Donald Trumps Populism Decoded: How a Billionaire Became the Voice of the Little People

Source:

Egbertowillies.com


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A key factor in understanding American populists is their drive to regain a lost status they once held but no longer claim in our economy and culture.

Behavioral economics teaches us that people are far more motivated to avoid a loss than acquire a gain — and invest far more emotion to prevent a loss than benefit from a gain — which suggests that politicians who promise to reaffirm the status of erstwhile dominant constituencies will gain far more enthusiastic support than those who simply promise new and bigger programs to help people pursue their American dream.
And that was precisely the magic behind Donald Trump's 2016 campaign: he promised his supporters that the only way to "make America great again" was by restoring their status as the ones who made America great in the first place — which is exactly how they see themselves.

In particular, white working-class Americans — Donald Trump's base — were a constituency ripe for this message. To them, they were the real heroes of post-World War II America, the ones who made our prosperity and pre-eminence possible. Theirs is a narrative of an American century built by smokestack industries and sturdy white men with a blue-collar, lunch-pail ethic that would come to define the middle class of the post-war years.

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More at https://egbertowillies.com/2017/07/05/donald-trump-populism-decoded/