With Trump and Sanders, European-style politics reaches America

[pampango]

2. "Political parties in the United States are also experiencing similar external pressures. The 2008

financial crisis pushed millions of European and American households to the economic brink, and disaffected voters on both the right and the left blame the political establishment. As John Judis has observed in the National Journal, a substantial chunk of the Sanders coalition consists of newly “proletarianized” white-collar professionals who are attracted to the classic social democratic message of wealth redistribution and solidarity between the poor and middle classes. Trump’s nativism, meanwhile, has drawn in a poorer and less educated segment of white workers. Like many Europeans drawn to the National Front or UKIP — they fear that large-scale immigration will further erode their crumbling economic foothold.

To be sure, the U.S. has weathered the recession much better than Europe has. The Federal Reserve has not imposed a tight money policy at the expense of jobs, and U.S. state governments have applied austerity measures only intermittently. As a result, the U.S. has mostly recovered from the elevated joblessness it experienced after the recession, even as the Eurozone continues to suffer double-digit unemployment.

Nonetheless, wage stagnation persists in the U.S., and extreme inequality in the U.S. is getting worse. Expect more right-wing populists from the GOP and more social democrats from the left as a result."

Bernie has been preaching the same message for decades. Trump's right wing populism is a recent phenomenon. I wonder sometimes if the Donald has not studied the success of the populist right in Europe and mimics their policies and tactics.

Nice find, applegrove. Thanks for posting it.