Republican Populists Are Responding to Something Real

The New York Times ^ | July 23, 2024 | Julius Krein

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Before last week’s Republican convention, Donald Trump seemed to be moving away from the populism that characterized his 2016 campaign. “This time around, the former president isn’t even pretending to stand up to corporate power,” Rogé Karma observed in The Atlantic. “He’s defending big business, cozying up to billionaires, and wooing C.E.O.s.”

When Mr. Trump named Senator JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate, though, pundits quickly concluded that he was doubling down on populism. Mr. Vance has been a leading critic of Reagan-Bush policy orthodoxy in the G.O.P., has expressed skepticism of further corporate tax cuts and has even voiced approval of President Biden’s Federal Trade Commission chair, Lina Khan, whose aggressive antitrust enforcement has angered big business. In his convention speech, Mr. Vance denounced NAFTA and China trade deals and promised to prioritize American workers over multinational corporations.

On the other hand, in a long interview with Bloomberg (conducted in late June) that came out after the announcement of Mr. Vance’s selection, Mr. Trump hardly sounded like a firebrand economic populist. He floated the idea of reducing corporate tax rates to 15 percent and said he’d consider the JPMorgan Chase C.E.O., Jamie Dimon, as a potential Treasury secretary.

Mr. Trump’s own convention speech hardly clarified his policy priorities. He simultaneously promised to cut taxes, leave Social Security unchanged, reduce the deficit, raise tariffs and lower inflation.

Mr. Trump’s Republican Party thus presents a paradox. On the one hand, Mr. Trump has clearly succeeded in uniting the party around him. At the same time, the Republican policy conversation has only grown more diffuse — if not confusing and cacophonous. In other words, Mr. Trump’s consolidated control of the Republican Party has had the surprising effect of making its policies...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The New York Times is a fake news outlet. Every word it publishes is either a lie or projection. Article presented for the benefit of those who want to know what their enemy is up to, not for those who want to stick their collective heads up their collective Obamas and pretend it is nighttime.

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"Before last week’s Republican convention, Donald Trump seemed to be moving away from the populism that characterized his 2016 campaign."

The opposite of populism is elitism, the political ideology that asserts the governed are not qualified to choose political leaders from among their ranks and that the only legitimate political leaders come from an entitled, hereditary, criminal political class.

[6ppc]

They just don’t get it.

[patriot torch]

In other words, Donald John Trump has once again outsmarted the liberal media and now they are confused as to how they can effectively attack him.

[cowboyusa]

These Manhattan bastards think they speak for America, they ate going to get a lesson

[b4me]

Julius used all those words just to say he doesn’t understand.

So sad when they cannot consider something outside their tiny view of how things should be, or what can be done about matters.

[ifinnegan]

NY Times writes utter garbage.

[Fledermaus]

Utter drivel

[johniegrad]

Trump is a populist and, despite some opinions on Free Republic, this is the direction that has the best chance of returning us to limited government.

[SuperLuminal]

More putrid communist BS!

[Organic Panic]

I just opened my propane powered refrigerator to get a snack. Looking inside I have everything I want and if not it is only a quick drive in to town to get it or a few online clicks to order it and have it delivered. ALL made possible by huge corporations. They produced it, sold it, delivered it, all without me having to do more than exchange my excess dollars for it.

Government hasn’t provided anything.

[reasonisfaith]

Many years ago, all journalists with the ability to think were rounded up and disposed of, possibly to camps in Ukraine, or even worse.

This ability to think was then replaced with Julius Krein and his associates.

[Theoria]

Not much is new. People don't really believe stuff. The tea party rallied around lower spending, that got blasted away and people still support the gop. People just stay in their camps and turn out to vote for them in November.