‘Aristo-Populists’ May Prove to Be MAGA’s Undoing

Populism draws its strength from a stark dichotomy between the people and the powerful. The people are the embodiments of all and every virtue, the elites of all and every vice. The most important qualification for populist leaders is that they should, in their hearts, be “of the people” even if they happen to be billionaires. Asked by a foreign journalist the meaning of “White trash,” Donald Trump replied. “They’re people like me, only they’re poor.”

Yet something odd is happening in Populist World as populism matures: The movement is both attracting and generating elites. That is, people who have first-rate academic credentials from elite universities, who prefer books to wrestling and sushi to McDonald’s, and who want to use popular anger to achieve often esoteric ends: the return of the rule of virtue or the rollback of the secular state. Welcome to the age of aristo-populism.