From the Cambridge English Dictionary: “Political ideas and activities that are intended to get the support of ordinary people by giving them what they want.” Trump is a master of cultural populism and he is a skilled demagogue. Merriam Webster defines a demagogue as "a leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power". ,
There are different kinds of populism: one is cultural and the other is economic. Donald Trump is an economic unpopulist in spite his promises made in demagogic tones with false claims. When it comes to ordinary people living on a budget, pocket book issues he has failed to deliver some promised goods and worse, hurt them.They may think the economy is OK now, but they are beginning to understand, instead of improving their lot, wages have not increased much, the tax cut promise was mostly hot air, and health care costs are already the top of voter concerns, registering in polls above any other major issues.
Give Trump credit. He is a bonafide cultural populist and a demagogue that makes use of popular prejudices. He certainly has given his heavily white, male and evangelical Christian base what they wanted to hear about people of color or “others” or turning back policies of cultural liberals. Painting unauthorized immigrants in broad derogatory brushes with “ Mexicans are rapists and criminals”and “animals”, “build the wall”, are chants guaranteed to get roars from his crowd and echos from his one-sided media outlets echoing and unquestioning his hateful speech. His evangelical Christian base cheers planned executive orders denying federal funding to clinics referring patients to abortion providers and reducing women’s access and funding for affordable STD and cancer screenings, and contraception. He has stonewalled any attempt to reduce active shooter carnage to the delight of 2nd amendment absolutists.He is nominating judicial appointees that would reduce women’s access to affordable safe, legal abortion services.
There are different kinds of populism: one is cultural and the other is economic. Donald Trump is an economic unpopulist in spite his promises made in demagogic tones with false claims. When it comes to ordinary people living on a budget, pocket book issues he has failed to deliver some promised goods and worse, hurt them.They may think the economy is OK now, but they are beginning to understand, instead of improving their lot, wages have not increased much, the tax cut promise was mostly hot air, and health care costs are already the top of voter concerns, registering in polls above any other major issues.
When it comes to false claims, Trump makes so many of them, the list compiled by Pulitzer Prize winning Fact Checker, has pages devoted to it at.http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/statements/byruling/false/.
Economic populism is another story. Most Americans are feeling little increase or none at all in their take home pay. Some realize the real winners were the already rich. The trend to full employment long in the making before he arrived on the scene may be realized, but wage increases are anemic. Threats of increasing some tariffs to help the rust belt have already backfired on agriculture heartland’s exports, forcing reconsideration. . Economic growth rate has been behind the record of his predecessors who had also dealt with major downturns.
While Trump claims he "giveth" to the middle class, Trump also "taketh away". Trump’s support of GOP efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare with better insurance not only failed ,he has succeeded in only making it more expensive or near useless . In the name of consumer choice, Trump signed laws that eliminated the individual mandate, resulting in leaving the expensive to treat, ill and older people, paying into the insurance pool . Alternative coverage newly permitted risks financial ruin with their high deductibles, and limited or no benefits to cover maternity, mental health, preexisting conditions, or catastrophic medical bill coverage.. The numbers covered by health insurance decreased by 3.2 million in one year and projections are that eventually 13 million will lose coverage.
Trump’s department of education has made it more difficult to get more student loan forgiveness. The agency charged with handling complaints about financial services, mortgage lenders, and banks , and acting on their abuses is being run by a director hostile to its mission of protecting consumers, curtailing public reports and starving it.. The Environmental Protection Agency has become the Environmental Destruction Agency, promoting dirtier air and polluted water, making it easier for mining waste dumping in streams and rolling back automobile clean air standards.
The cultural populists did not ask for this, but this hit to everyone’s pocket books, less consumer/environmental protection , poorer health and more expensive insurance, is what we all get in return.
Trump’s department of education has made it more difficult to get more student loan forgiveness. The agency charged with handling complaints about financial services, mortgage lenders, and banks , and acting on their abuses is being run by a director hostile to its mission of protecting consumers, curtailing public reports and starving it.. The Environmental Protection Agency has become the Environmental Destruction Agency, promoting dirtier air and polluted water, making it easier for mining waste dumping in streams and rolling back automobile clean air standards.
The cultural populists did not ask for this, but this hit to everyone’s pocket books, less consumer/environmental protection , poorer health and more expensive insurance, is what we all get in return.
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https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-set-sign-bill-easing-post-crisis-bank-215135700
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/trumpcare-will-hurt-people-next-year-201655059.html
In a poll by Politico and Morning Consult, just 25 percent of registered voters said they’d noticed their take-home pay increase as a result of the legislation. Another 51 percent said they hadn’t noticed a pay bump, and another 24 percent said they didn’t know or weren’t sure.
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