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Recent events in Charlottesville have refocused people’s attention on President Trump’s dalliance with the alt right, which some of his supporters see as prima facie evidence of his populism. However many nods Mr. Trump makes in the direction of populism, however many populist buttons he pushes, and however many populist symbols he employs, at the end of the day he is no populist. Although it is difficult to locate and analyze the core beliefs of someone as slippery, inconsistent, and intellectually slipshod as the President, two considerations trump the Donald’s elite bashing and sophomoric populist tweets. One consideration, which needs little elaboration, is his class position/interest, i.e., his commitment to preserving, indeed, enhancing the position/interest of the wealthiest Americans. A second consideration does requires elaboration, though, because it has seldom been commented upon: His propensity toward autocratic behavior, which propensity, grows out of his fundamental distrust—a big businessman’s distrust– of democracy.
Almost forty years ago now, Berkeley political scientist/business professor David J. Vogel wrote a classic article entitled “Why Businessmen Distrust Their State.” In this piece, Vogel addressed a number of important issues, but, first and foremost, was one relating to the fact that through most of modern U.S. history American business…