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Jacksonians in white hats tap the populist zeitgeist

By David Martin Jones - posted Tuesday, 29 November 2016


As Steve Bannon, the president-elect's chief strategist and senior counsellor, explains, Trump represents "a new Jackson­ian populism". The new movement, Bannon says, considers "everything related to jobs … I'm the guy pushing a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan. With negative interest rates throughout the world, it's the greatest opportunity to rebuild everything … We're just going to throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks. It will … be greater than the Reagan revolution - conservatives, plus populists, in an economic nationalist movement."

Globalism, by contrast has "gutted" the American working class while creating a wealthy Asian middle class. This perspective has evident geopolitical implications for Europe and East Asia. Nationalist at home, Jacksonianism is classically realist abroad and is the American school most clearly aligned with a European realpolitik tradition.

Jacksonians consider Wilson­ian moralism misguided and human nature corrupt. Interstate relations are Hobbesian. Jacksonians thus have little faith in international law, or international insti­tu­tions. Rather than abstract Wil­son­ian commitments to human rights or free trade, Jacksonians are pragmatists. Slow to focus on a particular foreign policy issue and slower still to make a long-term commitment, once committed it is hard to build a sentiment for change. Concerned with US honour and reputation, Jacksonians are not afraid to use military force to achieve American interests. War, once embarked upon, must be fought with all available force. As Jacksonian general Douglas MacArthur observed, there is no substitute for victory.

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New national security adviser Mike Flynn and potential defence secretary and former US Marine Corps general James Mattis exemplify Jacksonian values. They will shape the US attitude to Russian irredentism and China's rise. In this they realistically perceive Vladimir Putin advancing Russian national interests rather than a communist Cold War ideology. As such there is no obvious conflict with US interests and they share a common need to stabilise the Middle East and destroy a common foe, the Islamic State. Meanwhile, the Trump administration will pragmatically evaluate China's rise and any trade deals made will have to serve US geopolitical interests.

The new Jacksonians are profoundly suspicious of elites, federal power, and domestic and foreign do-gooding. They don't need re-education or elite guidance, and assume darkness and power as part of the human condition.

As Bannon concludes: "Liberals and the media are blind to who we are and what we are doing. If we deliver we'll get 60 per cent of the white vote and 40 per cent of the black and Hispanic vote and we'll govern for 50 years." He may well be right.

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This article was first published in The Australian.



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About the Author

Dr David Martin Jones is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Government, University of Tasmania.

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