An Interesting Point About Donald Trump………

Ian Welsh notes that "The Donald" has many policies that place him at the left of the Republican field:

Let’s state the obvious about Trump.

No, not that he’s a joke, or a sign of fascism, or any of that.

Rather that a lot of what he says makes sense. His policies aren’t as crazy as people make out, and people who support him aren’t as stupid as the media pretends.

• He doesn’t want to cut Social Security. Jeb Bush does. Obama has talked this up.
• He wants full universal healthcare. Yeah, he badmouths Obamacare, but he’s badmouthing it from a position of, “Give them the real thing.”
• His idea of returning manufacturing to the US and doing bilateral trade deals is not insane, or crazy, except to neo-liberal apologists and people too stupid to realize they’ve imbibed the economic philosophy of neo-liberalism, whose results have been the stagnation and then absolute decline of ordinary American wages. This is how capitalism worked for about half of capitalism’s history. Disagree if you like, but it’s not crazy.
• His idea of simplifying the tax code enough so that ordinary people don’t need professionals to fill out their tax forms is a good one. Jimmy Carter, by the way, wanted to do the same thing.

I’m not a fan of Trump, there are plenty of reasons why he’s problematic, but he’s actually an economic populist on many issues. People shouldn’t overlook that this comes married to some nasty nativism, but I’m tired of people who are lumping all parts of the Trump campaign together.

It's an interesting point, and it actually places Trump in what has been a common meme in American politics, the racist populists, also known as the "Dixicrat."

There has been a long tradition of politics who promise benefits for their communities while promising to keep them from perceived outsiders.  (No Irish need apply is an example)

So, Donald Trump reduces to Strom Thurmund with a flamboyant hair.