American Populism(s): From the Paranoid Style to Climate Warriors

Abstract

He promised to “drain the swamp” and stop the “American carnage,” i.e., stop the economic downward spiral of the white working class and address the alleged dangers in the country’s “inner cities”: President Donald Trump’s election in 2016 changed the U.S. discourse on populism. Initially, President Barack Obama described Trump’s rhetoric as “xenophobic, not populist,” basing his understanding of populism on the U.S. experience with the late 19th century People’s Party and a perception of populism as a corrective. However, the media and scholars quickly pointed out how Trump can be described as a populist in a different sense, namely due to his political style, strategy, and ideology: promising to defend a “pure” people against a “corrupt elite” that is out of touch with everyday life and to restore some imaginary better past (e.g. “Make America great again”), Trump builds on class and racial resentments, tapping into political currents that conservatives had previously held in check. In a sense, he has perpetuated what Schlesinger once called the "paranoid style" in US politics. Moreover, Trump can rely on a general sense of pessimism and disaffection—in other words, his election has been a symptom of a more profound crisis in U.S. politics and society. This panel explores different aspects of Trump's populist strategy, style, and rhetoric, but also puts it into perspective by looking at past Republican presidential campaigns and at one of the most vilified “Others” in current right-wing populist rhetoric, namely climate activists and proponents of the Green New Deal. Kathryn Lucas goes back to GOP presidential campaigns since 1963 and discusses how populist appeals were used to unite otherwise conflicting constituencies. Maren Schäfer focuses on Trump’s strategy to shift the attention from his Covid-19 pandemic management to “Others.” Trump’s mental health has been subject of speculations since his first days on the campaign trail. Katherine Goktepe approaches this issue from a novel angel by looking at Trump’s performative style and populist performative aesthetic in general in conjunction with Method acting theory. Finally, Jörg Kemmerzell, Veith Selk, and Jared Sonnicksen discuss whether we can see signs of an emerging left-wing climate populism in the US.

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