Politics of high fantasy

WASHINGTON — The New Hampshire results have solidified the reigning cliche that the 2016 campaign is an anti-establishment revolt of both the left and the right. Largely overlooked, however, is the role played in setting the national mood by the seven-year legacy of the Obama presidency.

Yes, you hear constant denunciations of institutions, parties, leaders, donors, lobbyists, influence peddlers. But the starting point of the bipartisan critique is the social, economic and geopolitical wreckage all around us. Bernie Sanders is careful never to blame Obama directly, but his description of the America Obama leaves behind is devastating — a wasteland of stagnant wages, rising inequality, a sinking middle class, young people crushed by debt, the American Dream dying.

Take away the Brooklyn accent and the Larry David mannerisms and you would have thought you were listening to a Republican candidate. After all, who’s been in charge for the last seven years?

Donald Trump is even more colorful in describing the current “mess” and more direct in attributing it to the country’s leadership — most pungently, its stupidity and incompetence. Both candidates are not just anti-establishment but anti-status quo. The revolt is as much about the Obama legacy as it is about institutions.

Look at New Hampshire. Hillary Clinton had made a strategic decision, as highlighted in the debates, to wrap herself in the mantle of the Obama presidency. Big mistake. She lost New Hampshire by three touchdowns.

Beyond railing against the wreckage, the other commonality between the two big New Hampshire winners is in the nature of the cure they offer. Let the others propose carefully budgeted five-point plans. Sanders and Trump offer magic.

Take Sanders’ victory speech. It promised the moon: college education, free; universal health care, free; world peace, also free because we won’t be “the policeman of the world” (mythical Sunni armies will presumably do that for us). Plus a guaranteed $15 minimum wage. All to be achieved by taxing the rich. Who can be against a “speculation” tax (whatever that means)?

So with Trump. Leave it to him. Jobs will flow back in a rush from China, from Japan, from Mexico, from everywhere. Universal health care, with Obamacare replaced by “something terrific.” Veterans finally taken care of. Drugs stopped cold at the border. Indeed, an end to drug addiction itself. Victory upon victory of every kind.

How? That question never comes up anymore. No one expects an answer. His will be done, on earth if not yet in heaven. Yes, people love Trump’s contempt for the “establishment” — which as far as I can tell means anything not Trump — but what is truly thrilling is the promise of a near-biblical restoration. As painless as Sanders’.

In truth, Trump and Sanders are soaring not just by defying the establishment, but by defying logic and history. Sanders’ magic potion is socialism; Trump’s is Trump.

The young Democrats swooning for Sanders appear unfamiliar with socialism’s century-long career, a dismal tale of ruination from Russia to Cuba to Venezuela. Indeed, are they even aware that China’s greatest reduction in poverty in human history correlates precisely with the degree to which it has given up socialism?

Trump’s magic is toughness — toughness in a world of losers. The power and will of the caudillo will make everything right.

Apart from the fact that strongman rule contradicts the American constitutional tradition of limited and constrained government, caudillo populism simply doesn’t work. It accounts in a large part for the relative backwardness of Africa and Latin America. In 1900, Argentina had a per capita income fully 70 percent of ours. After a 20th century wallowing in Peronism and its imitators, Argentina is a basket case, its per capita income now 23 percent of ours.

There certainly is a crisis of confidence in the country’s institutions. That’s hardly new. The run of endemic distrust began with Vietnam and Watergate. Yet not in our lifetimes have the left and right populism of the Sanders and Trump variety enjoyed such massive support. The added factor is the Obama effect, the depressed mood of a nation experiencing its worst economic recovery since World War II and watching its power and influence abroad decline amid a willed global retreat.

The result is a politics of high fantasy. Things can’t get any worse, we hear, so why not shake things up to their foundation? Anyone who thinks things can’t get any worse knows nothing. And risks everything.

Charles Krauthammer’s email address is letters@charleskrauthammer.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Opinion

RGB version
Editorial cartoons for Saturday, April 26

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

County Council members Jared Mead, left, and Nate Nehring speak to students on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, during Civic Education Day at the Snohomish County Campus in Everett, Washington. (Will Geschke / The Herald)
Editorial: Students get a life lesson in building bridges

Two county officials’ civics campaign is showing the possibilities of discourse and government.

Roberts: Gutting of scientific research will leave us blind

The Trump administration’s deep cuts to science and research will harm our economy and environment.

Comment: Funding delays jeopardize research of healthy aging

A freeze of NIH funding threatens research into aging and Alzheimer’s at the UW School of Medicine.

Comment: Meaningful law on rent requires bill’s earlier version

As lawmakers seek a deal, rent stabilization should keep a 7 percent cap and apply to single homes.

Forum: Trump cuts to museum funding hit Imagine Children’s

The defunding of a museum and library program means the loss of a science lab for preschoolers.

Forum: We strive for Belonging, then keep it to ourselves

From childhood we treat Belonging as something to be jealously guarded. What if others belong, too?

Comment: Higher tax on tobacco pouches could backfire

A proposed 95 percent tax on smokeless tobacco could lead some back to more dangerous cigarettes.

toon
Editorial cartoons for Friday, April 25

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

FILE - This Feb. 6, 2015, file photo, shows a measles, mumps and rubella vaccine on a countertop at a pediatrics clinic in Greenbrae, Calif. Washington state lawmakers voted Tuesday, April 23, 2019 to remove parents' ability to claim a personal or philosophical exemption from vaccinating their children for measles, although medical and religious exemptions will remain. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
Editorial: Commonsense best shot at avoiding measles epidemic

Without vaccination, misinformation, hesitancy and disease could combine for a deadly epidemic.

The Buzz: This week, the makeup tips of political powerbrokers

Who would have guessed that Kitara Revanche and Pete Hegseth used the same brand of concealer?

Schwab: Who saw this coming? said no one but Senate Republicans

Take your pick of agency heads; for those who advise and consent, there was no sign of trouble ahead.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.