Feb. 12, Rita Kirk, director of the Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility and professor in Corporate Communication & Public Affairs at SMU Dallas, for a piece analyzing the tendencies and paths of populists. She counts President Donald Trump among them. Published in The Hill: http://bit.ly/3bwK9mt
President Donald Trump is a populist. He draws his strength from those who are angry with the way our government is working and tired of the pablum offered in lieu of authentic answers to problems real people face. In that sense, he provides a great service to our republic. He holds a mirror to the politics-as-usual crowd and what is seen is not pretty.
When James Madison University professor Dr. Dan Schill and I conducted the CNN focus groups for the 2016 election, our very first observation was that voters were angry. Some were angry about medical coverage, others over military benefits, some over issues like abortion, still others over tax burdens. Anger united them. . .