Prof. Victor Menaldo is interviewed by UW News about his new book with recent Political Science graduate, Nicolas Wittstock.
What made you want to write a book on this topic?
Victor Menaldo: There were three motivations. The first is that I was not satisfied with the conventional explanations for why former President Donald Trump won in 2016 and lost in 2020. The second motivation is that all the explanations focused on Trump as an individual instead of a larger phenomenon — some people call it populism, but there are other names for it. If it wasn’t Trump, it would have been someone else. Third, I felt that the approaches I’d seen to explaining Trump’s success and then his failure were not very historic. There are instances of populism in the past that could shed light on this. It’s not just a recent thing.
What stands out to you about this election cycle?
VM: In some senses, Republicans have narrowed the gulf with tech firms. Not all of them, but some, such as Elon Musk’s alliance with Trump or venture capitalists who disagree with President Joe Biden’s policies. This polarization has also been reduced in some ways by Trump and vice-presidential candidate JD Vance speaking to select tech firms or sectors such as cryptocurrency. It’s almost like they read our book and were like, “Oh, maybe we can co-opt some of these folks...”
...Trump learned that he can’t alienate all of tech. The Democratic side is saying they can be pro-Silicon Valley and innovation while also splitting the difference and talking about bringing back manufacturing jobs to the Rust Belt. In fact, at least in this regard the parties are less polarized than they were in either 2016 or 2020.
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