Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Four years later, are the ‘deplorables’ better off?
Four years later, are the ‘deplorables’ better off?
Apr 7, 2025 9:25 AM

Donald Trump strode into office in 2016 with a mission and a mandate. The mission was to e a champion for those who were being overlooked by the establishment. The mandate was to overturn the “swamp” and make real changes. Hillary Clinton infamously termed those who backed Trump a “basket of deplorables.” The term became emblematic of both the disdain shown by Hillary and the status of Trump’s base as underdogs. Populism is defined as the revolt of ordinary people against overbearing and self-serving elites. Those ordinary people elected someone who was unlike them in many ways, but who they believed had the political will and administrative experience to make the changes they desired. Trump was elected to improve the lives of those who voted for him. We can never know whether Hillary would have improved things for this group, but we can assess Trump’s presidency. Four years later, are the “deplorables” better off?

First, what were the problemshat the “deplorables” faced? One problem that Trump identified is the willingness of elites to ignore the downsides of global trade. While global trade has on the whole benefitted society, there are some who have been harmed, especially by the outsourcing of jobs to other countries. Charles Murray documented a related problem in his book Coming Apart. He showed, through a variety of metrics, how American society is divided between two groups. For one, the American dream is still alive and well; for the other, it is increasingly out of reach. Economic opportunity is clouded by the breakup of family life, employment opportunity, trust, and faith practice. Donald Trump’s administration was elected to solve these problems.

The economic evidence is decidedly mixed. First off, a disclaimer, “presidents are one small piece of the public policy picture” and do not control the economy. Discussion around presidents and the economy is often smoke and mirrors. Most of the effect a president has on the economy is long-term, through things such as regulation and spending. In the short term, median e grew $5,003 between the period of January 2017 to July 2019. Yet the massive unemployment and economic hardship wrought by the pandemic erased many of those gains. How much is President Trump responsible for wage growth or the economic hardship of the COVID-19 pandemic? He is partly responsible in both cases, but most of the factors were beyond his control. The result is that employment opportunity has not substantially improved over his presidency.

Yet Trump’s economic policy will also have effects into the future, both positive and negative. On the one hand, the deregulatory measures he has taken will make it easier for small businesses to grow and for individuals to engage in entrepreneurial behavior. This deregulation may not be exciting, but goes a long way in boosting the economy. On the other hand, the trade war Trump engaged the country in has been harmful to U.S. consumers. Tariffs are essentially a tax on consumers, because importers will pass on the costs of the tariffs to those who buy their products. Poorer consumers are hit hardest when the cost of living rises. Tariffs are also sticky, meaning they are harder to remove than to implement. Implementing a tariff almost always results in retaliation by the other nation, but removing a tariff does not necessarily result in similar measures. The harmful tariffs that Trump has enacted will last for years.

Perhaps Trump’s supporters are better off culturally. Trump ran partially as a champion for conservative social causes. Although his supporters did not believe Trump was like them, they saw him as someone who could protect them. In a speech in Iowa, he said, “Christianity will have power. If I’m there, you’re going to have plenty of power, you don’t need anybody else. You’re going to have somebody representing you very, very well. Remember that.” Conservatives will point to the three solidly conservative Supreme Court justices that he has appointed as evidence that the strategy has worked. The hope is that these judges will rein in the judicial activism of the last 50 years in exchange for an originalist judicial philosophy. Yet Trump’s style and methods has created a backlash against religious conservatives. The backlash could result in the opposite of what they had hoped.

