GOV310 – In The News: A look at national politics through the eyes of Texas, March 23, 2016

In the news.

Look, now the news for American in Texas government. I’m Eric McDaniel. And I’m Jim Henson. Well,

this we’ve been off for for a week, I guess, enjoying spring break, a little bit of south by Southwest,

which a hard to see President Obama speak. I got to see the president speak. It was a was a day long investment.

It’s I think the third time I’d seen him actually go, wow, OK. But I guess and I don’t know, it makes me like Obama

ahead. I didn’t travel anywhere, so. Yeah. No, he was you know, it was interesting.

He made some news by talking about the the Apple case and the Justice Department for the first time.

So, you know, a receptive crowd. Interesting. Seeing him play technology leaders

was part of South by Southwest Interactive. So a good time, but almost like going to a rock

show. All right, good. I mean, you got out, did something educational. I binged. Watch Daredevil.

So you have two different four hour an episode seven. OK. You get six more to go. It’s

good. But but. But they actually in the news. I don’t think my

TV watching is actually that important. We saw the primary going on. And so we have results from

the Democratic primary. So we see in Arizona

that Hillary Clinton won in Arizona. They’re still doing the final counts of the delegate count

may change a bit. But you see that Bernie Sanders won in Utah,

but Hillary Clinton won in Idaho. One thing I should say is I think I got a slide with that back, one of those

slides backwards. And so Sanders won in Idaho and Utah. Oh,

OK. So I’m going to take the hit on that. That’s the late night slide slide work. Don’t

worry about it. I’ve been there. Now, what’s important to note is that the

the news A Bernie won this state. Hillary won this state. It’s very important point to really

understand is that the states are weighted differently. So it’s not the same as all because, again, population

matters. And that’s why, you know, Bernie Sanders could win two or three states, but still

trailing Hillary Clinton or maybe even lose some of his

BBB behind the pace of Hillary Clinton because the states he won were small. Two states he won are small. But the ones

that Hillary Clinton won was very large. And that’s why the Michigan win was so important, because he won a large

state. But if you look at the current delegate count, Hillary Clinton still has, you

know, more than a three or to delegate lead. So, again, 57

percent to 43 percent. So clearly, it was a lot of ground

that Bernie Sanders needs to make up. And actually some senators have said, you know, go ahead, it’s time to throw

in the towel. Call it quits. And instead, it’s attacking Hillary, start attacking Trump.

And so the Democratic Party can get focused on the general election. Yeah. And I think you’ve seen some subtle signs

from Sanders that, you know, there have always been bounds, but many more bounds

in the court to the conflict between these two. Sanders has been taking it a little bit easier,

I think. I think they realize they know that there is an outcome here. They can’t say

that. So that race has been a little bit more bound, but that that talk is going to continue

to get much more pronounced as as Hillary Clinton’s delegate count

increases. We saw a interesting night on the Republican side as again, probably

a little bit more interesting, because that’s the way these things have been going in this race. Donald Trump

won big in Arizona. Not not a big surprise given his emphasis on

immigration and the way that that debate has played out in Arizona. He was

Trump was endorsed by Sheriff Joe Arpaio, as we’ve discussed in here before.

And but Ted Cruz then won big in Utah by a very large

margin in the in the couple of weeks running up to this Trump, it essentially ceded Utah

by alienating Mormons. He took a shot at Mitt Romney is being

questioned whether Romney was a was a Mormon and typical Trump style. He was doing it in kind of a joking

way. He was trying to say that all the Mormons he knew were smart. And so then he quipped,

well, maybe Mitt Romney is not a Mormon, huh? But what really got picked up was just him saying that Romney

wasn’t a Mormon. I think more, you know, more and more importantly for the

Trump campaign. Trump’s general cultural demeanor has

not played well in Utah and has not played well among Mormons. Many Mormons, in fact,

do missionary work around the world. And so much of that happens in Latin America. And

so Utah in general has not been as prone to the anti-immigrant

impulses that Trump has played on so well. So if we go and we look at the general state of that race

after last night, then Trump’s the mark. You know, Trump is making progress

towards the majority threshold of 12:37. Cruz

is emerging as the clear alternative, but with

a much smaller bloc of delegates. So Trump. Point near sixty one percent

cruise that only about 30 percent of the delegates. Another kind of footnote to last night is that John

Cusack won no delegates in any of those contests. And so

in many ways, the bloom is off the rose after his big win in Ohio. That kind of propelled him back in the

race. And Rubio’s loss in Florida, which knocked him out. So that kind

of wraps up the races in a lot of ways. Yeah, Amy, K-6 should be bowing out soon. It’s really between

Trump and Cruz, and I believe they’re a bit of a twit Twitter war right now over,

I guess, some attacks on Trump’s wife. Rove’s definitely by

Cruz campaign, but by people linked to the Cruz campaign or Cruz supporters. And so this is

you know, this is getting really personal. And the problem is, the longer this plays out, the more this is going to hurt

the GOP in a general election because it’s going to end up doing is alienating a significant

number of voters. And so if you have Trump Trump, when you got people who are upset

about Trump, who don’t like Trump is if Trump loses, then those people are supporting Trump will feel

that he’d been cheated, that the party has cheated him in some way. And so it’s gonna be

there. And then there is the threat of a third party attempt. Yeah. You know, even among Republicans, Trump’s

negatives are very high. So Trump’s numbers on one hand have been moving up. And we’ve talked

in past weeks about how, you know, some of what some of the some of what the

Republican elites have been putting their hopes on had been the fact that Trump had not really been hitting

are creeping up in these elections as the field thins, but he’s still not winning

huge majorities. And this really has fueled a whole other round of what we think

of as a stop Trump movement among Republican elites. There was a on one hand,

there was a very high visibility meeting last weekend over

the end of last week, I guess conservatives, Republican elites, media figures

had a big meeting in D.C. trying to figure out how they could either stop

Trump or Orac or somehow replace him at the convention.

Somebody was mentioning that meeting to me, and that was a high visibility meeting. But

I think the Republicans are in a constant Republican elites are in a constant state of these conversations right

now. And it doesn’t really seem to be getting them anywhere. No, it doesn’t mean it’s.

And then this actually may actually help Trump a bit. He says, look, I’m anti-establishment and the establishment is

coming after me. And so when you when you actually formally CB establishment

coming after you, all of a sudden he’s no longer paranoid. So this may

this may actually help Trump more than it hurts him. Well, we’ll see how it all plays

out. Yeah, I think that’s right. I mean, you know, he’s he’s been masterful at using that opposition

as a virtue. I mean, something that Ted Cruz had been doing and Trump is now doing it.

Has turned it into an art. I think the other thing that that really fueled this movement last week

was this outbreak of violence at Trump rallies. So we’ve had a few incidents

of protesters being in a Trump rally and then somebody in the crowd essentially

punching them out as they’re being dragged out. Trump’s campaign manager, Corey

Lund Lewandowsky, has kind of manhandled a couple of people. It looks like some

of that has been captured on video. That’s not only fueled the opposition to Trump in

the sense that Trump is is is is an unusual kind of character

in American politics and potentially a dangerous one. And it’s fueled some of the

the tendency to think of Trump as dangerous in the sense of being a fascist, which kind

of brings us to our next topic. Yeah. I mean, you see that the anti Trump

stuff really pick up in Chicago. Then what? And then again, even Arizona is part of the worst example

of this. But one of the things that’s really important coming out of this is where you see this huge negative reaction

to Trump, but also the reactions to Bernie Sanders as well as really the names

and titles being thrown around. So you’ve seen discussions of fascist,

of socialist, populist. And these are Bear-Stearns being thrown around. But one of

the weird things about it, though, is they’re not really defining what the terms are. And so

they’ve it’s really important that we understand. What exactly does it mean to be a socialist,

to be a fascist? What is populism mean? What is it between a socialist and a communist? Because

all these things are kind of being thrown out there, but not really discussed. And that’s one of things we want

to highlight right now. Q What exactly does it mean to call somebody a socialist or

or a fascist? And so, you know, you could see if you

were one of the things about Trump that people have been talking about is that trying to label him as a as a fascist

is someone who ran a. Putting up Mussolini quotes and saying this is

Donald Trump said it and Donald Trump actually retweeted one of them was, oh, yeah. I said, there’s like no Mussolini

said this. If you’re not familiar with who Mussolini was, Masum leading was basically

the de facto dictator of Italy during World War 2. So it’s about the axis of evil.

