Populism Knocks On The Republican Door

January 29, 2016 Hunter Wallace Politics 34

From The Washington Examiner:

“Populism has spent years knocking on the door of the Republican Party. Next week, it may knock the door off its hinges—or burn down the house. …

The GOP could have harnessed the emotion, and steered it towards conservative policy goals and Republican victories. But populism has always seemed uncouth or foreign to much of the GOP elite, and it could upset the donor base and the K Street class.

But the populism didn’t go away, and on Monday across the prairies of Iowa, it could shake the Grand Old Party to its foundations, toppling conservatism, and erecting authoritarian identity politics in its place. …

The Tea Party carried Republicans to a House majority in 2010, but then the party clamped down on the populism. Notably, they pushed an immigration bill coveted by the business lobby. …”

Here’s another key excerpt from a must read article in The Huffington Post: 1 out of 4 Democrats are backing Trump.

“WASHINGTON — Here are some scary findings for anyone who doesn’t support Donald Trump for president.

Working America, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO union federation, just spent five weeks canvassing in the Cleveland and Pittsburgh areas, focusing on likely voters who live outside the city and have household incomes at or below $75,000 (read: white and working class). The group’s canvassers spoke to 1,689 people, 90 percent of whom cast ballots in 2012. While the report serves as a non-scientific “front porch focus group,” rather than a representative sample of the states’ voters, its findings offer a glimpse into some voters’ minds.

Of the entire Democratic and Republican fields, the most popular single candidate was Donald Trump — and it wasn’t even close. Thirty-eight percent of people who had already made up their minds said they wanted to vote for the Republican real estate magnate. The candidate with the next highest share was Democrat Hillary Clinton, with 22 percent. …

And that would partly explain this troubling finding for Democrats: One in four people who identified as Democrats said they were backing Trump.”

Trump is beating Hillary Clinton, 47-43, in Michigan, and Cruz, 51-15.

“An exclusive Mitchell FOX 2 Detroit Poll of Michigan finds that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton hold large leads over their nearest GOP and Democratic opponents, respectively.

In a head to head matchup, Trump holds a 47 – 43 percent lead over Clinton with 10 percent undecided.

The latest Mitchell poll data has Trump holding a 3-1 lead over his two closest opponents in the Michigan Republican Presidential Primary.”

Charles Krauthammer sees a fight “over the soul” of the GOP:

“The 2016 presidential race has turned into an epic contest between the ethno-nationalist populism of Donald Trump and traditional conservatism, though in two varieties: the scorched-earth fundamentalist version of Ted Cruz, and a reformist version, represented by Marco Rubio (and several so-called establishment candidates) and articulated most fully by non-candidate Paul Ryan and a cluster of highly productive thinkers and policy wonks dubbed “reformicons.”

Jonathan Chait says it is becoming a white identity party:

“At the same time, Trump is offering something genuinely transformational. His candidacy would reshape the Republican Party as more of a European-style white-identity party, rather than a party rooted in opposition to big government. Far-right parties in Europe organize their politics around opposition to immigration and defense of cultural traditionalism. Unlike the Republican Party, they do not take notably right-wing positions on taxes and spending. Indeed, they fuse together social traditionalism with populist economics in a political style some call herrenvolk democracy — a welfare state whose benefits should be restricted to people like us.”

If Hillary ends up defeating Sanders, union members are poised to bolt for Trump:

“In expressing her concern, Ms. Henry reflected a different form of anxiety that is weighing on some union leaders and Democratic operatives: their fear that Mr. Trump, if not effectively countered, may draw an unusually large number of union voters in a possible general election matchup. This could, in turn, give Republicans a boost in swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, all of which Mr. Obama won twice.

The source of the attraction to Mr. Trump, say union members and leaders, is manifold: the candidate’s unapologetically populist positions on certain economic issues, particularly trade; a frustration with the impotence of conventional politicians; and above all, a sense that he rejects the norms of Washington discourse.

