SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Can we have a talk about populist promises?
Jan 26, 2017, 5:56 PM
President Donald Trump walks on the tarmac as he waves to the crowd upon his arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017. Trump was returning from Philadelphia after speaking at the House and Senate GOP lawmakers at their annual policy retreat. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
We have a regular listener who really loves President Donald Trump and he has since day one. And he and I have been discussing the concept of a populist as it relates to Trump.
To me, a populist is a leader who is doing what the people want, on a knee-jerk basis. Now, Trump knew exactly what he was doing when he said we were going to build a wall on the Mexican border. For years, Trump had been pro open borders. But Trump landed on the single issue that gave him the Republican nomination — the wall.
Related: Why populism and Trump scare the financial elite
We were warned by the founders that tyranny arrives when a leader speaks obsequiously on behalf of the people, and we know Trump has authoritarian tendencies. Trump is not far away from someone like Bernie Sanders on a number of issues.
Bernie and President Trump are populists; they do what the people want. Look at Trump’s approval rating, which was at 57 percent on Tuesday. People agree with him on the border and that Washington D.C. is corrupt.
But we should never be led emotionally by our employee at the White House. When you do things as a populist, you don’t think about process. And populism is leadership through emotion.
When the ends justify the means, the means become the end. We can’t get used to simple solutions that bypass process.
As always, please listen to the full audio clip for complete context.
