Forum Show From Monday Night

I sat last night and watched German public TV (ARD), and the Hart Aber Fair public forum (9 PM).  It went on for 75 minutes.  The topic?  Populism leaders like Trump and Johnson.

It was an odd group brought in and one has to wonder who did the invitation list.  So you ended up with five guests.....one leaned heavily in favor of Trump....two were more to the details of populism and how it sells to the public....an ARD journalist who slammed Trump/Johnson and populism, and a Brit literary expert who explained trends in the UK.

So what led this entire group (shocking in some way) was the German political professor, Christian Hacke.

The professor gave in simple terms....a 30-minute lecture, and easily carried the bulk of the 75 minutes from the entire group.  He explained the public frustration and the acceptance of someone from outside of the 'bubble'.  As he said....he's not a Johnson or Trump supporter....he simply sees how they rose to this situation in life, and how the public anger is part of the bigger story.

But toward the last third of the forum....they brought on Teresa Holly....who had spent a year in the US with an American family....in Alabama.  She got the full dose of political reality and conservative lifestyle with the family.

For a brief seven minutes, she stepped through the different landscape between Germany and the US.  At some point, the moderator (Frank Plasberg) tried to ask the question if they simply not getting the news and not grasping how mislead they were (it was a trick question and something you'd expect an intellectual German to ask).  But the young lady breezed right through it and noted that news was more of a local or regional level thing.....with international news being a much smaller item.

I would credit the forum....it was very neutral in terms of criticism, and offered a good bit of information on BREXIT and the Trump landscape.  The oddity was a fairly balanced group.

I often think that intellectual Germans are consumed over the US, it's politics, and offering continual criticism.  It's like a farmer who goes over to the neighbor and suggests that you could do this differently, and the other farmer gently pushing back...saying he's motivated in this particular way.  Neither one can make their point enough to overcome the other.

The bottom line on populism?  Few sit and really think over the trend....but let's face facts....almost every political party is promising something and they all walk in the populism 'shadow'.  Even Merkel and Macon can grin and admit....yes, they made a few promises, and that's what got them elected.  Yes, populism is everywhere.