Unpopular Populism?

Populism, to say something nice for once, does have the positive attribute of sometimes legitimately being popular with the population.

Donald Trump, for all that he exhibits some of the worst attributes of what populism can look like, has never even really had that.

It is well acknowledged by now that his win, due to losing the popular vote in an election where a good portion of the population did not participate in the election, is representative of the structural issues in how American presidential elections are run and how much gerrymandering and the electoral college have created these issues with disproportionate power in specific, largely Republican states.

President Trump is now having to maybe admit that even his largely problematic win was the result of foreign tampering. His reaction this week, desperately trying to deflect attention from the investigation into Russian tampering in his election win onto “crooked Hillary” and the Obama administration yet again. While this may seem unfair, his attempts to change the narrative to blame Obama again and paint himself as innocent make him come off as having something to hide.

Whether or not the allegations concerning Russian tampering are true (I, myself, believe in ‘no smoke without a fire’), his reaction to the investigation have the effect of delegitimizing his government by itself.

Pengelly, Martin. (2018, March 5). “‘Bigger than Watergate’: Trump attacks Obama over Russia meddling response”. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/mar/05/bigger-than-watergate-trump-attacks-obama-over-russia-meddling-response.