Walter Russell Mead on Jacksonianism, Foreign Policy, and American Elites




The Federalist Radio Hour show

Summary: Walter Russell Mead, editor of The American Interest and fellow at the Hudson Institute, joins Ben Domenech in studio to discuss foreign policy schools of thought, Jacksonianism, and the future of education and religion in America. Mead labels the type of people who voted for Donald Trump in key Democratic states as Jacksonians, Mead said. Jacksonians are often, in foreign policy and domestic policy, they are often more motivated by threat than by opportunity, he said. Theyre often surprisingly unmotivated by stories of political corruption, but perversion of government is a different thing and that reaches them on a different level. Mead discusses how Trumps cabinet and national security advisors view Americas role in the world, and how their views will overlap or collide. Tillerson and Trump will both face the problem that government isnt the same as corporate governance, he said. When you bring Jacksonians into government, they generally have less experience with government, less understanding of the people around them.