Looking back to that time, I remember knowing people who worked in the business world (a generation older than myself) who lived in the US, and I don't remember Trump's views on these issues gaining much attention (though, as you say, he certainly held them). The person who really seemed to impress and influence them in thinking along these lines was Lou Dobbs, someone with prime television viewership, confident that he knew how the world "really" works, and with all the same views as Trump but, at the time, a much higher platform. Later in life Dobbs became a very vocal supporter of politician-Trump, and Trump did seem to really respect him not just as a faithful supporter, but as someone who was really smart. I've always wondered if Dobbs was an important source for these early, but then set in stone, Trump beliefs.
I think your identification of Lou Dobbs is exactly right. And having just watched NETWORK for the first time ... I do think the fact that Dobbs kind of looked like Howard Beale is particularly eerie!
I also think you're right to note that nobody noticed Trump's views on this. Partly this may be because he was a little more "liberal" on other issues--certainly his vibe, compared to say the 700 Club, was more in tune with what we'd now call "based" conservatism than Christian nationalism.
In general my discipline could do more to think about influencers like Dobbs (and Trump)...
Holy cow, Dobbs and Trump are practically contemporaries.
"After college, Dobbs worked for federal anti-poverty programs in Boston and Washington, D.C., then returned to Idaho. " -- well, Nixon also worked for the price-management agencies...
Dobbs was always around, long before Limbaugh, and was definitely the sort of person whom you could see Trump connecting with.
Thanks for the autopsy/back story, confirming my depressing suspicion that we largely did this to ourselves - that Trump is an excrescence of the medium - TV - that made him president. Neil Postman, in his 1985 book, "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business,“ saw it coming but didn't know who would bring it (he died in 2003). Just one of many chillingly prescient quotes from his book: "Everything in our background has prepared us to know and resist a prison when the gates begin to close around us . . . But what if there are no cries of anguish to be heard? Who is prepared to take arms against a sea of amusements? To whom do we complain, and when, and in what tone of voice, when serious discourse dissolves into giggles? What is the antidote to a culture's being drained by laughter?” And yes, that includes you, Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher and John Stewart and everyone else getting rich while America burns. For me, an early warning of the rot was in 2000 when Comedy Central began satirical coverage of the national conventions, making a joke of things like party platforms and inviting viewers to turn on, tune in and drop out of serious citizenship. It was a ratings hit, course.
Looking back to that time, I remember knowing people who worked in the business world (a generation older than myself) who lived in the US, and I don't remember Trump's views on these issues gaining much attention (though, as you say, he certainly held them). The person who really seemed to impress and influence them in thinking along these lines was Lou Dobbs, someone with prime television viewership, confident that he knew how the world "really" works, and with all the same views as Trump but, at the time, a much higher platform. Later in life Dobbs became a very vocal supporter of politician-Trump, and Trump did seem to really respect him not just as a faithful supporter, but as someone who was really smart. I've always wondered if Dobbs was an important source for these early, but then set in stone, Trump beliefs.
I think your identification of Lou Dobbs is exactly right. And having just watched NETWORK for the first time ... I do think the fact that Dobbs kind of looked like Howard Beale is particularly eerie!
I also think you're right to note that nobody noticed Trump's views on this. Partly this may be because he was a little more "liberal" on other issues--certainly his vibe, compared to say the 700 Club, was more in tune with what we'd now call "based" conservatism than Christian nationalism.
In general my discipline could do more to think about influencers like Dobbs (and Trump)...
Holy cow, Dobbs and Trump are practically contemporaries.
"After college, Dobbs worked for federal anti-poverty programs in Boston and Washington, D.C., then returned to Idaho. " -- well, Nixon also worked for the price-management agencies...
Dobbs was always around, long before Limbaugh, and was definitely the sort of person whom you could see Trump connecting with.
https://www.aei.org/articles/the-secret-life-of-lou-dobbs/
Thanks for the autopsy/back story, confirming my depressing suspicion that we largely did this to ourselves - that Trump is an excrescence of the medium - TV - that made him president. Neil Postman, in his 1985 book, "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business,“ saw it coming but didn't know who would bring it (he died in 2003). Just one of many chillingly prescient quotes from his book: "Everything in our background has prepared us to know and resist a prison when the gates begin to close around us . . . But what if there are no cries of anguish to be heard? Who is prepared to take arms against a sea of amusements? To whom do we complain, and when, and in what tone of voice, when serious discourse dissolves into giggles? What is the antidote to a culture's being drained by laughter?” And yes, that includes you, Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher and John Stewart and everyone else getting rich while America burns. For me, an early warning of the rot was in 2000 when Comedy Central began satirical coverage of the national conventions, making a joke of things like party platforms and inviting viewers to turn on, tune in and drop out of serious citizenship. It was a ratings hit, course.