It was under Mussolini’s reign. Mussolini was actually killed by the Italian people.

And that’s why Italy goes from supporting the Nazi Germany to opposing Nazi Germany in the middle

of World War 2. I’m amazed X remember all that good history teachers

in high school. But you know, we’re talking about this one. The first things to start

with, socialism. That’s what’s been really thrown around. Bernie Sanders Bernie Sanders actually identified himself as a socialist,

specifically a democratic socialist. So socialism is defined as a political and economic theory

of social organization that advocates the means of production, distribution and exchange

should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. So socialism is in many ways

thinking about co-ops, I guess things like that, where the community as a whole is a is part

of this. Now, what’s very important to understand is that this is different from communism.

They’re similar, but different. So communism is a political theory derived by

from Karl Marx advocating a class war and leading to a society which all property is

publicly owned. And each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs usually

are organized under a party led state. So communism, the real key

between communism and socialism is communism as a one party state. And this is where one

party state swarts risi a lot of oppression, but also a high level of corruption

as well. One party states. Again, as we talked about parties in the state of Texas from the Democratic Party

rule, the state of Texas, there’s a great deal of repression, but also a great deal of infighting and corruption

amongst the parties with socialism, democratic socialist. The parties are actually competing

with each other to see the direction of the nation. And so, you know, one primary example of a democratic

socialist, Martha King Junior, he was a democratic socialist, putting up democratic socialist nations. You have

Scandinavian nations where the communist nations would be the former USSR, Cuba, China,

North Korea. And in multi-party states, you have socialist parties that compete in elections

with, you know, more conventional conservative, non-socialist, non leftist parties.

Socialism and communism comes out of a more concrete kind of political tradition

that is really concerned with the kind of social justice. Equality is a fundamental value.

But the way that gets processed in American politics was really shaped by the experience of the Cold

War in the United States and the struggle versus the Soviet Union, which was the preeminent

communist state. And it’s interesting because the fragments of that era very much been in the news

this week because President Obama has been in Cuba trying to normalize relationships

and the process of normalizing relationship with one of the last Communist Party ruled states in the

world, Cuba. So pretty Sanders then

has thus found himself in a position, even though he described himself as a democratic socialist. Of having

to distinguish himself from somebody who might, you know,

very easily out of old habit, perhaps call him a communist. You’ve still seen some of that on the right. But even

from the left, some Democrats have been worried that were Sanders to get the nomination, the first thing

that would happen is that people would be calling him a communist. But let’s let’s roll a little sound, as Chuck Todd would say.

And Bernie, explain it for himself. So the next time that you hear and be

attacked as a socialist like tomorrow.

Remember this. I don’t believe government should take over.

You know, the grocery store down the street or own the means

of production. But I do believe that the middle class

and the working families of this country who produce the wealth

of this country deserve a decent standard of living

and that their incomes should go up, not down.

I do believe in private companies that thrive

and invest and grow in America. Companies

that create jobs here rather than companies that are shutting

down in America and increasing their profits by exploiting

low wage labor abroad.

I believe that most Americans can pay lower taxes

if hedge fund managers who make billions manipulating the marketplace

finally start paying the taxes that they should. OK, so Senator,

Senator Sanders does some lifting for us there. And I feel I better calm Senator Sanders. I kind of call them Bernie. It’s

a little overly familiar. Yes. Like I said, I want to see Barry a couple weeks ago.

