Trumpania versus Eurania

TRUMPANIA VERSUS EURANIA

Those who see Trump as a conventional President who's failing because he's temperamentally unsuited to the job have got it wrong. Trump is a populist genius. He's developing an entirely new style presidential style by  following a classic, populist, right wing approach pioneered in Europe.

Call it fascism, populism or Trumpism, it's a simple technique. If blocked by the conventional authorities and institutions or frustrated by advisers and pundits (aka the adults in the room), the leader appeals over their heads to the people. The people probably don't understand the issues. They might not even see that the leader's policies are damaging to their interests as Trump's tax proposals and the abolition of Obamacare surely are.

 It doesn't matter. There are enough people alienated from the ruling elites and the conventional authorities, because recession, poverty and frozen living standards has made them feel left behind and angry to back the leader. They see a populist figure as their man, like them and on their side. They identify with him and he with them.They trust the leader more than those who've let them down.So it's easy to rouse them in mass rallies to rally them against the elite as Trump is now doing.

This was the technique used by Hitler . He never got a majority of votes, became Chancellor because the right thought he'd be their puppet,was distrusted by the army, the existing authorities and opposed by the Social Democrats, but appealed to a population hard hit by depression and unemployment from which the powers that be had been unable to protect them. Result ? Hitler overruled them all by unleashing public hostility, took a firm grip on power, built the fascist state and led Germany into war. Or take De Gaulle, brought to power by the Algerian revolt then consolidating it by referenda to get the powers and the constitution he wanted.

 Europe learned the lesson which was don't trust the people. That's why the European Union was created, as a deliberately undemocratic structure in which the bureaucracy of the commission decides what's good for the people, then imposes it on them whether they want it or not. The Commission is committed to building an ever closer union, which neither national governments nor the European people want but which the Commission knows will be good for them. It  maintains the appearance of democracy in what is really a plutocracy, by having a Parliament which has no effective party structures to give it power, and by referenda where the electors are asked to vote again if they vote for something the commission doesn't like.

That's why the Commission, Europe's  elites and all the jumble of authorities which make up the EU are as hostile to Trump as they are to Britain's desire to take back control. Can't have populism. Trump will get out of control and the British people can't be trusted. Heaven knows, they might want to do something the Commission doesn't like. Give them power and other people might want it too. Can't have that. Better just to say no. Simpler too, because no is the only thing a 27 headed hydra can get agreement on. 

European democracy isn't what the people want. It's what the Commission wants . If you don't like it, you can't even be allowed even to leave because it's all  done for your protection and in your interests.. A country which takes back control may catch Trumpism and do what the Commission doesn't want.