Noam Chomsky on Donald Trump

[Note: This is an overview of Noam Chomsky’s views on Donald Trump.]

[Dates Updated: 3/27/17 — 2/18/21]

If you look at the “Trump phenomenon,” it’s not so surprising. During the last fifteen years, in election after election, more candidates have arisen that were once considered “intolerable” to the Republican establishment. The answer for this intolerability is that over the years, under neoliberal policies, the Democrats and Republicans have shifted more to the right. (3) (7)

“The Democrats — by the ’70s — have pretty much abandoned the working class.” (3)

In 1978, the Humphrey–Hawkins Full Employment Act was the last kind of progressive policy (which Carter had ordered down “so that it had no teeth”) (3). While Democrats shifted to resemble moderate Republicans, Republicans moved so far right that they fell off the spectrum. (7)

Republicans have a primary constituency — extreme wealth and corporate power — that they have to serve. It’s hard to get votes when serving those interests. Therefore, they have historically appealed to evangelicals, southern racists, and disenfranchised white people, under the pretense of certain issues such as voting against abortion or fighting for gun rights. These issues are not necessarily favored by the establishment (and were previously not supported by the…