Trumpism: Race, Class, Populism, and Public Policy

by Carter A. Wilson

Overview

Trumpism: Race, Class, Populism and Public Policy is divided into two parts. Part One examines the foundation of Trumpism: Trump's form of populism, Trump's political ideas, and Trump's base of support. The text defines Trump as a right-wing populist. His political base emerged out of four political movements: the conservative evangelical Christian, the Tea Party, the economic elite, and the white nationalist movements. Part Two examines Trump's public policy agenda. It covers labor, health care, social welfare, voting rights and police policies. A review of these policy areas reveals a consistent pattern: a public policy agenda committed to weakening labor power, hacking away at the Affordable Care Act, shredding the social safety net, eviscerating voting rights and constructing a racially repressive police state. The central theme is that despite his popular appeal to white workers and conservative evangelical Christians, Trump's public policy agenda favored the upper class, exacerbated inequality, and had its most devastating impact on low-income white workers and minorities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781793617514
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	11/02/2021
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	6.32(w) x 8.95(h) x 0.93(d)

About the Author

Carter A. Wilson is professor and department head of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Northern Michigan University

Table of Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Part I: The Political, Ideological and Economic Context of Trumpism

Chapter One: Populism

Chapter Two: Trumpism

Chapter Three: Trump Voters

Chapter Four: Perfect Storm

Chapter Five: Inequality

Part II: Select Domestic Public Policies of the Trump Administration

Chapter Six: Labor Policy

Chapter Seven: Health Care Policy

Chapter Eight: Social Welfare, Education, and Tax Policies

Chapter Nine: Voter Suppression

Chapter Ten: Trumpism: Race, Class, and Police Policy

About the Author

Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Wilson’s Trumpism: Race, Class, Populism and Public Policy is an important and distinctive contribution to the literature on the Trump presidency. What distinguishes it is the wide-ranging focus on public policy. In fact-based empirical analyses of labor, health, education, welfare, tax and regulatory policies, Wilson methodically demonstrates the deleterious effects of Trump’s public policies on American workers of all classes and colors.

Robert C. Smith

Carter Wilson examines the connections between Trumpism, populism, and public policy, arguing convincingly that this network is centered on reinforcing an oligarchy of wealth and entitlement. He explains that the oligarchy is not a traditional one, but one based on “corporate insurgency”, an extreme anti-government ideology with policy prescriptions most damaging to the white working class. This is an impressively integrative contribution to our understanding of how ideas, personalities, and elections affect public policy.

Bryan D. Jones

Since he won a surprise victory in the 2016 presidential election, scholars have devoted considerable attention to explaining the rise and fall of Donald J. Trump. Carter A. Wilson builds upon this growing literature by defining “Trumpism” while emphasizing the political, economic, and societal conditions that gave rise to Trump and the policies that he promoted.

Political Science Quarterly