Bernie Sanders is drawing huge crowds. Donald Trump is drawing huge crowds. How do we explain the phenomenon of a Democratic Socialist on one hand and a billionaire reality star on the other drawing huge crowds across the country? If you are part of the political chattering class, the answer is they are tapping into the same resentment against the current system. However, Paul Krugman indirectly today brilliantly pointed out why this is not the case. Follow me below the fold..
In a previous diary, I wrote about how resentment is the animating emotion of democracy. It is the emotion that orients us towards the idea that something is wrong with our politics and we need to work to improve it. However, not all resentment is the same, so the question we often face is how to direct it in progressive ways. This understanding of resentment and its relationship to democracy leads us to a recent column by Paul Krugman.
What is the appeal of Trump's campaign to a certain segment of the American populace? Krugman answers that his support comes from:
southern Democrats, who preserved Jim Crow while supporting the New Deal. But they’ve all moved over to the GOP now, and in the process become anti-social-insurance. But there are plenty of voters who want Social Security and Medicare for people who look like them, but not those other people. And at some level Trump is catering to that unserved population
In short, Trump's appeal to his supporters is that he supports the welfare state for them, for whites, but not for the "other." Trumpism then is a perverted, racist, vile form of social democracy, which Krugman rightfully labels "National Social Democracy."
This is why it is wrong for pundits to say that Trump is about celebrity, not ideology, why it is wrong for them to say that he is inconsistent, and why it is wrong for them to compare his campaign to Bernie Sanders. His ideology is social welfare for whites; deportation, the end of birthright citizenship, and tougher policing for everyone else. He is George Wallace. He is Strom Thurmond.
Unfortunately, this appeal is broad and it is the reason those of us who believe in genuine social democracy need to stop treating him as a joke. As Matt Taibbi wrote in Rolling Stone, this has stopped being funny. When his appeals lead to people being beaten or people yelling out "white power" at his rallies, it is no longer funny or even amusing to contemplate what he is doing to the Republican Party. For what he is doing to the country is of far greater consequence and concern.
Those of us who believe in social democracy need to fight him at every turn. We need to point out what social democracy looks like in the world of Sanders versus the world of Trump. The fight against Trump is not about social democracy versus conservatism, it is about the very soul of social democracy. It is about what happens when democratic resentment reaches its boiling point and how we act to address it.
This fight does not start and stop by comparing Sanders and Trump. For Sanders is not the only social democrat in this race, as to a certain extent all Democrats are social democrats (yes, even Hillary), and Trump is not the only National Social Democrat in this race, as to a certain extent all Republicans are National Social Democrats.
Thus, we need to stop disparaging each other (we can talk policy differences, sure), or else we may one day wake up in a world where the American experiment in social democracy fell into the wrong hands. It would not be the first time democratic resentment fell victim to the demagogues of the right. As citizens, not partisan liberals, it is our job to make sure democratic resentment finds its outlets in positive, progressive directions, not the vileness that is National Social Democracy.