Article Summary:
David Brooks asserts that Identity Politics are dominating this year's election. The election is divided along cruel identity lines- race and class. As a newcomer to politics, Trump epitomizes this style of campaigning. His campaign is defined by two motifs: that the American gov't is in the grips of a rich oligarchy (elitism) that distorts everything for its benefit; that the American people are besieged by foreigners, who take their jobs and threaten their lives. Trump takes these ideas and manipulates them to make it seem as if the world will end if the U.S. does not restrict immigration or reduce the influence of the rich.
Identity politics distorts politics in two ways: it cleanly divides the world into opposing forces of light and darkness. Are you a worker or an elite? Are you an American or a foreigner? Trump tries to reduce the election to these two questions which displays the intellectual laziness of many white Trump supporters because they are influenced by him and help spread his ideology.
Brooks claims that,"Identity politics, as practiced by Trump, but also by others on the left and the right, distracts from the reality that we are one nation. It corrodes the sense of solidarity. It breeds suspicion, cynicism and distrust. Human beings are too complicated to be defined by skin color, income or citizenship status. Those who try to reduce politics to these identities do real violence to national life."
Questions to this consider:
1. How is Trump experiencing so much success with this form of politics?
2. Is this election about the lesser of the two evils-does Hillary's controversial past drastically help Trump and his constituency?
3. Are Americans sick of the Clintons and patronage (Democrats constantly promoting Clinton and we also had two bushes and now we may have two Clintons)?
4. Do Americans like Trump because he can be viewed as entertaining and inspirational while Hillary is often portrayed as old and boring and more importantly as a liar?
5. Are Americans able to forgive Trump's statements regarding women and Mexicans that can be viewed as misogynistic and racist because they do not want a liar as president of the U.S.?
6. Does Trump have more values in common with the average American than Hillary because he can be viewed as honest and someone who speaks his mind? Although he may be factually incorrect, Trump is able to simplify issues, say what most people have been afraid to say; people are also sick and tired of our political establishment system.
Please comment on Hillary v. Donald. Happy debating on Monday Night!
Thanks.
Trump is achieving success with this political strategy because he using fear as a motivator. Fear plays a role in nearly every decision we make. Trump is able to gain followers by using scare tactics and exaggerating negative future actions that will occur as a result of inaction. Regardless of whether or not a piece of fearful information is true, people tend to act in response to it. This process occurs because a person's instinctual response to fear is known to overpower a person's critical thoughts and intellection in certain situations. The use of fear as a motivation is one of the core reasons behind Trump's success in the race for the presidency.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Alex here. Trump commonly exaggerates or completely fabricates "facts and statistics" in an attempt to create an emotional response - fear - from his viewers. For a candidate who is relatively not very issue-based (his stance on key election issues has flip-flopped through his career), he must focus on charisma and emotional connections in order to build connections with his supporters. Fear is one of the most primal mechanisms for survival in humans, and by tapping into his supporter's fear, - of terrorism, of losing their jobs, or the increasing American debt - Trump is able to prey on the citizen's irrational behaviors and convert them to his side.
DeleteAlthough I agree that Trump is using fear as a Tactic in his campaign, I also think that Trump represents a change in American politics that people are starving for. Even though he isn't perfect, Trump has the capability to dig the US out of the political gridlock that has been hrting the US for years.
DeleteAmericans are able to forgive Trump's misogynistic and racist comments because there is this feeling of resentment towards political correctness in the US. PC was created in order to prevent people from getting offended or hurt by a word or phrase. For example, calling a beauty queen "Miss Piggy" and constantly making jokes about her weight (as Trump did) would not be considered politically correct. Personally, I feel as though political correctness is causing a barrier between people in society, preventing people from generating genuine relationships with one another. Political correctness, although it is designed to reinforce positivity throughout society, is responsible for creating a society filled with relationships built on lies and dishonesty. PC causes filters to be utilized too much. All this being said, I don't think Trump's filterless campaign could benefit our country. PC as it currently exists is too extreme, but no filter whatsoever leads to hateful and unnecessary words. A PC-less world can only exist if everyone lives that way. If Trump censored himself a little, and we lived with less political correctness, maybe his messages would be a little less shocking, and a little more meaningful.