“They feel he’s the one guy who’s saying what’s on people’s minds,” Thomas Hanify, the president of the Indiana state firefighters union, said of his rank and file. …”

Note: For the moment, Trump is the greatest thing since sliced bread, at least until he has served his purpose, which is to kill off a certain parasite.

About Hunter Wallace 12380 Articles
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Occidental Dissent

34 Comments

  2. “Authoritarian identity politics”

    Like White Nationalism?

    What the pundits don’t understand is that White identity politics is inevitable. It’s coming.

  3. Populism is what? Being responsive to the people?

    There is a need for populism. People are sometimes right and need to be heard.
    I think populism becomes a problem if we were to assume that the People always know best. They don’t. The masses or the mobs can be wrong. Very wrong.

    Elitism? It has value because the best educated and most intelligent sometimes do know what they’re talking about. They should be the leaders and managers of society. But elitism is a problem if we assume the elites always know best. They don’t. They sometimes favor theory over practice. Also, many of them gained status by serving the powerful and well-connected. So, elites never act on pure ideal but often serve The Power. Look how Colin Powell made a fool of himself at the UN to argue for Iraq War. Look how all those think tanks on left and right serve the likes of Koch Bros and Soros. Elites may be better educated but they too were made and favored by power. So, they serve the power above any ideal.

    Also, populism and elitism are not always opposite. Because the people tend to be rather ignorant, they can easily be manipulated by the elites.
    So, populism is, more often than not, a tool of elitism.

    So, the elites don’t mind populism as long as THEY can to call the shots… like stirring up populist fears after 9/11 to support the invasion of Iraq. Clinton often played the populist: I feel Your Pain(when not your ass).

    And National Review never complained about Talk Radio populism as long it stuck to GOP speaking points. And what is FOX News but a populist channel that panders to lowbrow tastes? Why is Megan Kelly on the show? She looks like a beauty queen.

    But with Trump, populism has become un-moored. And that’s what the elites don’t like.

    Also, why isn’t Sanders called a populist? Isn’t he pandering to class angst and resentment? I guess he has the support of a ‘better kind of people’, the upper-middle class ‘progressives’.

    Populism generally refers to white social conservative types who are low middle class or working class or poor.

    But the Alt Right needs to be wary of populism because people can easily be swayed and manipulated.

    Consider Frank Capra’s MEET JOHN DOE. We see populism at its best — simple Americans coming together — , but this good quality can so easily be manipulated since goodness is earnest, sincere, and naive. The good can be taken for fools.
    https://youtu.be/flmdGgUtkCU?t=49m45s

    And consider all the sucker masses in FACE IN THE CROWD.

    But one saving grace about Trump populists is that they tend to be irreverent. They are not following Trump out of sincere and naive faith in his character. They know he’s a sinner and a showman. They are not like Obama zombies who wept and peed in their pants as if he’s the second coming of messiah.

    No, Trump supporters are a new kind of irreverent, cynical, and cocky populists who like Trump because he’s a chaos candidate who is shaking things up.

    They’ve stuck with Trump not so much out of sincere faith/trust in him because they are onto the game that the elites want to derail him because they want total control of the narrative.

    And this is what drives the elites crazy. If Trump supporters believed in Donald’s pristine goodness, then the bubble could easily be pricked by the elites by exposing his scandalous personal history.
    But Trump supporters know that history and don’t care since politics have lost all innocence after Clinton, Bush II, and Obama.

    Besides, it’s funny that the Lib elites would accuse Trump of vulgarity. They defended Clinton’s antics in the White House.
    And what was more gauche and sickening that Obama’s sham new messiah act? It was pure Hollywood. Vulgar, politics turned into Oprah show. And look how Michelle makes rap videos and slams basketballs and spends 100 million on vacation trips. Vulgar and trashy.

    The elites overlooked all of that, but they are offended by Trump’s style?

    Also, don’t the Liberal elites control Hollywood, Pop Music, and TV? What kind of culture have they been feeding to the people? Gangster rap and Lena Dunham. And shows like Simpsons and Family Guy. They encouraged vulgarity among the masses. They got rich doing it. But they know bitch about vulgarity? Please.

    • Question Diversity
      ‘Now you understand why the future of right wing politics in the Occidental world will be nationalist, not libertarian, and why future rightists won’t spout or much care about libertarian bumper sticker trope. Our prime concern will be who controls the state and on whose behalf is its power exercised; whether the state’s strength should be moderate or extreme will be secondary issues for us.’

        • How’s this?
          Question Diversity: ‘Now you understand why the future of right wing politics in the Occidental world will be nationalist, not libertarian, and why future rightists won’t spout or much care about libertarian bumper sticker trope. Our prime concern will be who controls the state and on whose behalf is its power exercised; whether the state’s strength should be moderate or extreme will be secondary issues for us.’

  5. Oy VEY! It’s annuder Shoah! Day Nazi Goyim (Any-one White!) just might be acting in THIER ethnic interests! OH NOES!!!! Quick – bring in more Mestizoes and “Syrian refugees”!!!!

    • ‘Murica definitely needs importation of at least 6 million™ of a non-assimilating, brown horde to make up for past transgressions.

  6. White people can make even absurd systems like socialism work. However, even a technically advanced city with cutting edge systems would collapse under the stupidity of Globalism and this nonsense about diversity. White people are learning not to be nice. You know I tried being nice, but then someone told me nice guys finished last. That changed my WHOLE LIFE.

      • You heard him.

        “Unlike the Republican Party, they do not take notably right-wing positions on taxes and spending. Indeed, they fuse together social traditionalism with populist economics in a political style some call herrenvolk democracy — a welfare state whose benefits should be restricted to people like us.”

  10. Everyone of these Neochoens and “traditional conservatives” demand universal suffrage. They’re just fine with it until “white interests” tip the scales.

  11. I watch Bill Maher, just to see what animates the Trendy Lefites. Last night, the 29th, Bill and his guset, Thom Hartman, actually articulated pro White and Traditionalist/Populist sentiments. The audience cheered. Maher actually mocked an SJW, and SJWs in general. It was a real surprise

    • Mr. Owen – the far left, ‘true progressives’ has oft been schizoid on this issue – all at once advocating ‘multiculturalism’, yet, nationalist in trade policy orientation.

      Look at Senator Sanders : through and through a communist – yet, with nationalist and protectionist trade policies.

      The latter is the only thing I like about him.

    • When you have a mobocracy, where women and minorities are allowed to vote, after the destruction of the Republic, by Traitor Lincoln, then, yes.

      One step at a time, sweet Jesus. One step at a time.
      Populism, then expulsion, then rescension of certain illegal/immoral amendments…. We’ll get a nationalist theocracy, yet… lol.

  13. “Unlike the Republican Party, they do not take notably right-wing positions on taxes and spending. Indeed, they fuse together social traditionalism with populist economics in a political style some call herrenvolk democracy — a welfare state whose benefits should be restricted to people like us.”

    I wanted to SCREAM into the screen last night, when I read this:

    DUH!?!? What do you THINK ‘for US and OUR Posterity’ means, ANYWAY!?

  14. Part of an interview at Radix I thought was interesting.

    HB: In your opinion, how has the rise of Donald Trump galvanized what has come to be known as the “alt-right” on Twitter?

    D: Trump recognized that the white working class had no voice in today’s American politics, and he’s become a rallying point for everyone who feels that the establishment needs to be torn down. His specific beliefs and policies are for the most part unimportant, he serves as a Schelling point for a deep anti-establishment feeling that has grown strong in the absence of any other permitted outlets to vent that emotion.

    I generally support Trump but I don’t think he will win the election, I believe the establishment will do anything in its power to prevent his victory. I think the establishment will massively overreach and the blatant theft of the 2016 election could be the trigger for Civil War 2.

    HB: What are your thoughts on Trump’s retweeting of various “controversial” accounts and how it has affected the media narrative of his campaign and how his supporters see online see him?

    D: Trump is playing the media like a master, I’ve never seen anyone this skilled at trolling. He skillfully manipulates the media into bringing ideas into the Overton Window from the right. Without Trump, no one in this election would be talking about immigration, and he even caused the memes of “alt-right” and “white genocide” to be repeated by major news organizations.

  16. Sir,
    After pondering this immense analysis I have heard from pundits on ‘the rise of populism in this election – I have come to hear the word ‘populism’ as short hand for this :

    ‘an electorate that is not shopping for political direction from politicians, but, looking for those politicians who will execute theirs’ …

  17. So Trump wins, and just for fun, the repubs take both houses. Where’s Trump’s support in the congress and senate, his populous support, for the policies he’s going to use to make things right. Let’s pretend he’ll actually attempt to do the things that he’s saying he’ll do, but like the canadian trudeau, post election announce that he’s unable to fulfill his promises due to treaties and such. For years it’s been a one party system with two names, the rot is pervasive, and the ducks are all in a line and on page, which trump isn’t or so we’re lead to believe. Where are the congressional and senatorial candidates that are shouting from the rafters that if you elect me I will fully support Donald Trump and make America great. As a lame duck, how is he going to dismantle the good ole boy system, the belly up to the trough feeding fest, the policy by corporate lobby, when he’s standing there with his dick in his hand and you can hear the crickets chirping. There are so many sacred cows in Washington you should change it’s name to India. Of course this is my own uninformed opinion, so I’d like to also point out, and I’m sure that everyone is aware of, trump and the jewish question. He’s made the journey to israel, and licked the boots of netanyahu, and as a token they have his daughter as either verification or hostage, pick your poison. But that all took place way before he decided to get into the race. Really, you know he’s been talking about it for decades, and the jews are patient, besides all the other epithets for the jews you can imagine. Trump goes on and on about business, well the jews know business, and they also know how to make a deal, and they can fix the deal if it’s not going their way. ‘By way of deception thou shalt do war’ is the motto of the mossad, the rest of the jews just don’t bother to announce it. Don’t be surprised by this political sleight of hand when it comes up and smacks you on the side of the head. Imagine the jew vampire stepping back into the shadows of the corridors of power, waiting.

  19. This populism stuff sounds pretty scary. Heaven forfend government policy be geared towards the founding stock of the American nation.

    Sarcasm off.

    But seriously, Conservatism Inc. is nothing more than libertarian economics and a sort of moderated, “responsible” egalitarianism.

    Libertarian economics is fine when all sides are playing by the same rules, but it doesn’t work very well when the other side is playing a different game altogether. It’s like playing checkers while they’re playing chess.

    And the egalitarian aspect of Conservatism Inc. is not even truly egalitarian. It puts a never-ending burden on the White man to accommodate the Other, and cannot accept that, quite obviously, the races are not the same, nor are they compatible. In pursuit of their unnatural theory, they’ll focus on the exceptions rather than whole.

    When I’ve seen members of Conservatism Inc. “celebrate” MLK on MLK day, or whenever the subject comes up. They pose. They signal. They preen. They want to be accept by Liberals, even as they pretend to oppose them. But what they don’t realize is that they’re just a moderated form of liberal.

    They suffer from this nation that, “If people could just see that we’re not racists, they would give our case a fair hearing, and we could convince them of the wisdom of our policy proposals.” They are madly in love with their policy wonkish-ness and can talk endlessly about it.

    But again, they pose – giving heap big lip service to “smaller government” as probably their main mantra. Well, I want smaller government, too, but I truly want smaller government. That means not spending trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives being sacrificed on faux-Israel’s altar. And it means not letting the enemies of Christianity, of the White race, and of Western Civilization run your country and your culture into the ground.

    Conservatism Inc. disagrees, and its impulse is identical to that of pure Liberalism, which is to say “that’s racist,” and “that’s xenophobic,” and “that’s anti-semitic” whenever certain issues are raised. Conservatism Inc. is intellectually shallow and morally obtuse. It is un-Christian. It is anti-White. And it is cowardly.

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