George Packer Quotes

This is the core claim of populism. Only some of the people are really the people.

We have to acknowledge that Donald Trump knows our country better than we do. I think he figured out that anger and frankly fear were way more powerful than appealing to people’s better angels. That anger and fear were going to work in this election, whether you’re afraid of immigrants or afraid of people who are trans, he figured that out. And I think we all thought everyone’s better angels would prevail. Turns out the better angels went on vacation when Donald Trump came down the escalator and they haven’t returned.

The Trump phenomenon has a lot of really good stuff in it, the anti-elitism, the concern for America's economy in the Rust Belt, the desire to see better days for the country. That's all great stuff. Some of that stuff is Bernie Sanders stuff. The problem is that it's marbled through with xenophobia and misogyny and bigotry.

When I wrote that [Donald] Trump piece, I had this uncomfortable experience of sensing a lot of things that were nascent, that I couldn't quite articulate. And one of them was this move toward anti-intellectualism. An anti-love move, even.

Populism is everywhere. We have religious populism in the Muslim-majority countries as much as we have populism in the United States of America.

I think my main concern is because I worry about demagoguery. It's real. You see the people standing up there and applauding.

A problem with a president who leads by stirring the moral sentiments of voters is that he has got to keep stirring them.

Most of my adult life I had this towering contempt for America.

Everyone wants to demagogue everyone else. That may be good politics, but it's awful policy.

You see in times of crisis that extremist forces, populist forces, have a better ground to oversimplify things and to manipulate feelings. Feelings of fear.

Each side had its uninformed fanatics. And each side had political leaders who fanned the flames with their rhetoric.

In a war, as indeed at most times, we become the ready victims of phrases.

There is a hate layer of opinion and emotion in America. There will be other McCarthys to come who will be hailed as its heroes.

Demagoguery is not unknown in American history.

The high-flying rhetoric of 'Making America Great Again' frankly appeals to me. It appeals to many people. But you've got to back that up with substance, and you've got to quit offending people who may not agree with you.

Trump manipulates the fearful by promising that he will use his fraudulent deal-making prowess to protect and take care of his supporters.

Maybe America hates me.

Populism, literally, means speaking for 'the people.' In practice it means demagoguery.

Donald Trump is an unstable charlatan who is appealing to the worst instincts in people, and I believe ultimately the American people are going to reject that.

The world is experiencing great change, but you've got loads of people terrified of this change and the Donald Trumps, the Boris Johnsons making utterly simplistic, reductionist policy proposals that are unrealistic but then people buy it up.

You just pick up any paper, and it's always talking about, how are we going to overthrow Donald Trump? I'm representing a tremendous - I'm representing millions of people that have - really feel angry and disenfranchised. And these are great people. And they like me and I love them. And I'll tell you what. We're not being treated right.

Inequality provokes a generalized anger that finds targets where it can--immigrants, foreign countries, American elites, government in all forms--and it rewards demagogues while discrediting reformers.

All of this unrest and all the riots and all the protests, really the anger is at all of you who voted for Donald Trump and voted for Republicans. That's really the nub of it. They're angry at Trump, but Trump wouldn't be there if it weren't for you. They are angry. They feel rejected. The American people, and I've already told you how they think of Trump voters. They think Trump voters are uneducated, Deliverance types. You're fools, you're idiots, you're uneducated, you're unsophisticated, you're just an embarrassment, you're an American embarrassment.

You might have some people that disagree with populism and anti-globalism and so forth, but Donald Trump has no desire to undermine America.

I think it's fair to say there is a demagogic path that Europeans, South Americans, Asians have pursued, and we know where that leads. It uses xenophobia, it uses paranoia, it uses prejudice, it uses nationalism to really stir people up and to, you know, begin an us-versus-them contrast, which is dangerous and is not something we've had in our politics at a presidential level in America.