A Trumpist Workers' Party ManifestoAbandoning the low-tax, small-government orthodoxy of the GOP, its nominee says he envisions the Republican Party of the future as a “workers’ party.”
David A. Graham 1:31 PM ET
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/trump-workers-party/484469/snip to summation
All this said, Trump’s opposition to collective ownership and global socialist revolution are significant deviations from what one expects from a true “workers’ party.” But his clever use of class grievance, decoupled from class revolution, as a tool of political gain is reminiscent of other political parties, particularly European “welfare chauvinism” movements. The connection between Trumpism and the Marine LePen-led National Front in France has been remarked upon before. Both are supported by swathes of blue-collar workers, many of whom live in rural areas. They are skeptical of foreigners and oppose immigration. They don’t like the nation being beholden to global obligations like the European Union. But they have no truck with small government, and no ideological obsession with reducing government “dependence.” Instead, they want to keep or strengthen the welfare state as it exists—simply making sure that only the right people are able to benefit from it.
One reason that these European parties have sometimes been regarded with suspicion is that continent’s troubled history of self-proclaimed workers’ parties that blend socialism and nationalism. In America, by contrast, such movements have been somewhat less common.
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