OK. So but but one of the things that Senator Sanders does force there is

he really emphasizes that one of the things that is being distinguished is the role of the state and how

powerful the state is. And he clearly backs away from the communist model

of state control of all aspects of society or most of them. Now, that brings

us to this notion of fascism. And this is a label that’s been hurled, frankly, most

directly at Donald Trump. Now, the classic model of fascism differs from

as a as a political concept from socialism and communism, in that

it’s much less deeply rooted in a particular school of intellectual

thought and much more historical artifact. So when you think about fascism, we don’t think as much

of an ideology like we do with socialism or with communism. We think more about how

a political appeal was grafted on to particular political practices

in a in a in a historical period. So when we talk about fascism, which is generated really, as

Eric was saying, from the first real historical experience in Italy, Nazi Germany,

some states in the Balkans, we’re talking about political appeals that focus very

intensely on a narratives of community decline of national humiliation

or national victimhood and promising remedy through national unity.

The the the the focus of energy and purity on

a very purely conceived nation and national kind of very ethnic identity

in a lot of a lot of cases. And of course, for those of you that have even passing familiarity

with history, this should remind you, of course, of Nazi Germany. In fact, in

fascism, in practice, almost always calls for a mass based party of committed nationalist

militants. And what we mean by that are people that are focused on defending the nation and carrying

out the will of the political movement. This is typically very anti-democratic.

So in fascist regimes, the leadership and the followers, they abandon democratic

liberties and they and they pursue a kind of internal cleansing and national

rejuvenation, usually through the use of violence. And there’s

a kind of counter rational and counter ethical tone to how this happens

in these regimes. And then finally, fundamentally, they are led by an authoritarian,

often at least presumably charismatic leader. When you look back in history, it’s odd to look

at people like history at at like Hitler or Mussolini as care of the charismatic persay.

But in their time and place, they motivated people, they inspired them and they

and they and they lead people down a pretty dark path. So fascism

has been a term that people have hurled at Donald Trump. The other thing that we fear, the other political concept

that we’ve heard a lot this time, as Erick said earlier, is populism. And populism is

a different is a different kind of beast. So populism is is similar conceptually

to fight fascism in the sense that we talk about populism or really talked talking primarily

about a political appeal. And it’s in this appeal

is focused on standing up for the rights and the positions of common people

as opposed to the elite or the government. And so we’ve really seen that an

element of that in both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in the way

that they’re appealing to the welfare of the general population. We saw that in the Sanders

clip that we heard earlier with Bernie Sanders. We were talking earlier. It’s really focused

on struggling against Wall Street and the economic elite. But with Donald Trump, it’s

much more any intellectual. It’s about party elites. And it and it does have a much

stronger focus on national identity

with, you know, frankly, racial and ethnic overtones as nativist tone that we’ve talked to

about with Trump. So let’s let’s hear some sound from Trump and then we’ll come back and talk about it. We have losers.

We have losers. We have people that don’t have it. We have people that are morally corrupt.

We have people that are selling this country down the drain.

Our country is in serious trouble. We don’t have victories

anymore. We used to have victories, but we don’t have them. When was the last time

anybody saw us speeding, let’s say, China, in

a trade deal? They kill us. I beat China all the time,

all the time. When did we beat

Japan at anything? They send their cars over

by the millions. And why do we do? When was the last time

you saw a Chevrolet in Tokyo? It doesn’t exist, folks.

They beat us all the time. When do we beat Mexico

at the border? They’re laughing at us, at our stupidity. And now they’re beating us

economically. They are not our friend. Believe me. But they’re killing us economically.

The U.S. has become a dumping ground.

For everybody else’s problems. Well, I do have an answer the last time I saw a Chevrolet in Tokyo.

Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift. But I mean, if you

see it, you see for those two statements, you see the populism, the idea that people

are selling, selling America short. But then also this idea of a national shame. But when

is the last time we won? We’re losing. Other countries are laughing at us. And this is

this is a very important theme within this. And so what you have going on is Bernie Sanders

and his populism is Wall Street is cheating us with Donald Trump. It’s the

world is is against us. We need to kind of shore ourselves up. And there has been

some very strong kind of anti immigrant sentiment and the sense that these immigrants are coming in and

are ruining the nation. And so. And this is where you’re really getting this

this attack on on Trump. But again, there’s a very large segment of that within

the American public. And, you know, this is nothing new to the American public of getting people riled up

and let people kind of compared him to George Wallace

in the sense that he’s using kind of these ethnic and racial undertones to

mobilize support. Populism uses these racial and ethnic overtones

to gain support. And people actually argue that not doing this, you can actually lead to some bad,

bad decision making. But also the same thing with Senator Sanders, that by constantly blaming Wall Street.

