In the wake of the ISIS bombings in Brussels, it did not take long for mainstream media to start an attack on anti-immigration, eurosceptic politicians.
For example, and as expected, the Financial Times blasted “populists” including Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, and Nigel Farage.
With that, I have an interesting question: Who’s the greater populist, Donald Trump or Angela Merkel?
Let’s kick off the discussion with a review of the Financial Times article Populist Politicians Seize on Brussels Attacks.
Populist politicians on both sides of the Atlantic were quick to seize on the Brussels attacks.
“Time and time again I have been right about terrorism. It’s time to get tough!” said Donald Trump, the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. He swiftly juxtaposed the attacks with a plea for support in Tuesday’s primaries in Arizona and Utah.
In Europe, Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right Front National, blamed the attack on “Islamist barbarism” and called for the immediate closure of the French-Belgian border. The British anti-EU UK Independence party linked the attacks to migration policy, saying the killings were “a result of Schengen free movement and lax border controls”.
For populist parties, the Brussels attacks fit a narrative about the need for stricter border control, and a more aggressive approach to Islamic communities.
More than 30 people were killed on Tuesday in a suicide attack at Brussels’ Zaventem airport and an explosion at the city’s Maalbeek metro station — which were claimed by Isis.
Ukip is particularly sensitive on the issue ahead of a June referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, where its opponents have invoked security as a reason for voting for the status quo.
For Mr Trump, whose campaign has been propelled by an anti-immigrant mood in the US, the attacks enabled a return to one of his most emotive themes.
“I would close up our borders to people until we figure out what is going on,” he told Fox News. “We are taking in people without real documentation. We don’t know where they’re coming from … they could be Isis related.”
The Brussels attack came a day after Mr Trump said in an interview that the US should play a lesser role in Nato — a view that underscores his stance as one of the most isolationist Republican frontrunners in decades. Mr Trump on Tuesday called on the US to cancel the visa-waiver programme that allows millions of people to enter the country every year without obtaining a visa.
Attack On the “Populists”
The Financial Times did not offer its solution. It merely labeled anti-immigration proponents as “populists”.
Definition of Populism
Before we can say who is or who isn’t a populist, we need to define the term.
Please consider some snips Encyclopedia Britannica on the term Populism.
In its most democratic form, populism seeks to defend the interest and maximize the power of ordinary citizens, through reform rather than revolution. In the United States the term was applied to the program of the Populist Movement, which gave rise to the Populist, or People’s, Party in 1892. Many of the party’s demands were later adopted as laws or constitutional amendments (e.g., a progressive tax system). The populist demand for direct democracy through popular initiatives and referenda also become a reality in a number of U.S. states.
In its contemporary understanding, however, populism is most often associated with an authoritarian form of politics. Populist politics, following this definition, revolves around a charismatic leader who appeals to and claims to embody the will of the people in order to consolidate his own power.
In this personalized form of politics, political parties lose their importance, and elections serve to confirm the leader’s authority rather than to reflect the different allegiances of the people.
Contemporary Understanding
In contemporary understanding, it’s easy to make a case Merkel is a far greater populist than Trump.
Merkel’s open arms welcome of Syrian refugees merely reflected what she believed the majority of the population wanted at the time. Recall that Germans cheered the initial arrival of refugees.
But politicians don’t admit mistakes. Since then, Merkel’s own political party has lost all its meaning to her. Instead, everything she says and does “serves to confirm [her] authority rather than to reflect the different allegiances of the people.”
Britannica also notes “Populist is often used pejoratively to criticize a politician for pandering to a people’s fear and enthusiasm.”
Indeed. That phrase certainly applies to Trump. However, the phrase applies even more to the Republican party itself!
The biggest fearmongering campaign in history is against anti-war candidate Donald Trump by the Republican demagogues who would rather see Hillary Clinton in office than Donald Trump.
So, who’s the greater populist?
- Donald Trump
- Angela Merkel
- Bonus choice number three: the anti-Trump Republican fearmongering establishment
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
They just dismiss the possibility that these so called populist (popular?) political parties have been right all along. I was born in the times when the USSR was still in full swing and due to our family having a travle agency I visited the country more than most people being rather young that time. What I saw and witnessed did not impress me the least. The full oppression came rather late in the 1980’s and continued until 1991. This meant that nothing could be freely expressed in writing of speech.
Why I mention the old Soviet? For a very important reason. When the Russian revolution came, it was the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, the former was all for revolution overthrowing the government and turning the legal society into Socialist paradise. The latter were more for legal means, voting and changing the laws. In Russia’s case Bolsheviks had their go and failed miserably. Originally, early 1980’s Socialists of Europe were against EU project but had a joint meeting and decided to turn it into a socialistic project. Now we see all the same symptoms as in the USSR.
I am not alone holding this view on the matter. Wladimir Bukowski, who was a former Soviet dissident, tortured and jailed during his time in USSR, saw this coming already at very early stage. I don’t know if links are allowed but this interview is worthwhile watching. It’s in English and about EU and fiscal treaty.
“the anti-Trump Republican fearmongering establishment”….it seems odd to say this given it is the democrats who are violently protesting Trump. Are these violent protesters the product of Trump, the fearmongering Trump hating Republicans, or leftists organizers who are behind virtually EVERY violent “populist” action in America.
