There’s a lot for Democrats not to like about President Trump’s nominee to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Chief among then, I suppose, is that Alex Azar clerked for Antonin Scalia and served on Kenneth Starr’s investigative team. But I also wonder how much Trump’s own supporters should like this pick.
After all, Mr. Azar was until recently the president of Lilly USA, the biggest affiliate of Eli Lilly, a giant pharmaceutical corporation. And I don’t recall candidate Trump telling his adoring hordes that the answer to our health care woes is to put Big Pharma in charge.
This is something I’ve noticed quite a lot with Trump. There’s a basic disconnect between his rhetoric and his promises on the one hand, and the kind of people he’s put in charge of key areas of our economy. It seems like a transparent fraud, and while it might not be met by immediate resistance from his base, there’s no sense that he’s actually working toward building a new kind of politics or a new kind of Republican Party based on concrete economic populism.
Everything seems restricted to grievance and prejudice, and that doesn’t strike me as something that is going to win enduring allegiance, especially if there is an effort to transfer it to new candidates.
It’s not quite that there can’t be Trumpism without Trump—as people have been debating in recent days—it’s more that Trumpism doesn’t actually exist.
Maybe Trump likes Mr. Azar because he’s been an outspoken opponent of Obamacare, or maybe he chose him because he knew the Washington Post would call him “a pragmatic pick” since he is at least qualified and acceptable to Senate Republicans. But it isn’t the kind of pick you make if you’re serious about taking the side of your working class base against the rapacious pharmaceutical industry.
It shows how fake Trump’s populism really is, and in this sense it’s no different than his picks of Steve Mnuchin and Gary Cohn to head up his economic team.
This is exactly what Democrats should be shouting about at every campaign stop and, most importantly, in every media interview. It should be all over the Sunday morning circuit. A lot of those voters could be won over and others will stay home if the message begins to penetrate that Trump’s not your man.
Democrats don’t understand the Republican definition of economic populism, which is ‘economic actions that make leftie elitists sad.’
This is the Republican kind of economic populism.
Maybe his base didn’t realize it during the campaign and perhaps not even now but Trump has always only been about Trump and his narcissistic ego. He’s a carnival barker with no actual understanding (or interest) in economic populism. And why should he? How is an economic populist ideology going to help his and his family’s fortunes? Obviously, not at all. So, because he is so profoundly ignorant and interested only in himself, he has allowed conventional conservative Republicans choose his Cabinet (except for Sessions) and most of his policies pretty much only excepting his anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim policy proposals.
To answer your rhetorical question: of course Trump is a fraud (as well as being a traitor).
I think that evangelicals likely will love what Azar does about abortions, contraception, and food and drug regulations procedures. Possibly some rolling back of child protective services to satisfy white guys.
Trumpism is directly related to networks that deliver certain kinds of voters. Male is one of those huge demographics.
The Joe Walshes of the world love Trump for some reason.
Hey. Leave Joe out of this.
Most people aren’t paying attention. As hard as it is for people like us to get, we must always remember that a ludicrous % of the US population (even the voting part) pays very little attention to politics. Unless there is an election bearing down on them, or something super juicy.
Criminal charges or sex scandals will get eyeballs. Picking a Big Pharma person to run HHS? Nobody cares about that.
Trump’s populism was always a fraud. Probably his best sales job was convincing enough voters he cared, when he really didn’t. It probably deserves an Emmy. Ugh!
As usual, the terms of the conflict (“populism” vs. corporate largess) give Trump too much credit. On the one hand, he wants everyone to have health care, good jobs, low taxes…because, sure! Why not? Those are good things; who would oppose them? On the other hand he thinks rich predator types are the best people in the world; corporate titans, etc. He loves them. So if you put those great people in charge, you’ll get all thsoe good results, right?
I think that you have pinned the Trump magic, JO. This is what he really believes!!!
Pollyanna in a long red tie.
His real base…not the brightest bulbs in the array…respond to his sincerity.
Deep!!!
AG
Well, Booman, we saw that Trump’s “economic populism” was a fraud from the very first days of his Administration (when he started picking people like Mnuchin). You know, another scam from the man who brought the rubes “Trump University.”
The thing is, the rubes who voted for him in flyover country actually believed his bullshit. That’s why they voted for him, and why the Obamacare repeal failed so miserably.
I also think the Repubs in Congress massively underestimated just how unpopular their Trumpcare proposals would be. If we have a watershed election in 2018, much of it will be from Trump voters who now see that he and “their” party are only out to screw them.
Same with the “tax cut” that will only benefit the 1% while actually raising taxes on many “middle class” voters. Again, when you start directly messing with people’s pocketbooks, it’s not going to end well at the ballot box.
What kind of economic populism is this?
Fake economic populism, of course!!!
This is some kind of news???
AG
They are 100% about culture wars, and NOTHING about “economic populism.” They don’t care about Trump’s vague economic promises about “making America great again.” In fact, the media made more out of Trump’s “economic agenda” than the GOP base ever did. The media assumes and demands that politicians have some sort of economic agenda, spelled out at tedious length. So, Trump has his staff produce a hodge-podge of contradictory nonsense. The media points out that it’s contradictory nonsense. Result? Outrage on the right! “Fake News!” And a doubling down on whatever the “libtards” are yelling about. If the media is criticizing Trump over his failures, then obviously he must have been successful, or else they wouldn’t be complaining so much! We hate them all anyway so we’re not listening.
I love this comment that explains it all, from an Alabama pastor who is standing by Roy Moore:
You should vote for Roy Moore because he’s on our side in the culture wars, never mind that he’s a predatory sexual deviant, unworthy to be called a Christian!
The right-wing base doesn’t expect Trump to do anything or keep any promise. They excuse him every failure, blaming his enemies, they don’t care if he’s a liar, a thief, a con man who never told the truth or kept a promise in his life on purpose, a sexual predator and serial rapist. All OK!
Morality doesn’t enter into it. They have utterly abandoned any claim to any standard of morality, especially any actual fidelity to the religious tenets they supposedly believe. Open hypocrisy and cant don’t bother them. Trump hates the people we hate. That’s good enough for us!
So, no, nothing will alter their worship of Trump. NOTHING.
We don’t need them and we can’t do anything to reach them. We only need about 10% of those who held their noses and voted for Trump to change their minds and he’s toast. And that has already happened. He got 48.9% of the vote 1 year ago. Today his approval rating is below 40%. He’s not getting those disillusioned voters back.
Trump’s “working class base” IS the middle and upper management in economic sectors like the rapacious pharmaceutical industry.
Its the media that has over-focusing on places like coal country to sell the “Noble Working Class Abandoned by Democrats” talking point.
Yet, like the Georgia 6th special showed, the media largely ignores America’s wealthy, educated, homogenous white flight suburbs and exburbs (and their associated affluent “mega”churches) that delivered places like Wisconsin, Michigan, and PA for Trump and provide much of the funding and candidates at the state and local levels.