Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom (2017) by Condoleezza Rice
In her book the former Secretary of State described Populism, Nativism, Isolationism, and Protectionism as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and in an interview on the Bushcenter website three years later with Lindsay Lloyd, Chris Walsh and William McKenzie she talked about this further:
"The underlying trend toward nativism, take care of my own, seems to be stronger than at any other time in my memory. By the way, it is quite in contrast to the response to September 11th, or even to the financial crisis of 2008, where there was very much a sense that these were contagions that couldn’t be really contained within borders."
"What has been sacrificed is the sense of a common narrative that was not based on our tribe, our ethnicity, our nationality. That common narrative was based on a belief that you could come from humble circumstances and you could do great things. That narrative was without regard to your race, ethnicity, or nationality."
She agrees that elites in politics, media, business, education or other fields are at times distant from common people, and do not understand the anxieties that the average citizen feels, but...
"Populism is not actually anti-democratic. It can lead to anti-democratic tendencies, but it is anti-institutional. And so it says those institutions, those elites, they don’t believe in you. They don’t have your interest at heart. They only have their interest at heart."
"Identity is a fine thing, to know who you are, know where you came from, know your history, know the struggles of your people. I am very, very proud of my African American background ... The problem is when you weaponize your identity against someone else."
