Real populism is governing in public interest, not a small knot of elitist governing in their self interest

Real populism is governing in the public interest and not governing in the self-interest of those rich, politically connected, and the billionaires. One form of populism is economic. Another is techbro populism. Sadly, another form is racist. All are at work in America today, and more than one might dwell in the hearts and minds of some voters at the same time.

Economic populism is an easy concept to grasp. Recent articles in the Atlantic magazine have been focusing on the influence of the techno bros, the chiefs of high-tech industries, who are the recent drivers of anti-democracy fascist like influences in the White House and pubic policy. It explains why these newly minted oligarchs love Putin, Orban, and CPAC, as their businesses flourish when government is shaped to support their economic well-being.  The only population they consider is their own and not the rest of us.  

One of the characteristics of populist movements in the past, the Tea Party, and even MAGA has always been a resentment of elites controlling their lives and making their lives, working class and even many in the middle class, economically difficult.  This is largely based on economic concerns... especially since consumers are the ones who feel the pain. 

Techbro populism is another matter. The Atlantic's recent article by George Packer fingers the culprits as those who surround and influence Trump, such as Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, and others. (JD Vance is a protege of Thiel. Musk, a native of South Africa, echoes the racist and elitist makeup of fascists of the 1930's and the apartheid supporters of the last century. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/06/david-sacks-crypto-ai-venture-capital/686941/

  This new techbro populism is the polar opposite of economic populism: These techbros want a government that helps their businesses and serves their interests, led by a small group of elites who run the government to advance their self-interested goals. However, another element has been part of the techbros mantra. It is anti-elite: extreme libertarian and "keep the government out of my business." However, it has recently changed. It is a new realization that government action is okay "when it helps my business through favorable tax and administrative policies". Libertarianism is a long-held populist concept held by many. "The best government is the least government" is their frequently uttered mantra. There is a strong anti-elitist streak in its followers.  Brotech populism is self-contradictory: it is both elitist and anti-elitist at the same time.  The impact, though, is anti populist and elitist. Techbros often do not care, or may not even grasp, what it is like to be on a budget for individuals and families. 'What's a few cents if gas at the pump rises?  They just do not get the uproar.

Such governance by rich elitists contains the seed of their own eventual destruction and will eventually be brought down by those whose needs are not met, as the rich and a ruling oligarchy become richer and those whose needs are not met become poorer. A lot of time and pain have to flow under the bridge before it dawns on the masses. It certainly happened to Viktor Orban in Hungary, as popular resentment of his oligarchical and corrupt rule resulted in economic pain. It became so strong that the masses of ordinary people overcame even Orban's suppression of the free press and political gerrymandering and took to a whisper campaign, quiet organizing, and the ballot box. Orban was defeated.

A few MAGA-ers have awakened to this challenge against their own interests. It is close to how the Trump administration is operating now, a rule by the rich, characterized by those techbro s who sat directly behind Trump when he put his hands on the bible for his second term. Trump's lust for respect by accumulating power and wealth is similar to the tech bros' goals. That is Trump's peer group, only he adds just the Mar-a-Lago type, very wealthy, who never have to worry about a budget, and Putin, rumored to be the richest one in the world, who he is influenced by and influences a loyalist group of oligarchs, too. 

Why do most MAGA turn a blind eye to Trump's peer group oligarchy and his attempt to Orbanize America? They shouldn't, logic dictates. What MAGA and liberals have in common is the ability to rise up through democratically protected peaceful means, such as through the ballot box or peaceful street demonstrations.  Preservation of democracy and a government that rules in the public interest, rather than the elite wealthy, should be and are common values, even if they are not yet realized or under threat. So what else is driving much of the MAGA if not economic populism?

I have a theory based on some observations: There is another streak of populism: racist populism. I suspect it is more powerful than economic populism in deep red states.  It has been characterized by Trump's appointment of white nationalists in key administrative positions and their obsession with the destruction of DEI, the continued use of racist dog whistles, and the reaction to the recent Supreme Court decision that gutted the civil rights era Voting Rights Act. This decision, pronounced with the piety of promoting fair elections by negating protections against racial gerrymandering, has accomplished the opposite. This decision instead is opening the floodgates to racial gerrymandering as Louisiana now works to eliminate Congressional districts represented by African Americans.  Now, under the cover of the SCOTUS decision, the former slave states' white-dominated legislatures rush to redistrict before and even during the campaigns for November 2026 and 2028. The estimated result is 22 African American congresspeople losing their seats while claiming racism has nothing to do with these actions. How stupid or naive do they think Americans are? 

