Important read - TPM - "It Was Never Populism. It's Nationalism"

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/it-was-never-populism-it-s-nationalism

By JOSH MARSHALL Published FEBRUARY 3, 2017, 3:13 PM EDT

Today at the White House CEO event President Trump, leaning on the say-so and presence of big Wall Street CEOs, started ripping up the reforms put in place to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis. “We have some of the bankers here. There’s nobody better to tell me about Dodd-Frank than Jamie, so you’re going to tell me about it,” Trump told JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon.

This should tell us several things. The most important is that 'populism' has always been the wrong name for what Trumpism represents. The unifying message of Trumpism is nationalism, and particularly an aggressive, zero-sum nationalism. It is also summed up simply in "Make America Great Again." The style may be 'populist' in some generic sense. But the message and agenda is nationalism. That is the focus around which all the actions of these rancorous 13 days come together into a unified whole - aggressive attacks on friends and foes alike, threats of tariffs against non-compliant foreign states, clampdowns on immigration, etc.

You'll notice that President Trump often talks about "workers" but it is almost always in the vein of protecting American workers from abuse by foreigners. Especially since the Trump virtually never speaks about wages. And he never spoke about wealth inequality, financial security provided by programs like Medicare and Social Security, let alone worker protections or labor unions. One might add job security, affordable education for children and retirement security generally to the list of the undiscussed. The real theme is one Trump articulated clearly yesterday in his National Prayer Breakfast speech: "We have to be tough. It's time we're going to be a little tough, folks. We're taking advantage of by every nation in the world virtually. It's not going to happen anymore. It's not going to happen anymore."

We may say that Trump is flipflopping or being hypocritical by embracing the individuals, policies and priorities of the country's financial elite, who he notionally campaigned against. Both are true in a way. But that doesn't tell us enough. The Trump message was about nationalism, power and aggression against the nations of the world who are 'taking advantage of" us and laughing at us. That kind of aggression against outsiders, with their domestic counterparts, the 'elites', can overlap with economic concerns. They're quite distinct.

snip - more, and well worth reading.

Last lines (bolding is my emphasis)

" Weak and small countries by definition can't do that much harm. Their grievance and sense of victimization is inextricable from their very weakness. But when grievance and rage at outsiders takes hold among the strong, they are capable of committing great evil, precisely because of their power. Victimology is a powerful drug.

We should recognize what this is, the danger it represents and the open routes to mobilize politically against it.

[The Wielding Truth]

1. Yep. k&r

[randome]

2. As usual, Mr. Marshall sees things clearly.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Meredith McIver approves of this post.[/center][/font][hr]

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. His work - esp. since the election - has kept me (arguably) sane.

[greatauntoftriplets]

4. It always was about Herr Drumpf making himself and his cronies richer.

Anything else was alternative facts, a sop to some of the people who had dreams that he would do something that actually benefits them.

Fools.

[NRaleighLiberal]

5. kick for the night crew