I wonder if Trumpism is nihilism (refusal of everything) rather than populism (taking a political position in opposition to the elites).
It (Trumpism) resembles a kind of willful blindness in the face of proposals which are not concerned with the population, but only with a part of it. These proposals often come from ideological groups who, strangely, base their arguments on religious foundations while castigating other groups with religious foundations that differ from theirs. The same goes for long-established rights: for example, abortion, equality, etc.
Not being blind to the positions taken by a former president faced with his abuses (attempts to buy silence, inaccurate financial declarations, encouragement to the destabilization of institutions, etc.) is no longer enough.
Western societies seem to be in need of dreams, motivating projects, the ideal of living together, leaders with extraordinary powers (the kind of enlightened despots who can satisfy all individual aspirations while ignoring all populations).
The percentage of participation clearly indicates that it is not the populations who vote, but rather a part of them. This phenomenon demonstrates a disengagement of populations from political organizations which, too often, simply cannot keep their promises, due to lack of liquidity (debt, loss of earnings, taxation that is too lax for some and too rigid for others, etc. .), or nuance, which pits groups of the population against others.
Mr. Trump is not Machiavelli – the comparison being an insult to the Renaissance thinker – he is rather a free electron locked in his whims, whose premises a part of the population supports, and seeming to confuse his deep desires to the detriment of the entire population, which has often been referred to by the term ” melting pot “.
However, these days, our neighbors to the South do not resemble this melting pot of multiple aspirations that converge.
And it is in the interstices of this dislocation that the breakdown of social cohesion and support for a free electron wanting “the good” of the population are found.