Page 40 - Šolsko polje, XXVIII, 2017, no. 3-4: Education and the American Dream, ed. Mitja Sardoč
P. 40
šolsko polje, letnik xxviii, številka 3–4
“Make America Great Again”: Donald Trump
and the Rise of Authoritarian Populism
Neoliberal globalisation—the target of so much Left critique over the
Reagan-Thatcher, Bush-Blair, and some would say, Obama-Cameron,
years—seems now on the back foot, both in the US under Trump, and
also in Europe with the emergence of the Alt-right and the likes of Ma-
rie Le Pen, leader of the National Front in France, Geert Wilders in the
Netherlands, the UK Independence Party, Heinz-Christian Strache in
Austria and the Vlaams Belang Party in Belgium, to name a few. Right-
wing populism is on the rise. It is fiercely anti-immigration and anti-inte-
gration, often associated with neo-Nazis and white supremacist groups. It
commonly assumes a kind of authoritarianism and anti-liberal stance to-
wards rights, and while it appeals to the ‘common man’ (sic)—sometimes
explicitly anti-women and anti-feminist—it paradoxically nevertheless
does not subscribe to the notion and practice of equality. The far-right
is anti-pluralist and anti-democratic believing in the strong state and an
authoritarian populism. Right-wing populism has strong links with ele-
ments of the far-right not only in terms of ethnocentrism, xenophobia and
anti-immigration stance but also over traditional and social conservative
values concerning heterosexuality, the patriarchal family, the subordina-
tion of women and cultural minorities, often combined with fundamen-
talist Christian values. Economically, as is evidence in the raft of Trump’s
executive orders, there is a strong tendency toward protectionism and an
isolationism in foreign policy (Peters, 2017).
“Make America Great Again” (MAGA) was Trump’s 2016 campaign
slogan, a phrase used also by Ronald Reagan in his 1980 campaign. It is
dominated in Trump’s policy thinking as he tries to undo all of Obama’s
policies, in health care, taxation, trade and foreign policy – capped recent-
ly by a stubborn defense of his withdrawal from the Paris climate accord
at the 2016 G20 meeting. MAGA is a different narrative of the American
Dream from liberal internationalism that is based on a mixed or blend-
ed discourse derived from “America First”, withdrawal from international
agreement in trade and climate change, a resentful attitude to traditional
allies, strong alignment with far-right ideas both within the closed circle
of his advisors (e.g. Steve Bannon) and allegiances to deindustrialized vot-
ing constituencies in the Rust Belt, who suffered from economic globali-
zation when jobs went East. Trump’s narrative of the American Dream
is directed against all outsiders—Mexicans, undocumented folk, Blacks,
women, Muslims—and functions by casting aspersions and tapping into
existing prejudices and disaffection. Trump said in his inaugural; address:
38
“Make America Great Again”: Donald Trump
and the Rise of Authoritarian Populism
Neoliberal globalisation—the target of so much Left critique over the
Reagan-Thatcher, Bush-Blair, and some would say, Obama-Cameron,
years—seems now on the back foot, both in the US under Trump, and
also in Europe with the emergence of the Alt-right and the likes of Ma-
rie Le Pen, leader of the National Front in France, Geert Wilders in the
Netherlands, the UK Independence Party, Heinz-Christian Strache in
Austria and the Vlaams Belang Party in Belgium, to name a few. Right-
wing populism is on the rise. It is fiercely anti-immigration and anti-inte-
gration, often associated with neo-Nazis and white supremacist groups. It
commonly assumes a kind of authoritarianism and anti-liberal stance to-
wards rights, and while it appeals to the ‘common man’ (sic)—sometimes
explicitly anti-women and anti-feminist—it paradoxically nevertheless
does not subscribe to the notion and practice of equality. The far-right
is anti-pluralist and anti-democratic believing in the strong state and an
authoritarian populism. Right-wing populism has strong links with ele-
ments of the far-right not only in terms of ethnocentrism, xenophobia and
anti-immigration stance but also over traditional and social conservative
values concerning heterosexuality, the patriarchal family, the subordina-
tion of women and cultural minorities, often combined with fundamen-
talist Christian values. Economically, as is evidence in the raft of Trump’s
executive orders, there is a strong tendency toward protectionism and an
isolationism in foreign policy (Peters, 2017).
“Make America Great Again” (MAGA) was Trump’s 2016 campaign
slogan, a phrase used also by Ronald Reagan in his 1980 campaign. It is
dominated in Trump’s policy thinking as he tries to undo all of Obama’s
policies, in health care, taxation, trade and foreign policy – capped recent-
ly by a stubborn defense of his withdrawal from the Paris climate accord
at the 2016 G20 meeting. MAGA is a different narrative of the American
Dream from liberal internationalism that is based on a mixed or blend-
ed discourse derived from “America First”, withdrawal from international
agreement in trade and climate change, a resentful attitude to traditional
allies, strong alignment with far-right ideas both within the closed circle
of his advisors (e.g. Steve Bannon) and allegiances to deindustrialized vot-
ing constituencies in the Rust Belt, who suffered from economic globali-
zation when jobs went East. Trump’s narrative of the American Dream
is directed against all outsiders—Mexicans, undocumented folk, Blacks,
women, Muslims—and functions by casting aspersions and tapping into
existing prejudices and disaffection. Trump said in his inaugural; address:
38
