Leave it to Stephen Colbert to say something about Donald Trump that is both obvious and so unsettling as to make most of us do our best to ignore it.
“There’s a populism to Trump that I found very appealing,” Colbert told “Face the Nation” moderator John Dickerson in an interview that will be broadcast this Sunday. “The party elders would like him to go away but the people have decided that he is not going to.”
Put somewhat differently, our society has become very good at manufacturing consent (to borrow a phrase) and when so many people stand up to declare that they would rather think for themselves, that’s sort of, kind of, maybe a good thing, right?
“I may disagree with anything that he’s saying and think that his proposals are a little…well, more than a little shocking,” Colbert added. “But there is something really hopeful about the fact that, well, 36 percent of the likely voters want him so the people in the machine don’t get to say otherwise. That’s the one saving grace, I think, of his candidacy.”
Now, I wouldn’t be the first person to say that a great part of Trump’s success has to do with the fact that he is a master salesman, and therefore has a knack for knowing what people want before they know they want it.
He didn’t create the racism, sexism, xenophobia, etc., etc., that is always there with a shockingly large part of the electorate. He is simply “skilled enough” to make those with these prejudices feel okay about them.
And on the more justifiable side, he didn’t create the feeling that so many Americans have that they have precious little control over the events dramatically deciding the quality of their lives. Again, he is simply giving them a way to express their frustration.
“What I do respect is that he knows it is an emotional appeal,” Colbert explained. “And it might be emotional appeals that I can’t respect. But he knows that you have to appeal to the voter.
There are two ways to do politics. One is to appeal to people’s better selves. To encourage them to vote for you because you will help them and the country realize something positive. The other way is to get people to vote for you because you provide a way for them to express their fears and prejudices, to vent their anger and frustration.
No campaign is just one or the other. Usually a combination of both is at play, but each campaign shades in one direction or the other.
To Mr. Colbert’s point, the large number of voters drawn to Donald Trump are feeling something real, and the power brokers in the Republican Party can’t seem to get at at it, can’t seem to direct it. And all manner of opinion leaders seem powerless to understand it or guide it.
Is that a good thing? Let’s just say that in a democracy, sometimes the legitimate thoughts, feelings, and general sense of the electorate can lead to a very dark place.
The whole point of living in a democracy is that you take your chances.
On the positive side, I still believe most people would rather be hopeful than afraid.
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