Wall Street’s there for a reason. And so what they may do, some things we don’t dislike, but not completely

evil and completely corrupt. And the ideas, you know,

might need to work with Wall Street as time goes on. So both of them are taking these very strong

stances that can lead to greater divisiveness as opposed to actually, you know,

solving the problems at hand. And one thing we should say about populist regimes in other countries

and the instances of populism that we’ve frequently seen in the United States

is that there’s often not a lot of follow through. And that becomes one of you know, and that’s an artifact

of the fact that populism isn’t rooted in a very conc

typically in a very concrete political ideology or program. It’s all about

the appeal. So typically, if you’re a populist, once you get in power, the situation looks very

differently. And historically, we see populist typically compromising much more in power than

than we might expect from their rhetoric. And I think, you know, that’s that’s part of what,

you know, I think bothers people, particularly more classic conservatives about

populism, persay. Now, populism has its roots in different,

you know, different places in the country and in different places in the world. One interesting thing about Trump

very quickly is that he’s not the first celebrity populist that we’ve seen. And that has

been one of the things he’s been very distinctive about Donald Trump is that he’s populist, but he’s a rich guy, populist,

whose appeal was built on a national celebrity that came from television

and mass media. Texas had their own populist. The governor of Texas elected in

finish out. His second term was a guy named Pappy O’Daniel who had a radio show and

had his own kind of anti-communist populist emphasis. So let’s roll san with

upfrom on Pappy O’Daniel before we get out of here. I will not have time on this program to mention

any more of our accomplishment, and we’ll say that the record which I have just recited is not mine

alone. My brand or the humble pride which I have been privileged to play. I

am truly grateful, but the achievement of all things worthwhile in a land like

ours is based upon the full and great participation not of one man alone,

nor of a group of men, but of all of our people, or at least a majority of them living

together under the beneficent for of a government which they have MFL have for

working together under a system of society which guarantees to each and every one life,

liberty and opportunity, opportunity to leave, opportunity to succeed,

opportunity to attain great happiness. I am your governor, have been only a

symbol representing the desire and vision, hope and faith of

six and one half million good, honest and effective

caring in their heart. The treasure of pure old fashioned democracy

and faith in God. All right. Now, one things we do want to talk about before we

close out is the attack in Brussels yesterday. And this has become a very big issue.

This will become part of the campaign issue. Donald Trump in and took in.

Senator Ted Cruz of both kind of jumped into this with Senator Ted Cruz calling for, again, the

observation of Muslims increase, increasing that activity, saying, look, you know, I’ve heard about Islamophobia.

I don’t care about protecting the nation. I’ve already heard Donald Trump’s statements and kind of basically

on Muslims and Islam in relation to the US, and he kind of further

went into this. We’re going to hear more from probably Senator Sanders and former Secretary of

State Clinton is as time goes on, terms of their specific ideas towards this.

And so it’s going to be a really a big pressing issue within the campaign, because you’re seeing these attacks in Europe. And

it looks like, you know, this may become. People are fearful. This may become commonplace in Europe. Yet in

in in in the past, in this in this campaign cycle, Trump’s

interest in Trump has spiked actually in the wake of his response to Paris and to San

Bernardino. It’ll be interesting. See if that happens again. Yeah. So

that is all we have for this week. I know we went a bit long, but we had to make it make up for lost time. And in

closing, I want to say rest in peace, too. Five dog found a member of Beach

of a tribe called Quest. We will see you all next week. Want

to define fitness and we have the language ready.

He got more run on his family. He just wants to gain some type of

no shame in this place.

You want to justify it, but just do not know what.

The government 310 in the News podcast is hosted by doctors Jim Hansen and Eric McDaniel

and it’s produced by the Liberal Arts i.g.’s Development Studio and the Department of Government and the College

of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin.