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Three books that help us understand the Trump age

Nov 18, 2024 07:58 PM IST

Why did Trump, and not others, succeed in harnessing the latent fears of ordinary Americans? The answer lies in his media game

When Donald Trump first became President of the United States (US) in 2016, American commentators dismissed him as an aberration. Trump was a historical anomaly in America’s great democratic tradition, they claimed. Such claims ring hollow after Trump’s emphatic victory in the recent American elections.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump attends the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) gala at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., November 14, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo (REUTERS)
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump attends the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) gala at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., November 14, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo (REUTERS)

Trumpism’s effects will be felt globally. Trump’s efforts to raise trade barriers will provoke retaliation from other major economies, not just China. His rhetoric against immigrants will encourage nativist politicians across the world to scapegoat minority groups. And his explicit “America First” policy stance will restrict the space for multilateral negotiations on a wide variety of issues, not just the climate crisis.

To deal with this, we must first understand the driving forces behind Trumpism. Three books written by three very different authors can help us in this endeavour.

The first book was written at the fag end of World War II by Karl Polanyi, a Hungarian-Austrian who left Europe to escape the horrors of Nazism. In The Great Transformation (1944), Polanyi argued that throughout human history, markets had been “embedded” in society, governed by social mores and customs. The first wave of globalisation in the latter half of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century sought to delink markets from their social moorings. People’s ability to find a job or purchase the basic necessities of life seemed to depend on the distant and abstract world of high finance. This led to a counter-movement aimed at subjugating the market economy to societal or national rules.

In some countries, this counter-movement took the form of an expanded welfare State that restricted the domain of the market in some key spheres of economic activity. For instance, modern labour laws allowed the State to regulate the price of labour rather than allowing it to be determined purely on the basis of demand and supply. This allowed workers to resist being treated as just another commodity. Society regained control over the economy. In other countries, the counter-movement brought fascists to power, who capitalised on the sense of powerlessness felt by a large section of the working class. By promising stability, they were able to steal liberty.

Trump is not a fascist. But he is a populist demagogue who has harvested the growing discontent against globalisation in America. The financial hardships suffered by working-class Americans after the 2008 financial crash and the loss of factory jobs to China created fertile grounds for a counter-movement against globalisation. Trump exploited that opportunity to the hilt.

America’s protectionist turn is not out of character with its history. In his 2002 book, Kicking Away the Ladder, Korean economist Ha-Joon Chang argued that America was the bastion of protectionism till the mid-20th century. American policymakers brought down tariff barriers only after they were assured of American supremacy in global markets. Even the British empire opened up trade only after it had built a well-developed industrial sector, Chang wrote. Once Britain’s status as the global hegemon came under a cloud in the 20th century, the clamour for protectionism grew there too.

It is not a coincidence that the US has turned towards protectionism at a time when it faces a threat to its status as the leading superpower. Trump represents the bombastic version of a new Washington consensus that distrusts trade and immigration. The fear of China has ensured a bipartisan American consensus against unfettered trade. Even “progressive” American intellectuals have begun questioning the benefits of unrestricted trade.

Why did Trump, and not others, succeed in harnessing the latent fears of ordinary Americans? The answer lies in his media game. In an age of hot takes and one-liners, Trump proved to be a more effective communicator. Voters could identify with him even if they were unsure of the exact policy steps a Trump administration would take to “Make America Great Again”.

In his 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, the American cultural critic Neil Postman argued that in the age of television (TV), how politicians dressed became far more important than their policy positions. In the age of social media, what a politician tweets has become far more important than what his or her party promises in its manifesto. And if tweeter-in-chief Elon Musk bats for you, it can’t hurt your chances.

America’s founding fathers were writers and intellectuals because they lived in the era of print, Postman wrote. The medium determined the tone, tenor, and quality of the message. In the age of TV, the “image” shaped reality. The ability to deliver clever sound bites became paramount. Whether you were a chief executive, a religious preacher, or a politician, you had to master the art of entertaining people.

Postman did not live to witness the age of social media. But he wouldn’t have been surprised to see a social media czar back a former TV show host in the American elections. Nor would he have been surprised to see a Fox News anchor among the initial set of cabinet nominees. In the age of political theatre, serious actors will rule the roost.

Pramit Bhattacharya is a Chennai-based journalist. The views expressed are personal

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