President Obama went on a bit of a self-described rant at the North American Leaders’ Summit in Ottawa, Canada, over repeated questions that implied that Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric is “populist” in nature.
“Maybe somebody can pull up in a dictionary quickly the phrase ‘populism,’ but I’m not prepared to concede the notion that some of the rhetoric that’s been popping up is ‘populist.'”
For the record, the Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines populism as:
1 : a member of a political party claiming to represent the common people…
2 : a believer in the rights, wisdom, or virtues of the common people
Obama asserted, without ever mentioning Donald Trump by name, that the more divisive rhetoric coming out of the 2016 presidential election cannot be considered populist.
“Someone […] who has never shown any regard for workers, who has never fought on behalf of social justice issues or making sure that poor kids are getting a decent shot at life or have health care…in fact, have worked against economic opportunity for workers and ordinary people…they don’t suddenly become a populist because they say something controversial in order to win votes. That’s not the measure of populism. That’s nativism, or xenophobia, or worse.”
The president insisted that someone like Bernie Sanders, who has “been on the front lines working on behalf of working people,” has earned the title of “populist,” but those who “pop up at times of economic anxiety” cannot, especially when their rhetoric excludes and even vilifies a significant portion of the pool of workers they claim to represent because those workers are not white, male, or Christian.
“Let’s just be clear that somebody who labels ‘us versus them’ or engages in rhetoric about how we’re going to look after ourselves and take it to the other guy; that’s not the definition of populism. Sorry.”
Just as the American Tea Party cannot accurately refer to themselves as a social justice movement since their perceived struggle and proposed solutions would not benefit all of society, but only the wealthiest among us, which creates an even larger imbalance of justice, divisive and exclusionary rhetoric such as Donald Trump’s cannot be referred to as “populist,” either.
Whether or not Trump voters particularly like the idea, the demographics of the common people, the average worker, are not exclusively white, male, or Christian. Some of the workers that a populist or someone fighting for social justice should be representing are even first generation American citizens or should have the opportunity to become one. Some are women, some are Muslim, and some are the working poor who rely on government assistance to supplement an unfairly low income that is insufficient to support their families despite full-time work.
President Obama apologized for the long speech, but not for being angry at any notion that what Trump and other divisive GOP political candidates are fighting the good fight for “the common people.”
“This is one of the prerogatives of when you’re at the end of your term,” he said. “You go on these occasional rants.”
Rant away, Mr. President.
For President Obama’s full statement, see video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUMje1X2pKA
Featured image screengrab via YouTube
