Abstract

Donald Trump, a real estate mogul and reality TV show host, has captured the Republican nomination for the 2016 U.S. presidential election, despite controversies over his temperament and his heretical positions against the orthodoxies of American democracy and global leadership. This paper tries to make sense of the political rise of Trump through a historical and political economy perspective. It first identifies and puts forth the three pillars of Trump’s campaign- the racism/nativism of White America, the economic nationalism/isolationism of America First, and the megalomaniac personality that puts Trump First- placing these pillars into a historical cycle of American expansion from the mid-19th century to the founding of American hegemony in the mid-20th century. This period institutionalized White America’s economic prosperity and political power through the embedded liberalism of New Deal policies. This paper then traces the pathologies of neoliberal globalization, or American hegemony 2.0, against the historical backdrop of the civil rights acts of the 1960s to explore how they have decimated the American middle class since the 1970s, thereby nurturing the nationalism of America First and the resentment of White America. This paper also examines the role of the financial crisis of 2008 in the creation of this political meltdown, all of which have allowed for Trump’s successful individual onslaught against the establishment.

Quotes from the Paper

“What’s the matter with Trump? To begin with, Trump’s presidential candidacy is the result of the Republican establishment’s failure to control the Republican base during the primary campaign…In a larger context, Trump, along with Sanders and (to a certain extent) Cruz, embodies the disconnect between the elites and the masses, between the supposedly rigged American establishment and evidently disenchanted voter base.”

“It is not Trump, but the combination of neoliberal globalization and ‘winner-takes-all politics’ that has alienated and built the Republican base and the followers of Sanders. Neoliberal globalization, or the Washington consensus (in line with Reagan and Thatcher’s market fundamentalism) on deregulation, trade and financial liberalization, and privatization has been the hallmark of American hegemony since the 1970s. Trumpism represents the belated death of neoliberalism; America is enduring the political meltdown of American hegemony 2.0.”

“America is strong but Americans are unhappy…most Americans feel that the country is on the wrong track; the declining middle class are suffering many ills from neoliberal globalization and revolting against it; meanwhile the elites are baffled by and aghast at Trumpism and the masses’ rejection of neoliberalism, free trade, and military interventions like the Iraq War – in short, American hegemony 2.0. Such a political meltdown has revealed itself through an abnormal, surreal, and unprecedentedly ugly presidential election.”

“In the long run, no matter who wins this election, Trumpism and the pathologies of economic inequality and political polarization will not go away soon, and the limited and hidden American state of ‘American Amnesia’ will not be subject to any quick and easy fixes.”

Author

Heajeong Lee is professor of political science and international relations at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, Korea. His research interests include American foreign policy, international relations theory, and East Asian security. He received his B.A. and M.A. in International Relations from Seoul National University and his Ph.D. in Political Science from Northwestern University. He has been a guest fellow at the Norwegian Nobel Institute and the Mansfield Center of the University of Montana. He is the author of The Making of American Hegemony from the Great Depression to the Korean War (2000) and, most recently “Restraint vs. Hegemony: Understanding Post-Cold War American Grand Strategy” (2015, in Korean).