ReplyDeleteTrump's success in politics has largely been due to the fact that he is not afraid to speak his mind and that he fights back. He is able to deliver in a way that appeals to the American people and say what many of them are afraid to way; he is not afraid to sound politically incorrect. Trump also has very simple answers for everything and delivers with a lot of energy and charisma that hasn't been brought to the political stage before, citing another reason why he has been so successful. He also has strong views on immigration that have funneled him a lot of support - mainly because more Americans dislike immigrants than like. Trump is also very anti establishment and gains more popularity points every time he gets criticized by the media. Overall, Trump has been surprisingly successful during this election, because: he embodies the frustration many Americans have felt during the Obama administration, he is not afraid to speak his mind, and he is entertaining.
ReplyDeleteComments on the debate-
DeleteFelt the moderator was pretty biased towards Clinton for a few reasons. Also funny considering he is a registered REPUBLICAN.
1) He asked Trump a lot more questions than he did Hillary on different issues such as: not releasing his tax returns, birtherism, his comments on women, and why he thought Hillary didn't have a "presidential look".
2) Lester holt did not ask Hillary anything about her false email claims, money she got from wall street, benghazi, her health, or the corrupt Clinton foundation.
With this said however, Trump would be unwise to blame his poor performance on the debate night as a result of Lester Holt's biasedness, because it would just make him look even more pathetic and not help his case. I still feel like Hillary won the debate just because Trump's demeanor was so terrible and the fact that he kept saying "wrong" every-time Hillary spoke showed his unprofessionalism, blamed her whenever he could, accusing her of microaggresion, didn't turn the tide on Clinton when he had perfect oppurtunies like when Lester asked him “specifically how you would prevent homegrown attacks by American citizens.?” He also accused her of being racist which really didn't help his case. Perhaps, if Lester Holt was a little less biased and the questions were distributed more differently, the debate results would have been very different.
Looking forward to the next one.
I do think that so far this election has turned out to be about the lesser of two evils. Hillary Clinton is seen a a liar, which turns many people away from possibly trusting her as their president, while Donald Trump is seen as racist and a misogynist, which angers many people who couldn't imagine having him running their country under his political opinions. However, I don't think that Hillary's controversial past drastically helps Trump and his constituency because there are so many policies of his that people don't agree with at all. In addition, his lack of political experience hurts him in the election, while Hillary who has had 30 years of experience, knows the viewpoints of being a senator and a Secretary of State. Although Trump has told that he has much experience as a businessman, he has prided himself on gaining success from other people's failure, which could prove to be an unfavorable trait for a president.
ReplyDeleteTrump's success comes from his brash "anti-establishment" identity politics. Many Americans are upset with recent administration and see other candidates as a part of the "dark" side which they believe is disconnected with America. Trump is feeding off of this concern and presents himself as a catalyst for change and some sort of hero who is going against the "elite" and "PC" establishment, because he is not a career politician and is an outsider. Any type of retort or downplay towards Trump tends to have an opposite effect an propel him forward.
ReplyDeleteDark side is possibly overly connected with "America." At least in the sense that certain people think there is a conspiratorial oligarchy truly running the country - Trump mentioned the Fed being political for example. Next topic deals with elitism & the influence of money in politics - so ironic that Trump rails against "special interests", which are often those with power and influence. Trump himself does not deny using his financial capital to influence politicians.
DeleteI agree with Mr. McDermott's point about how ironic Trump's rhetoric is- He rails against the elite when he is a part of that class himself. He is no blue-collar, working class politician who worked his way up... And yet, for some reason, people seem to believe him to be a champion of the people. It just goes to show how powerful rhetoric is and how easily people can be influenced.
