Trump's and Obama's Views on Globalization Reflect Broader Gap
Article/Op-Ed in NBC News
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July 4, 2016
Fellow Perry Bacon Jr. wrote for NBC News about globalization in American politics:
Donald Trump's vow to rip up free trade agreements and return America to "economic independence" is not only a strident counter to President Obama's calls for a more interconnected world, but an illustration of a broader debate between advocates of globalization and those who oppose it.
"You can look at Trump's campaign as one big push-back against globalization, and the Britain vote too," said Daniel Cox, director of research at the Public Religion Research Institute, a non-partisan group that analyzes cultural, religious and political trends in the U.S.
In a speech last week, Trump criticized a "leadership class that worships globalism over Americanism."
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"Economic and cultural resentments are reinforcing each other right now. The changing nature of the global economy is leading to wage polarization, and those at the losing end feel increasingly insecure about the future at the very moment in which they see people speaking foreign tongues moving in down the street," said Lee Drutman, a political scientist who works on a political reform program at New America, a D.C.-based think tank.
"They hear warnings from a new generation of right-wing populists there won't be enough to go around anymore unless they keep out the foreigners," he added.