making America great again' because they want to be proud to be Americans again."
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