DeleteTrump's success comes from his brash "anti-establishment" identity politics. Many Americans are upset with recent administration and see other candidates as a part of the "dark" side which they believe is disconnected with America. Trump is feeding off of this concern and presents himself as a catalyst for change and some sort of hero who is going against the "elite" and "PC" establishment, because he is not a career politician and is an outsider. Any type of retort or downplay towards Trump tends to have an opposite effect an propel him forward.
ReplyDeleteGood post - interesting thought about Trump being "honest" yet not factual. I have a question about lying - especially in light of Hillary's evasiveness, exaggerations and other mistruths that seem somewhat expected of politicians. Do you think Trump knows he is not being factual as much as Hillary knows she lied about the emails initially?
ReplyDeleteI honestly do not believe that Trump knows he is not being factual. Regarding the emails, Clinton knows what she has done and has been working hard to erase the crooked,liar stigma around her. I think she is doing a good job and just need to be completely honest with the people from here on out. However, almost everything Trump says doesn't make sense and personally I don't think he realizes this because of his lack of political experience. Because he is a businessman he can appeal to some but this doesn't make him knowledgable enough to know what he is talking about in this election race...
DeleteI believe that the gravitation towards Trump is a response to repulsion against Hillary. Trump capitalizes on the fact that Hillary has had a long-winded career in politics, bound to contain a few mishaps that negatively affect her reputation. Trump has maintained an image in the public eyes for decades, but his emergence in the field of politics attracts many voters, even though his experience is primarily in business. He is already known and familiar, which is why many voters believe that he is a suitable candidate.
ReplyDeleteI agree; the votes in this election seem to be mostly motivated in opposition to a candidate. Many people seem to be voting for a candidate for the sole reason that they don't want to vote for the other. Trump does strengthen his argument with Republicans against Hillary by arguing that her experience is "bad experience" and his business experience has more validity with the situation. Trump gains much of his popularity due to his outspoken behavior and ability to remain in the public eye.
DeleteIn regards to question three, I feel as though the American public might actually be more trusting of Hilary because of her husband's experience in the white house, not despite it. A majority of Hilary's support comes from America's strong dislike in major change throughout the government which is what turned America's government into more of an oligarchy rather than a democracy. Trump is new to politics and even though he tries to discredit Hilary's experience in government, bad experience is viewed as better than no experience at all.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Trump is able to achieve his success by instilling fear in his viewers. Due to some viewers having a lack of knowledge about issues, it is easier for Trump to fabricate and exaggerate facts. Viewers are not knowledgable about certain topics and believe that he is telling the truth because they assume that candidates tell the truth. As a result they do not fact check Trump and believe his misleading lies, further persuading them to support Trump.
ReplyDeleteTrump's success comes from a variety of sources. For one, I believe that Trump's unorthodoxy actually plays to his advantage. It seems as if many in America are hungry for a change, and many do believe that America and Washington are run by the elite. Hilary Clinton has had a history of endorsing and being endorsed by the corporate (although, ironically, Trump is a member of the elite class). And so Trump's rhetoric about taking America and Washington back for the people, appeals to those who want a change in the government. Additionally, Trump is harnessing the power of fear and angst to incite people to vote for him. Leaders always need some kind of force to unite the people. In Trump's case, he uses fear. Whether this is brainwashing and deceptive or not, it seems to be more effective than many thought it would be.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, in terms of Hilary's emails, I think that the "Hilary- bashing" has gone overboard, but people are still so fixated on it. Media channels like Foxnews and a variety of sexism contributes to this.
In this election, I believe Donald Trump is doing well because he is a political outsider and therefore a blank slate for voters who are tired of the Obama Administration and its liberal agenda. Many Democratic voters were dissappointed by some of the shortcomings of Obama's presidency and these Democrats decided to become Republican Trump supporters. In addition, many citizens are skeptical of Hillary Clinton because of her email scandal and other instances. Many Americans just want a new start and Trump seems to be the most appealing candidate to many undecided voters.
ReplyDelete