This election has been one heck of a lab experiment. There’s overlap between Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, yet Trump “effectively split” the Tea Party between himself and Ted Cruz, who actually is something of a Tea Partier, whereas Trump is more of a “conservative-leaning populist” or just an “idiosyncratic” right-winger, depending on who you ask. Sanders, meanwhile, describes himself as a democratic socialist.
Trying to pin down the political preferences of the electorate this year has proven difficult. In lieu of an explanation, commentators have turned to the anti-Washington fervor that has fired up the country, vaulting a self-proclaimed “self-funding” businessman to the presidential nomination of a major party and an independent Vermont progressive to a strong second-place finish in the other party. Except Trump is demonstrably a creature of the political system, with his ties to prominent politicians of all types, including the Clintons. Sanders has been in Congress since George Bush was president—George H.W. Bush, that is.
Trump is also a supposed anti-establishment bulldozer and dealmaker all in one, who represents the “throw the bums out” contingent despite expressing a willingness to get along with the ultimate bums in the eyes of Republicans: Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Charles Schumer. Reid won’t be around next year. But Sanders will be. Who knows what sort of Trump-Sanders trade deals would emerge in the hypothetical world of 1600 Trumpylvania Avenue.
How a dubiously self-described outsider can convince people of his credibility, then, must have as much to do with attitudes and words as it does with having walked the walk. In the case of Trump, that’s his unapologetic persona, which has minimized and sometimes eliminated foes in politics and the media even when he’s clearly been in the wrong. Say to a disaffected group of Americans that you’re going to build the dang wall and make Mexico pay for it loud enough and long enough and they’re liable to believe you. Resist demands to say sorry for an insult and the press will forget about it in a few days.
Speaking about the death of Muhammad Ali this week, Trump said the first Ali-Joe Frazier bout in New York City, “The Fight”, was “the greatest sporting event that I’ve ever seen.” Ali was his acquaintance, but Frazier is his type. Frazier was a brawler. Republicans—and a fair chunk of the country—want a brawler, no matter how bullheaded or reckless he is. Brawlers are bullheaded and reckless by their nature.
It’s fascinating to witness how other American characters of a similar style have built loyal followings in the last few years. Take David Clarke, the high-profile sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin who I profiled in the magazine this month. Though his respectfulness and straightforward manner of speech contrast with Trump’s style, his substance has some similarities with the GOP candidate.
They’re tough-talking, no-nonsense, full of “hard truths”. Clarke wants order in his community, by way of empowered law enforcement. Trump wants borders walled off in his country, by way of Mexican payment. Clarke doesn’t sympathize with protest movements—he outright despises Black Lives Matter—and dismisses claims that police have poor relationships with civilians in cities across the United States. “I say it could be better, but it’s not horrible. People want to lead people to believe that [it is], in an effort to try to transform [police], including the president of the United States. We don’t need to be transformed,” he told me. Trump’s not much for protestors, either, calling them “thugs” who disrupt what are otherwise his rallies of “tremendous love”. Both men advocate a sense of community; for Clarke, it’s local, and for Trump, it’s nationalist. Both men tweet. Unfiltered.
It’s little wonder that Clarke is a Trump sympathizer, as if Trump’s adulation of law enforcement during his public addresses wasn’t enough already.
Clarke, who once faced off with Piers Morgan in a heated CNN interview, has become a frequent FOX News guest and a speaker at conservative-affiliated events like the National Rifle Association convention and the Conservative Political Action Conference. When I attended the latter this year, I didn’t see another guest attract more attention from patrons, an assortment of young and old and all of them with a camera phone in hand.
Trump wasn’t in attendance. But he was there in a little bit of spirit.
