Aristopopulists like JD Vance can offer only empty promises to the working class | Kenan Malik

Aristopopulists like JD Vance can offer only empty promises to the working class | Kenan Malik

Trump’s running mate was raised in poverty but he is typical of a new wave of elite politicians

‘The tragedy of Trump’s candidacy is that, embedded in his furious exhortations against Muslims and Mexicans and trade deals gone awry is a message that America’s white poor don’t need: that everything wrong in your life is someone else’s fault.”

That was JD Vance, Donald Trump’s pick for vice-president, writing on the eve of the 2016 presidential election about the man who is now his boss. Trump, Vance wrote in another essay, serves up “cultural heroin”, his promises “the needle in America’s collective vein”, providing an “easy escape from the pain”. Voters would eventually have to “trade the quick high of ‘Make America Great Again’ for real medicine”.

Continue reading…

Please follow and like us:
Pin Share