Right-wing populism works by telling voters the problem is outsiders, not themselves

Evidence

Right-wing populism of the kind Trump and Brexit represent is a gambit in a struggle amongst different versions of the elite. Crucial to this process is the way in which the opposing elite is characterised. At least since Nixon, the right has identified the “bad” elite as a “liberal” clique, with its cosmopolitan ease, its remoteness from ordinary life, and its contempt for the supposed vulgarity, insularity and chauvinism of the subordinated classes. Such an elite really does exist, of course, and its domination of large areas of the left since the 1960s has made it easy for the right successively to pull different versions of the trick that Trump… in this campaign. Trump reassures and flatters his supporters: the problem is not you, he says, but the Others, once we’ve built the wall, everything will be OK. By contrast, the message from the left, Trump says, is that the problem is you; the Others are OK, deserving of special favours that won’t be granted to you. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2040

Categorization

• SEED: The two opposing messages — ‘the problem is the Others’ versus ‘the problem is you’ — is a clean explanatory frame for an essay on political communication.
• XREF: connects to: Right-wing populism succeeds by addressing real lived problems, not by deception — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1130; Right-wing populism’s anti-finance rhetoric masks its deep integration with financial elites; Populists do not vote ideologically but hedge political volatility through nationalist myths — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living With…, 270

Broader Connections

• Right-wing populism succeeds by addressing real lived problems, not by deception #contradicts (0.88) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1130
• Right-wing populism’s anti-finance rhetoric masks its deep integration with financial elites #exemplifies (0.78)
• Populists do not vote ideologically but hedge political volatility through nationalist myths #expands (0.75) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 270