The secret of Donald’s appeal is his “economic nationalism” in the Ross Perot tradition, says Dan E. Phillips on Unz.com. Here are some excerpts:

The rise of Donald Trump in the polls and the enthusiasm for his campaign among the Republican base has confused and panicked the mainstream media and the GOP Establishment. In an attempt to slow his momentum, both have reacted by bringing up evidence from his past that Trump is not a cookie-cutter conservative, which seem so far to roll off his back and even rally his supporters who see it as evidence that his detractors are desperate. Is Trump pro-life or pro-choice? Is he pro-gun or pro-gun control? Is he anti-amnesty or pro-amnesty? Does he really want Oprah to be his running mate? Did he give more money to Democrats? None of this should surprise anyone who has followed Trump’s politics over the years.

Trump is confusing the Powers That Be and the commentariate because he does not neatly fall into one of the two tidy dichotomous ideological boxes that “serious” partisan candidates are supposed to conform to. Trump is not primarily an ideological candidate. He is at his most basic an economic nationalist and a patriot who loves his country and wants to see it thrive, hence his campaign slogan, Make America Great Again. Even economic nationalism isn’t necessarily an ideology. It is really more of a pragmatic outcome based position. Recall that Trump first seriously entertained running for President as the Reform Party (RP) nominee in 2000. People who want to understand where Trump is coming from should look at his potential 2000 Reform Party run and his 2000 “campaign” book, The America We Deserve. For a frame of reference, the basic Trump platform is very Perot like, as could be expected based on his past flirtation with the Reform Party.

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Much to the dismay of the ideological enforcers in Conservative Inc., a lot of voters are just visceral Red Teamers or visceral Blue Teamers without actually being on board with the whole party agenda. Trump’s economic nationalism appeals to a lot of the Red Team and some of the Blue Team base in Flyover Country who have never read Ricardo and don’t care Jack about competitive advantage when their job goes South of the Border. This is the real threat that Trumpism represents to the reigning Powers That Be, but they are too busy feigning outrage and enforcing PC niceties to recognize it. (Perhaps I shouldn’t clue them in.)

The whole article is worth reading, because free trade–which only one presidential candidate, the Austro-libertarian Ron Paul, has understood and advocated–is a powerful issue among the economically ignorant, from the Vatican to Republican primary voters. The Fed and the American empire are wrecking the American and world economy. This has unfortunate political ramifications, as does the US state’s demographic revolution.