Chomsky: Fear is driving Trump’s popularity

by Harper Neidig - 02/24/16 6:22 PM ET

Noam Chomsky, the famed linguist and political activist, said in an interview Wednesday that Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s campaign is doing so well because of a climate of fear.

During an interview with the liberal news site Alternet, Chomsky was asked why he thinks the business mogul and reality television star has had so much success connecting with voters.

“Fear, along with the breakdown of society during the neoliberal period,” he said. “People feel isolated, helpless, victim of powerful forces that they do not understand and cannot influence.”

He even drew comparisons to the 1930s, a period marked by the Great Depression and the run-up to World War II.

“It’s interesting to compare the situation in the ‘30s, which I’m old enough to remember,” he said. “Objectively, poverty and suffering were far greater. But even among poor working people and the unemployed, there was a sense of hope that is lacking now, in large part because of the growth of a militant labor movement and also the existence of political organizations outside the mainstream.”

Chomsky, who has said he would “absolutely” vote for Hillary Clinton, also had some praise for her rival, Bernie Sanders, when he was asked about the Vermont senator and the UK Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn.

“Sanders, in my opinion, is an honest and decent New Deal Democrat,” he said. “Corbyn expresses stands of traditional Labour. The fact that they are regarded as ‘extreme’ is a comment on the shift to the right of the whole political spectrum during the neoliberal period.”

When Chomsky was asked who he thought would win the election, he said, “I can express hopes and fears, but not predictions.”

Tags Bernie Sanders Donald Trump Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Noam Chomsky