Trumpism Is Equilibrium, Reaganism the Bubble

Cowen argues that classical liberalism/Reaganism (roughly 1980-2016) was an odd, illusory bubble rather than the norm, and that current Trumpist populism represents a return to the real, late-19th-century state of American politics—negative emotional contagion from random bad events (9/11, COVID, the Great Financial Crisis) pushed people toward worse ideas in a self-reinforcing rut.