 Those who get it and and agree with the hidden messages in the dog whistles and racist redistricting remain quiet or find some other reason to support the racist intent of their representative in state legislators. They are, in a way, part of a populist movement. They show their consent by remaining quiet or voting for redistricting that is geared to remove as many African Americans from Congress as they can. while still voicing support for their white legislators. Racism as an openly touted value is still politically incorrect, but winks and nods masked in a variety of dog whistles are right there up front, conveying it in other ways. Their silence is deafening. and actions speak louder than words. Silence says as much as anything. Silence is a form of consent.

What are dog whistles? a simple explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8_fgJQHkOc.   

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/state-redistricting-battles-intensify-following-u-s-supreme-court-ruling-on-voting-rights-act

https://apnews.com/article/trump-inauguration-tech-billionaires-zuckerberg-musk-wealth-0896bfc3f50d941d62cebc3074267ecd

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2026/02/white-christian-nationalism-has-taken.h

All politics is local, so national views on gerrymandering I have seen do not differentiate views based on race, but on politics.  Nonetheless, here are nationwide views. In short, most people are not well informed even on political gerrymanders.  https://yougov.com/en-us/articles/52740-large-majorities-americans-say-gerrymandering-major-problem-unfair-should-be-illegal-redistricting-texas-california-poll  

How Democrats get their messaging muddled

If I were writing stump speeches or had to find a way to get the best and strongest message across in an ad, here is how I would do it,

 Democrats have a way of messing up messaging by getting it backward and muddying the message. They put the cause before the effect. That requires too much deductive reasoning on the part of audiences. .  They also put " attack " terms in 3-syllable words, but not the way ordinary people speak.  Ideas: replace "retribution" with the word  "revenge" and "accountability 'with   "Hold X responsible for......".

Next: speak in short staccato bullet points, no more than four with examples and zingers

 1. Here's the pain you feel (i.e., cost, chaos and corruption...He gets rich, and you get poorer with crypto and tax, and administrative favors to loylaists). Reset it.  Problem with getting rich on foreign investments: he who pays the fiddler calls the tune, if not now, sooner or later. Emoluments clause in the Constitution  broken by Trump

 2. Why does Trump do it and how?  (amass power and wealth for himself; ignores laws or stretches them to the breaking point. ) Lame duck so does need to be responsive to voters and has immunity from prosecution.

3, Your MAGA opponent is an enabler.  Loyalty first to Trump, even when it hurts our constituents..so rubber-stamp and present examples, of course, gas prices and Iran, but so much more.

 4. What plans I propose to fix it (reform gerrymandering, getting rid of Citizens United, and stop dark money etc,, returning the Department of Justice to the purpose of law enforcement and not revenge against pllitical enemises etc, beefing up Obamacare), Democrats cannot just run on "I am not Trump" alone.I fear Democrats can get hung up on their own revenge crusade.

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Trump's belief he can ignore bad poll numbers just got a boost from the Supreme Court

How can Trump ignore his plunging polls? In his ego-driven arrogance, he thinks he can control the outcome of the 2026 midterms and ignore popular sentiment. or even their vote count. Yesterday's Supreme Court decision is one of its many contributions to Trump's arrogance. (The others: Citizens United and presidential immunity from criminal prosecution) Plunging polls mean little to the officeholder who will not be a candidate in the next election...and Trump is a lame duck, free to feather his own nest while he can.

While piously claiming the decision that racial gerrymandering was a no-no, the Roberts court majority granted a victory to white southerners who objected to too much power being given to African Americans in drawing election districts. The current makeup results in 1/3 of the seats likely to vote for African American representatives, the same percentage of African Americans of the entire state, 30%. SCOTUS just okayed giving all seats except one to white-dominated voters, depriving the 30% of full representation in Congress. In short it was ok to give the white folks a disproportionate advantage, but not ok for the Black folks to get a fair share. ..if I understand the math ok. The effect of the decision couched in deceptive terms of fairness was to gut a main provision of a civil rights constitutional amendment, which would prevent racial gerrymandering resulting in racial discrimination in the first place. https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/scotus-smothers-voting-rights-act-greenlighting-racial-discrimination-and-a-rash-of-gop-gerrymanders/ It now opens the door to other white-dominated southern states to do the same now and in the future in order to limit a proportional representation of their population.

Trump has plans to overturn the anticipated losses in the midterms and the will of the majority of the people. He is using the tools of gerrymandering, like this on race, seizing control of states' voting lists to target and suppress anticipated voters, grabbing vote machinethat tabulate the ballots, and using ICE paramilitary dressed for war in Afghanistan to frighten off brown people from voting at polling places in person, while eliminating mail-in voting by executive order..(A fool's errand given the Constitution that gives states such control). The Supreme Court yesterday gave the green light for racial gerrymandering, undermining a major thrust of the civil rights movement and, in the long term, attempting to suppress African Americans' ability to elect representatives. who support their interests.

The Roberts Court's contribution to Trump's arrogance is now furthered, yesterday, adding to the past rulings, with a gift of immunity from criminal prosecution to Trump, and its Citizens United decision permitting dark money to be contributed to candidates, opening the floodgates to epic corruption to influence government policies favoring them, and candidate corruption by secret corporate donations. Yesterday's blow was one more nail in the coffin of voters' power to shape their destiny, the essence of a democracy. 

No, DJT, Ukraine has not lost militarily. . You have outsmarted yourself..

 I just heard Trump claim "Ukraine has been militarily defeated, " just as he claimed Iran has been defeated. https://www.bbc.com/news/war-in-ukraine . No,. Trump's lying. Note: Later,Trump said he mispoke; he was referring to Iran, not Ukraine. However, Trump has been saying that Ukraine is losing the war all along, from the Oval Office, that Ukraine did not have the cards to play as recently as December 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwL2ooeUsR8

The Ukraine war is a slog with the front going back and forth with victories and retreats measured in kilometers. Drones are not so secret Ukrainian weapons, and recently, Ukraine has used them to attack Russian military infrastructure, causing Putin to fear an attack enough to call off a parade to celebrate the Russian defeat of the Nazis.

DJT, both Ian and Ukraine have outsmarted you.

Iran has just demonstrated that strategy beats bombs, tanks, and missiles, and boots on the ground.. Trump failed to secure Hormuz first, and now Iran has the world by its control of a great percentage of its energy supply.

When it comes to Ukraine, superior technology and strategy overcome the superior manpower of the Russian effort, and now Russia is running out of recruits to feed their cannon fodder advantage.

This is in spite of Trump's constant sabotage of Ukraine's efforts, which is not very subtle:

.- his failure to even release aid to Ukraine, voted on by Congress, -his undermining of ATO,
-his miscalculating the extent to which Germany and Europe would up their military commitment to see Russia in Ukraine as a threat to them,
-his counting on the recently defeated Hungary's Orban, also a Putin ally, to keep European funding for Ukraine bottled up,
-his echo and wink to his buddy Putin in negotiations..all have failed to stop Ukraine from stopping Russia, and the war advantage now counts in numbers, one or two kilometers.

-Trump, above all also failed to anticipate the technological talent of Ukrainians themselves to manufacture drones, thus changing modern warfare, while defending against drones. made in Iran.

All of the above measures that Trump has tried have not been enough to influence Ukraine's resistance to Russian aggression. As AnneApplebaum of The Atlantic magazine has been noting since December 2025, because Europe has stepped up and because Ukraine no longer depends on US aid, America has lost the ability to influence the war's outcome and is therefore becoming irrelevant. If this is true, Trump outsmarted himself by challenging Europe to fund the Ukraine efforts, and when they did, he lost control of the situation.

-A recent column in the New York Times by David French must have rankled him. The French call Zelensky the leader of the free world as well as changing the battlefield with their new, innovative technology.

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In the broader sense of what has happened, Trump has laid bare the weakness of his America First policy, of shedding alliances and going it alone. If successful. America is not first; it is irrelevant. That takes us back to the late 1930's when America Firsters became very powerful in keeping us from getting involved in Hitler's aggression in Europe. How did that turn out,