Returning to the question, are the “deplorables,” the group that Donald Trump set out to help, better off now than they were in 2016? The core problems that drove people to vote for Trump still remain; he has not made concrete progress on the main issues that drove his election. Economically, the gains are ephemeral. Any short-term gains were quickly negated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of what Trump has done to increase prosperity in the long run, such as deregulation, will be offset by his damaging policies on tariffs. Culturally, there have been some gains, but the backlash he has created could impede future progress. While Trump did identify real problems in his administration, he does not have a good report card of alleviating those problems.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Explainer: What’s the difference between a free trade union and a customs union?
On Monday, Great Britain stood poised to enact Brexit with Her Majesty’s blessing. UK Prime Minister Theresa May announced that her government would send the letter officially triggering the UK’s exit from the European Union, in accordance with Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, on March 29 – more than nine months after the British people voted to extract themselves from the global governance institution. The notification will touch off a two-year-long period of negotiations that will determine the UK’s...
Explainer: What you should know about the Meals on Wheels controversy
Embed from Getty Images What’s the story? Last week, numerous media outlets falselyreported that the Trump administration proposed 2018 budget would eliminate charities like Meals on Wheels. The reports also claimedthat White House budget director Mick Mulvaney had said during a press conference that Meals on Wheels “doesn’t work.” (Representative headlines included Time’s “Trump’s Budget Would Kill a Program That Feeds 2.4 Million Senior Citizens” and Slate’s article: “Trump’s budget director says Meals on Wheels doesn’t work.” What is “Meals...
What does natural law say about the power of judges in constitutional systems of government?
In a recent article for Public Discourse, Acton’s director of research, Samuel Gregg, speculates on the role of natural law — specifically New Natural Law Theory (NNLT) — in influencing, Neil Gorsuch’s exercise of judicial power in light of the constitution. Gregg asks two fundamental questions: No one can predict with certainty Gorsuch’s take on any question on which he might be called to deliberate if he receives Senate confirmation. But before too much ink is spilled speculating on whether...
In 60 years robots have only eliminated one industry
Embed from Getty Images As a journalist I’moften told that a trained monkey could do my job. While there’s probably some truth to that claim, I’m not all that concerned about a Planet of the Apes style takeover of my occupation. Trained monkeys don’t worry me; trained robots do. Or at least they did. For years I’ve heard my vocation is on the list ofjobs where robots are already replacing humans(along with shepherds, telemarketers, and bartenders). But is that really...
Don’t let culture define religious liberty
When a fashion designer recently called for an industry boycott of Melania Trump due to her political beliefs, plenty of progressives called it brave and principled. Yet when Christian wedding photographers express their own disagreements or beliefs, acting on one’s conscience somehow es a “sticky issue.” That’s how one student describes it in a series of interviews at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In their discussions with students, the Alliance Defending Freedom found total consensus that creative professionals should have the...
Explainer: What you should know about President Trump’s FY2018 budget
What is the president’s budget? Technically, it’s only a budgetrequest (and in this case, just a blueprint of a request). The budget request is aproposal telling Congress how much money the president believes should be spent on the various Cabinet-level federal functions, like agriculture, defense, education, etc. (The 62-page budget blueprintcan be found here.) Why does the president submit a budget to Congress? The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 requires that the President of the United States submit to Congress,...
‘A habit of the heart’: Michael Novak on social justice
What is “social justice”? For some, it represents an ideal or a vision of a certain kind of society. For others, it’s a placeholder for particular government policies. For others, it’s a mere marker of ideology. For Michael Novak, the answer is “none of the above.” In his final book, Social Justice Isn’t What You Think It Is,published prior to his recent passing, Novak argues that social justice is a virtue — a “habit of the heart” that is “embodied...
What is the role of tradition in renewing Western civilization?
Does tradition harm progress? Acton’s director of research, Samuel Gregg, in a recent article for Library of Law and Liberty, describes “tradition” as the handing down of beliefs, cultural molds, and historical ways of thinking and living, but also as a means to promoting human flourishing in renewing civilization. He affirms that valuable wisdom that can be found in looking to past traditions, including traditions on either end of the political spectrum. In his search to define tradition and answer...
How price controls can hurt the poor
Note: This is post #25 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. Suppose there is a mild winter on the West Coast and a harsh winter on the East Coast, says Alex Tabarrok, in this video by Marginal Revolution University. As a result of the weather, people on the East Coast will demand more home heating oil, bidding up the price. Under the price system, entrepreneurs will be incentivized to take oil from where it has lower value on...
Pope Francis and populism: How Christian leaders should respond to populism
In a recent article for the Federalist, Samuel Gregg discusses Pope Francis’s ments on populism. Pope Francis explicitly denounces populism saying: “Populism is evil and ends badly, as the past century shows.” However, Gregg points out that many populist sentiments could be attributed to this Pope: Nor are some of Francis’s principal supporters averse to invoking populist language when defending his program for the Catholic Church. Consider, for example, Archbishop Victor Fernández. The Argentine theologian is close enough to the...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved