Refilling the Swamp With Trump

I NEVER HAD THE FAINTEST IDEA, and still don't, what the terms "populism" and "anti establishment" mean when applied to Donald J. Trump. Ever since Trump entered the presidential campaign all those weary months ago, he has been proclaimed as an outsider, an anti establishment neo politician and leader of something called a "populist uprising", a staunch advocate of the little guy, the forgotten American worker. Really? Merely because he had never before run for or held public office? That's all it takes to be considered a crusader for the common man against the entrenched political forces of the establishment? The only requirement is to have no political experience in public office? Sounds easy. Count me in! To me populism is a political movement which begins at the very broad based bottom of the social pyramid, organizes, and works to reduce or eliminate the political control of society by the very elite at the very pointed top of the social pyramid. Populism as a political movement was strongest during the first three decades of the twentieth century in the United States. There seems to be some of it around now, and lord willing and the creek don't rise it will grow and conquer the world, but does anyone now somehow believe that populist ideas are embodied in the ideas, of all people, Trump? For modern day populism, look to Bernie Sanders, not Donald Trump. The populist movement of 1920 is called the "Progressive era" because populism is progress, and progress is progressive, not conservative. Populism is usually not the religion of billionaires, for a reason. The term "anti-establishment" means working against the people, institutions, and social forces which control society, elevate the few, and oppress the many. How does Donald J. Trump have anything to do with that? Populism was so strong in the early twentieth century that this entire era in U.S. history is named for it. The great populist president, in the opinion of many, was Theodore Roosevelt, who worked to break up corporate monopolies and provide legal protection for workers. Wisconsin Senator Robert Lafollette is considered a champion and congressional leader of populism, and Eugene Debs ran for president as a socialist in 1920, while in jail, and got almost a million votes. But Trump? Anti establishment populist Trump? Trump has already appointed Wall Street billionaires to his cabinet, with more sure to follow. Everyone of his appointees is a hard core conservative traditionalist, not a protesting populist liberal crusading for change and progress. If he is draining the swamp, as he promised, he is refilling it fast. How exactly is this anti establishment populism? All his life Trump has surrounded himself with very wealthy very powerful very elite people, by design. He wants to be, and is, one of them. Now, he is filling the executive branch with them. Whatever Donald Trump is, he isn't an "anti establishment populist".