No single event really gives rise to an idea, unless nurtured and fostered by institutions, conditions, and repetition. To see a parallel to Trump’s popularity, one can look back to the election of 1828 and the introduction of whites-only “Jacksonian democracy.”
It is a good place to begin to answer the question asked every election season: why do poor whites vote against their interests?
When wealthy Southern slaveowner and war hero Andrew Jackson won the election of 1828, he invited a group of poor-white farmers into the White House to sing, dance, drink, and celebrate his victory.
Donald Trump is a billionaire who began his life knowing he would have access to his father’s millions. He is a real-estate baron. He crudely expresses his wealth. He brags about how well he has done by making money in other countries, yet his supporters think he will bring back American jobs.
By the year 2023, the U.S. population under the age of 18 will be less than 50 percent white. By 2042, the population as a whole will be less than 50 percent white. The politics of 2042 — the end of White America — are at the heart of Trump’s campaign.
These politics echo the presidential campaigns of Pat Buchanan, as he outlined them in his 2001 book, “Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization.” In 2004, Samuel Huntington penned a similar book, “Who Are We?” In 2015, Ann Coulter wrote “Adios, America.”
These represent a new politics, a politics of fear about the peoples of the southern border. They are at the heart of the Donald Trump campaign about the Mexican border, designed to draw white working people into voting against their own interests.
