In America and around the world, many people are scratching their heads trying to explain the phenomenon of Donald Trump.
That Sanders, an avowed socialist, could somehow potentially be the presidential nominee of one of America's two major political parties is remarkable. Trump's illiberalism shades Sanders — but not by much. As Mark Steyn, the North American columnist and author, said when he visited Australia last month, the main difference between Trump and Sanders is a billion dollars and a hairpiece.
Trump and Sanders are populists. As the Australian Sam Gregg, now at the Acton Institute in Michigan, has identified, they follow the classic populist playbook. "Among other things, this involves identifying the evil-doers (China, the one per cent, etc.) supposedly responsible for all our woes and proposing simplistic solutions that will be accomplished, apparently, because they say so."
Worse than the liking they both have for big government is the disdain each has for restraints on their potential power.
Sanders declared that "any Supreme Court nominee of mine will make overturning Citizens United one of their first decisions". (Citizens United was a US Supreme Court case in 2010 that decided the First Amendment of the American Constitution prevented the government from imposing limits on how much third parties could spend on political campaigns.)
Trump has promised to have the army obey him rather than abide by the law.
IT COULD HAPPEN HERE
Populism, like identity politics, relies on the denial of the dignity and worth of the individual. Populism and identity politics judge individuals not by their actions, but according to their background, skin colour, sexuality or some arbitrary characteristic.
What happens to Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders is of more than passing interest to Australians. And a very relevant question is whether it could happen here.
The answer has to be yes — it certainly could. We've had our fair share of populists — from depression-era NSW Labor premier Jack Lang to Clive Palmer.
According to some, Trump is the fault of America's education system. That's the position of a prominent American commentator whose opinion was reported in this newspaper a few days ago.
"I do also think that this is what happens when you have a democracy of people who are not well-educated. The Trump audience are white men who graduated from high schools that have taught them little and who have not been part of any more engaged, intelligent discourse," said Anne-Marie Slaughter, a Democrat who held a senior position in the US State Department under Hillary Clinton, and who is now head of a progressive think-tank in Washington.
Slaughter attended Oxford University, Princeton University and Harvard. She taught at the latter two universities. Her views echo what's uttered in the opinion pages of Salon and The New York Times, and in Ivy League common rooms up and down the east coast of America.
BLAME ON BOTH SIDES
If the blame for Trump falls on America's schools, then the finger must surely be pointed at the people responsible for that country's school system. By and large, those people are not Republican.
If a "white man" has not learned enough to know not to vote for Trump, responsibility must rest with the Democratic Party-aligned teachers' unions that run America's public schools. At least the country's largest union, the National Education Association, hasn't endorsed Sanders — instead it is supporting Hillary Clinton.
Blaming democracy for Donald Trump is a slippery slope. As is implying that voters who support Trump are stupid.
A century ago, it was the conservative Right who opposed extending the franchise to blue-collar workers. Now it's the progressive Left who are uncomfortable with the "not well-educated" having a vote — if that vote is cast for Donald Trump.
Anne-Marie Slaughter's point about high schools and Trump could just as easily apply to universities and Sanders.
Any Princeton or Harvard graduate who believes the answer to America's problems is socialism has clearly learned nothing about economics, history or politics.
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