Populist Campaigns: Schwarzenegger and Trump

Here is my article: This article compares populist outsider candidates in two recent elections—Trump in the current primary, and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 2003 CA governor election. Two prominent themes stick out in their campaigns: 1) Empty, vague promises built on personal charisma. -Schwarzenegger promised to “blow up the polls” “lower the tax burden, impose some spending restraint, and revive the state’s economy. -He came in with no concrete plans for these goals, and most of his policies ended up going exactly against his campaign promises. “He ended up signing a huge tax increase even as the state’s deficit nearly tripled under his watch. At one point, he even pushed his own version of universal healthcare.” -Trump has come out with similar promises without any solid plans to accomplish them, “Make America Great Again” and “I am going to take care of everyone.” 2) Appealing to extremely dissatisfied voters looking for a “hero challenging a testosterone-deprived [establishment]” -Schwarzenegger’s macho figure and film success separated him from “corrupt” California politics -People felt that as an extreme outsider, he would “come in and shake it from top to bottom” -Trump is pushing a similar strategy. Talking down to his opponents via twitter, throwing lies around, and relying on his business acumen to spread his message appeals to a very similar crowd that highly supported Schwarzenegger. There are inherent dangers in voting for a candidate just based on name value. Without close examination of a candidate’s past, we could be making a huge mistake. Schwarzenegger’s leadership ended up being very different from his campaign talking points, and I can see a similar scenario playing out with Trump. For an excellent video on why voters shouldn’t rely only on charisma: Check out John Oliver’s segment on Donald Trump: