Why Trump’s tactics resonate
U. S. ELECTION A REFERENDUM ABOUT GLOBALIZATION, MASS IMMIGRATION
Tru mp continues to Tweet his way toward the White House, laying waste to rivals, minority groups, America’s allies and, in fact, the World Order.
He is the Teflon Man and nothing he says or does sticks or ever will. So the question is why is he popular despite the pile-on?
That’s because he may think it’s all about him, but it’s not really.
What’s going on is that electorates in the United States and other developed countries are pushing back against globalization and trade liberalization. Britain’s referendum was are sounding rejection of the European Project; the U.S. presidential election is not a contest between individuals but a referendum about globalization, mass immigration and America’s role as the world’s policeman.
So it doesn’t matter what stupidity, insensitivity or contradictions Trump makes or what he looks like or how much he boasts, lies and gloats.
Trump is no deep thinker. He is successful because he has expropriated key words, or hashtags, that communicate the way Americans communicate: in blunt and direct terms. He’s surfing the “zeitgeist” which is that globalization does more harm than good.
So Trump says he will “build a wall” — a concrete, not abstract, idea about stopping the continuing import of millions of unwanted immigrants and the flow of jobs to Mexico, China and elsewhere.
While free-trade deals are mutually beneficial overall, they have also led to the “giant sucking sound” or export of tens of millions of American ( and Canadian) manufacturing jobs. To say otherwise, as policy wonks like Hillary do, is to ignore the evidence all around.
Likewise, Trump’s suggestions — that NATO should be disbanded, allies must support bigger militaries and Vladimir Putin is not the antichrist — have triggered outrage from the political elites. But they are heavily invested in the status quo. They benefit from the continuous international summits on expense accounts, the creation of reams of nuanced position papers and their stints as pundits at conferences and on television. Then there are those who benefit from the care and feeding of America’s gigantic military and diplomatic machines.
But Trump resonates with the guy in Ohio, whose factory closed and who now works in a hardware store for $ 8 an hour. That worker is paying for this wonderful world order and getting damaged by it.
The dirty little secret of globalization is that trade “liberalization” has created gigantic middle classes in China, India, Mexico and Brazil at the expense of America’s, Canada’s and Europe’s.
This reality drives polling support for Trump and also did for Bernie Sanders.
The two rose out of now here and Sanders, like Trump, is a great communicator: The system is “rigged” by the “billionaire class” and government’s role is to “protect working- class families.” Polls showed consistently that he could trounce Trump because he has the added advantage of being experienced and more intelligent.
Sanders also labelled Trump as “dangerous” and “a pathological liar” while Trump, on the other hand, has never landed a glove on Bernie. That’s because he hopes to woo Bernie’s antitrade voters.
The two conventions were unique branding events. The Trump Show was hours of fearmongering, anger and pessimism, setting up his memorable and demagogic “I’m with you. I am your voice” sell line.
The Democrat show was an optimistic love- in and celebration of t olerance delivered by a glittering cast of celebrities and leaders endorsing Hillary. The most important speech was delivered by Sanders who endorsed her and trashed Trump. ( This was magnanimous given that Trump’s buddy Putin released evidence at the onset of the convention, through WikiLeaks, that Clintonites sabotaged Sanders during the primaries.)
The leak led to the removal of some party honchos and helped Sanders force Hillary to adopt most of his platform.
Now in the weeks leading up to the election, Hillary has her work cut out for her. Firstly, it’s not about her and secondly she cannot beat Trump by criticizing him because he fronts a movement that encases him in Teflon.
The lady can only win if Obama’s voters turn out and if she channels Bernie Sanders as quickly as possible.