It is irrefutable that the republican establishment is scared stupid of Trump, with good cause given he threatens their very existence….but I think the real fearmongering is being done by the left, if actions account for anything.
Here is an interesting commentary from an OBJECTIVE observer about what is really going on at those “violent” Trump rallies. I doubt this will surprise you madashell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjyxZ7HO7aY
Inciting violence at opposition rallies is a very old political tactic.
So..was the almighty Lincoln, that traitor, a populist? Would appreciate a well-versed commentary. Some have criticized The Donald as being too Hitler-like. Lincoln was much more Hitler-like than Trump…and dare-say almost as Hitler-like as–perhaps: Hit-LIAR-yy.
Yeah, I know, I’m showing my true Patriotic colors of Red, White, and Blue. When you cut me I bleed blue—oh wait, maybe red.
The “War of Northern Aggression” has some wonderfully appropriate symptoms to the current debacle we will experience on voting day. Hope you are researching with red, white and blue candor. Do NOT disappoint Messers Jefferson, Adams et al…
Does it really matter ? Trump is the only realist adult left. The others merely are reactionary pandering to the populace. It is funny watching career politicians be made fools of by a real estate developer. It shows you that for all the so called work politcians have done they are unable to muster the political will to tell people the truth.
The climate in Germany in summer and autumn was insane because people had been bombarded by media narratives of syrians suffering in Syria and how horrible ISIS is and on top of this there were the drownings of some syrian kids.
People felt so bad and they thought they had to do something so there were people at train stations waving “refugees welcome” placards.
About the people trying to come media always picked images of kids and women in their articles and talked about syrians so people did NOT realize that the people coming were mainly 20-30 year old men and majority of them were NOT syrians but other muslims and africans.
In this totally media-distorted atmossphere Merkel made his everybody is welcome call and suspended dublin-treaty (because media concentrated on some asylum seeker rushing through Hungarian border and being tripped over by a hungarian journalist which was played and discussed for days and days).
The original cause for the rush was that Greece had completely stopped border enforcement and stopped registering asylum seekers in early 2015 and the lure of europe was huge because Sweden had GUARANTEED permanent residence permits and family re-unifications to welfare for every syrian reaching Sweden and the policies around western Europe had been made more loose and lax by EU-directive demanding fast processing (no time to catch liars) and EASO mandated training and EASO modules to make the asylum decisions (originally developed in Sweden but brought europe wide by EU) which together led to the fact that many more people coming from other muslim countries like Iraq, Afganistan and Somalia were getting permits to stay and family re-unifications straight to welfare than before despite there being peaceful and safe areas in all three.
If internal flight is possible asylum application should be denied according to international law but this policy has been watered down by totally ineffective EASO training and EASO modules where even the suspicion that somebody “might” be subjected to “persecution” is reason enough to grant refugee status so the system has been completely broken in many countries by EU through EASO insanity.
Furthermore the EU-directive demanding fast processing of asylum applications has lead to the phenomenon that bureaucrats who quickly approve asylum applications are thought of as the good bureaucrats by their bosses because they only look at the processing times (because of the EU directive) and do not care about the quality of the decisions so if an asylum seekers tell a logical fairytale in friendly chat of a few hours to an european bureaucrat about the way they were “persecuted” with NO requirement for any kind of proof and no attempt to catch liars in several interviews then after few hours the bureaucrat writes everything down and gives decision “asylum granted” and because of the welfare system this means free apartments and free money for the person in question and for their whole family who can join them on welfare through family re-unification.
The whole European asylum seeker system is BROKEN and it was broken by EU bureaucracy and eu-directives and EU push to make Sweden’s standards and sweden’s way of conducting interviews of asylum seekers and giving asylum based on just one time telling of a story the EU standard through the completely incompetent EU boondoggle called EASO (European Asylum Support Office).
EASO and EASO training and EASO modules should ALL be completely scrapped and all EU-countries should renounce this EU insanity (originally started in Sweden).
Fantastic analysis. It is nice to get some perspective on how we got into this mess, and why we are still in it. This is the problem of the EU. Unaccountable and unelected Eurocrats make mandates over all the EU countries without democratic accountability, which is very dangerous.
“The Brussels attack came a day after Mr Trump said in an interview that the the US should play a lesser role in Nato – a view that underscores his stance as one of the most isolationist Republican frontrunners in decades.” – Donald Trump is criticized as an “isolationist” because politicians in European Nato member countries, like the UK, home of the Financial Times, don’t want the political and fiscal responsibilities associated with assuming a greater role in that organization.
Besides, the only way to establish the new world order – a primary goal of most Western elites – is to exploit the resources of the United States, including its economy and military. Preserving the U.S. as the “world leader” is the prerequisite for that exploitation. So, the U.S. must dominate Nato.
Last paragraph by Alfasiqun sums it up well and no one running Europe or the US ever talks about the debt or how to attack it.
Since we are realigning the deck chairs somewhat I would ask what is a Republican or Democrat from the 2012 model ??
Mish,
It is interesting that Trump is described as a war monger and as an isolationist, a bit oxy moronic. Emphasis on the moronic.
“Populist Movement, which gave rise to the Populist, or People’s, Party in 1892.”
Wasn’t that during the “Gilded Age”?
The real problem with populism, is that it is a symptom of a society where the state have so much power over people’s lives, that exactly who is currently heading the Junta, makes enough of a difference to get emotionally invested in.