Trump vs Merit
Alex Good reviews THE TYRANNY OF MERIT: WHAT’S BECOME OF THE COMMON GOOD? By Michael Sandel
Alex Good: Sandel and Brooks are right in seeing in the myth of meritocracy a mighty engine for the generation of mass resentment. Meritocratic hubris leads to smug self-congratulation among the fortunate and anger among the left behind. “There is reason to think,” Sandel opines, “that popular antipathy toward meritocratic elites played a part in Trump’s election, and in the surprising vote in Britain, earlier that year, to leave the European Union.” People were confused at Trump’s railing against elites when he was himself, at least by his own reporting, a billionaire. But Trump, unlike Hillary Clinton, didn’t talk about merit. He talked about winners and losers. And what Trump’s supporters recognized was that Trump was actually a giant loser: a serial bankrupt, serial divorced male, clinically obese, deeply ashamed of being bald, and acting out his various insecurities in giant rages on the most public of stages. His favourite word with which to tag anyone he hated was “loser.” This, like everything else about him, was pure projection. That loser rage, however, struck a mass chord. His anger – and he was anger incarnate – was a kind of therapy. His fear of being laughed at and humiliated was something everyone suffering from a loss of social esteem could relate to.
Tom Moody: This is an interesting take on Trump but omits his smart mouth that appealed to many Americans. Trump heckled loser Jeb about his sainted mother (who was actually a battle-ax and mediocre dynasty-builder, much kidded by Dems in the Bush years for talking about her "beautiful mind" that would not be cluttered with Iraq war details. While Jeb was waxing sentimental about her during the Republican debates Trump wisecracked that "she should be running" (as a candidate herself, annoying the clearly-not-ready-for-prime-time Jeb).
Calling Bush Jr.'s Iraq war a mistake based on lies, on the national debate state, is something the media would expect from a Jesse Ventura or Mike Gravel or Ron Paul but here it was being voiced by a juggernaut candidate on his way to the presidency (though no one knew that yet). The US public wasn't just thrilled to hear the Iraq truth spoken aloud because they identified with Trump as a "fellow loser," as Alex Good suggests, but rather because it was true and no establishment debater or media figure up to then had the courage to speak it. Later, as President, Trump wanted to know what could possibly justify the US's presence in Syria post-ISIS (fighting a dirty war on behalf of some sleazy U.S. "allies"? Or was it the instantly-manufactured defense of "the Kurds! the Kurds!"? it depended on the politics of who answered.) Eventually Trump's handlers reeled him back in and he made his laughable claim that the US there to "protect the oil" (that is, Syrian oil in the ground coveted by other countries).
If Bush Jr were still president, the "left" would have applauded all these "outrageous" Trump statements. With the onset of Trump Derangement Syndrome in 2016 (a term borrowed from Bush Jr.), the antiwar faction immediately discounted Trump's few sensible/courageous statements simply because he was Orange Hitler. The MAGA crowd was paying attention, though, including many families of maimed veterans, and appreciated hearing those occasional, inconsistent truth bombs from the mouth of their chosen "loser." If you want to understand the election, understand that at least -- it wasn't all about bullying and "racism." It was straight talk people forgotten could be spoken.
blog excerpts "taken from the internet"; all text subject to permission/revision by the authors; some Tom Moody text has been revised since posting