Trump a Poor Vessel for Popular Revulsion with Political Class
13th June 2016
Joel Kotkin just paints what he sees.
The great tragedy for Trump is that the basis for a grass-roots-led Republican victory lay within his grasp. He could have been, like Ronald Reagan in 1980, the instrument of populist revolt had he shown the same wit, self-control and positive eloquence. Instead, his crudity, his barely disguised racial stereotyping and his obsession with himself has taken from the GOP, at least for this election cycle, the possibility of reaping an enormous windfall from the widespread alienation of the populace from the political and economic ruling class.
As the North Vietnamese General said to the American General in response to the American’s claim that the North Vietnamese had never won on the battlefield, ‘That is very true. It is also irrelevant.’
One can generously concede all of the criticisms anyone might choose to make of Trump without touching on the core reality of the situation: No matter how imperfect a vessel for populist revolt against the ruling class Trump might be, he won because he was the only horse in this particular race.
No other Republican candidate presented himself (or herself) as potential standard bearer of ‘the widespread alienation of the populace from the political and economic ruling class’.
In politics, as in warfare, you fight with the candidate you have, not the candidate you wish you had.