Get used to it: Trumpism without Trump
Political Theater, Episode 82
Political scientist Shadi Hamid remembers growing up in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, the son of Egyptian immigrants. In what was then a solidly Republican enclave of the Philadelphia suburbs, his parents and many of his Muslim neighbors voted for George W. Bush.
That seems like a long time ago, as that critical swing area of Philly has swung increasingly Democratic, along with most of America’s Muslims. So why would President Donald Trump spend so much time attacking Muslims and, in particular, a high-profile group of Democratic congresswomen, a.k.a. “the squad,” that has two Muslim members, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan? Well, because attacking your opponents across racial lines and defining them as a sinister other is a basic tenet of Trumpism, and the president and many of his Republican allies are all in.
“I think our initial instinct sometimes is to look at that and say, ‘Well, why would he do that? This seems crazy. … But the more I thought about it, there seemed to be a logic to it. And this is where I think Trump, to his discredit — but also, in a political sense, to his credit because he knows something about politics — has a sense of this darker side of the human psyche, and he knows how to tap into that at key moments,” Hamid says in the latest Political Theater podcast.
This is also why Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing editor at The Atlantic, thinks that Trumpism likely isn’t going away in our politics. There will be no going back to a “normal” life afterward, as some Democratic presidential candidates like former Vice President Joe Biden say is possible.
“The Republican Party, I think, is just becoming more Trumpy, and it’s being Trump-defined. And I think you’ll have Trumpism without Trump to some extent at least, even if Trump is voted out of office in 2020. Why? Because Trumpism is effective. And Republicans see that,” Hamid says.
Show Notes:
- With racist tweets and comments, Trump signals bare-knuckle reelection fight
- When Trump attacks, the base turns out — for both parties
- Rep. Cleaver: ‘Forget’ Trump’s tweets… ‘We can’t continue to react to this’
- House’s condemnation of Trump may just be the beginning
- GOP leaders aren’t calling Trump’s tirade racist
- ‘I abandon the chair’: House floor in chaos over Pelosi speech on Trump tweets
- House condemns Trump ‘racist’ remarks, but some Dems want to go further
- Resolution vote forces House Republicans to pick a side on Trump’s racist attack
- ‘His plan to pit us against one another:’ Progressive ‘squad’ responds to Trump attacks
- Pelosi announces resolution condemning Trump’s racist tweets
- Trump suggests Rep. Omar, other Dems cheered 9/11 attacks and ‘should leave’