The constitutional structure of American government forces politicians, no matter what their motives, to “feel constrained to say and do the right thing according to the Constitution whether or not they are sincere
.. But Trump, according to Tulis, is “unique in that no other previous major party presidential candidate has felt so unconstrained by these constitutional norms.”
In fact, the separation of powers under the Constitution was explicitlydesigned to prevent the usurpation of power by a political leader appealing to popular passions and prejudices. If the framers saw anything coming, it was exactly this: a demagogue in the true sense of the term, someone with a privileged background pretending to be a man of the people, channeling their grievances. In other words, a Trump-like candidate.
.. No previous nominee has been so much the creation of social media and so little the creation of a political party.
is not his determination to close the doors to immigration (that has all too many precedents in the American past), or his criticism of open world-trade agreements (that, too, is closer to the historical norm of U.S. policy than is commonly imagined), or the barely disguised racism (which was his entry, via the Birther movement, into national politics).
What is most distinctive is the strongman, authoritarian style of politics that he radiates so strongly both in the bigger-than-life-or-politics persona he projects and the trust-me, I’ll fix everything and make us great again, program he promises.
.. Capitalizing on legitimate discontent, Trump is both the exploiter and the beneficiary of stagnating median household income, declining productivityand gross domestic product growth, as well as a worldwide refugee and immigration crisis.
.. According to the American Psychological Association, some 72 percent of adults reported experiencing financial stress in 2014.
.. “His incoherent and contradictory utterances have one thing in common: They provoke and play on feelings of resentment and disdain, intermingled with bits of fear, hatred and anger,” Robert Kagan, the Republican foreign policy analyst, wrote in May.
.. According to a June Reuters/Ipsos survey, the percentage of Trump voters who agree with such statements as “blacks are less intelligent than whites” and “blacks are more lazy than whites” far outstrip supporters of any other candidate, Democrat or Republican.
.. the nomination of Trump signals
the burnout of modern conservatism. Trump, or Trumpism, is the residue of that burnout — thick with the nativism, racism, and authoritarianism that were always there.
.. One of the “most egregious misreadings of Trump is that he is part of the populist tradition of Andrew Jackson,”
.. Trump, Wilentz concludes, is just “the sort of gouger and business sharper that the Populists organized to stop.”
.. The conservative movement, Richardson writes, had a built-in conflict that it failed to resolve. In order to win white working class support for deregulation and smaller government, Republican leaders had to make the case
that an activist government redistributed wealth from hardworking white men to lazy African-Americans, women and organized workers.
.. While Trump has sent mixed signals on gay rights issues, he and his operatives stood aside while members of the Republican Platform Committee produced a document affirming hard right social conservative values.
