Making Sense of Donald Trump

Boston Globe: “Conversations with a range of scholars, and some rummaging through historical sources, suggest that the most riveting figure in American politics today can perhaps be parsed as one part populist (recalling … William Jennings Bryan, three-time presidential candidate and secretary of state); one part brilliant exploiter of public fears (Joseph McCarthy, senator and red-baiter); one part mesmerizing but inflammatory preacher (Father Charles Coughlin, supporter of Franklin Roosevelt and then bitter opponent of the New Deal), one part showboat (Jesse Ventura, gaudy professional wrestler, and governor of Minnesota), and one part crusading antielitist (Huey Long, governor of Louisiana, senator, and possible presidential candidate).”