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Quarterly Essay #63
Enemy Within: American Politics in the Time of Trump
In Enemy Within , Don Watson takes a memorable journey into the heart of the United States in the year 2016 – and the strangest election campaign that country has seen. Travelling in the Midwest, Watson reflects on the rise of Donald Trump and the “thicket of unreality” that is the American media. Behind this he finds a deeply fearful and divided culture. Watson considers the irresistible pull – for Americans – of the Dream of exceptionalism, and asks whether this creed is reaching its limit. He explores alternate futures – from Trump-style fascism to Sanders-style civic renewal – and suggests that a Clinton presidency might see a new American blend of progressivism and militarism. Enemy Within is an eloquent, barbed look at the state of the union and the American malaise. "If, as seems likely, Clinton wins, it will not be out of love, or even hope, but rather out of fear. She can win by simply letting her deplorable opponent lose. On the other hand, she’s nothing if not adaptable, and she could yet see the chance to lead the nation’s social and economic regeneration … Call it a New Great Awakening or a New New Deal; it would owe something to both, and to Bernie Sanders as well, but also to her need to be more than the first woman president. —Don Watson, Enemy Within
144 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2016
12 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
About the author
Don Watson
69 books67 followersWatson grew up on a farm in Gippsland, took his undergraduate degree at La Trobe University and a Ph.D at Monash University and was for ten years an academic historian. He wrote three books on Australian history before turning his hand to TV and the stage. For several years he combined writing political satire for the actor Max Gillies with political speeches for the former Premier of Victoria, John Cain.
In 1992 he became Prime Minister Paul Keating's speech-writer and adviser and his best-selling account of those years, Recollections of a Bleeding Heart': Paul Keating Prime Minister, won both the The Age Book of the Year and non-fiction Prizes, the Brisbane Courier Mail Book of the Year, the National Biography Award and the Australian Literary Studies Association's Book of the Year.
In addition to regular books, articles and essays, in recent years he has also written feature films, including The Man Who Sued God, starring Billy Connolly and Judy Davis. His 2001 Quarterly Essay Rabbit Syndrome: Australia and America won the inaugural Alfred Deakin Prize in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. Death Sentence, his book about the decay of public language, was also a best seller and won the Australian Booksellers Association Book of the Year. Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words was published in 2004 and continued to encourage readers to renounce what he perceives to be meaningless corporate and government jargon that is spreading throughout Australia and embrace meaningful, precise language. More recently Watson contributed the preface to a selection of Mark Twain's writings, The Wayward Tourist.
His latest book, American Journeys is a narrative of modern America from Watson's travels in the United States following Hurricane Katrina. It was published by Knopf in 2008 and won both the The Age Book of the Year non-fiction and Book of the Year awards.[4]. It also won the 2008 Walkley Award for the best non-fiction book.
In 1992 he became Prime Minister Paul Keating's speech-writer and adviser and his best-selling account of those years, Recollections of a Bleeding Heart': Paul Keating Prime Minister, won both the The Age Book of the Year and non-fiction Prizes, the Brisbane Courier Mail Book of the Year, the National Biography Award and the Australian Literary Studies Association's Book of the Year.
In addition to regular books, articles and essays, in recent years he has also written feature films, including The Man Who Sued God, starring Billy Connolly and Judy Davis. His 2001 Quarterly Essay Rabbit Syndrome: Australia and America won the inaugural Alfred Deakin Prize in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. Death Sentence, his book about the decay of public language, was also a best seller and won the Australian Booksellers Association Book of the Year. Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words was published in 2004 and continued to encourage readers to renounce what he perceives to be meaningless corporate and government jargon that is spreading throughout Australia and embrace meaningful, precise language. More recently Watson contributed the preface to a selection of Mark Twain's writings, The Wayward Tourist.
His latest book, American Journeys is a narrative of modern America from Watson's travels in the United States following Hurricane Katrina. It was published by Knopf in 2008 and won both the The Age Book of the Year non-fiction and Book of the Year awards.[4]. It also won the 2008 Walkley Award for the best non-fiction book.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
December 2, 2022
Trying to catch up on my Quarterly Essays while I’m on leave and this one was from 2016! It was also written before the election result, which makes reading it now even more interesting.
September 17, 2016
Don Watson is just about a compulsory read for me, although I tried and failed to complete his memoir of being speechwriter to Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating. It was a huge tome, which can be a turnoff for me. His occasional column in the current affairs publication The Monthly are the first thing I read when it appears in my mailbox.
In this Quarterly Essay (which is what the title says), Watson's theme is the current US Election campaign, notably the rise of Donald Trump amid general popular dissatisfaction. Using a similar method to his earlier American Journeys, he travels to parts of the US, observes what's there, talks with locals, sometimes in arranged meetings, and discusses the history and ideas behind his topic.
In this case, he is mostly located in Wisconsin, as part of his theme is the rise of Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist and he identifies Wisconsin as a state in which those sentiments have been prevalent for decades, notwithstanding the activities of Governor Scott Walker (not the singer/songwriter). There's an interesting description of the university town of Madison, and what lies beyond it.
Watson identifies the US as somewhat fragmented as a culture, and explains the current political situation in those terms, particularly the rise of some religious groups and the paradox of supporting the clearly areligious Trump. The social consequences of the past decades of economic policy naturally get a run as well.
An advantage for Watson is that he was raised a Presbyterian in country Victoria, which he writes about in his excellent "The Bush" and whilst the American evangelical interpretation of that perspective is different, he's aware of its fundamentals and how that can play out socially. The prosperity gospel, however is beyond explanation for him, as it would be to anyone who's actually delved into what Jesus of Nazareth is reported to have said in the usual texts. That topic is dealt with in a more in-depth way in Stephen Prothero's Religious Literacy.
Watson is also a critiquer, after the Australian fashion, which may challenge some readers unaware that the relationship between Australians and Americans can be a mixture of love-hate, although not in recent foreign policy, unfortunately.
There's lots written on the Trump phenomenon. This is an excellent, informed, outsider's view on the current situation, how it was arrived at and a stimulator of thought about where things might be going, or end up.
In this Quarterly Essay (which is what the title says), Watson's theme is the current US Election campaign, notably the rise of Donald Trump amid general popular dissatisfaction. Using a similar method to his earlier American Journeys, he travels to parts of the US, observes what's there, talks with locals, sometimes in arranged meetings, and discusses the history and ideas behind his topic.
In this case, he is mostly located in Wisconsin, as part of his theme is the rise of Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist and he identifies Wisconsin as a state in which those sentiments have been prevalent for decades, notwithstanding the activities of Governor Scott Walker (not the singer/songwriter). There's an interesting description of the university town of Madison, and what lies beyond it.
Watson identifies the US as somewhat fragmented as a culture, and explains the current political situation in those terms, particularly the rise of some religious groups and the paradox of supporting the clearly areligious Trump. The social consequences of the past decades of economic policy naturally get a run as well.
An advantage for Watson is that he was raised a Presbyterian in country Victoria, which he writes about in his excellent "The Bush" and whilst the American evangelical interpretation of that perspective is different, he's aware of its fundamentals and how that can play out socially. The prosperity gospel, however is beyond explanation for him, as it would be to anyone who's actually delved into what Jesus of Nazareth is reported to have said in the usual texts. That topic is dealt with in a more in-depth way in Stephen Prothero's Religious Literacy.
Watson is also a critiquer, after the Australian fashion, which may challenge some readers unaware that the relationship between Australians and Americans can be a mixture of love-hate, although not in recent foreign policy, unfortunately.
There's lots written on the Trump phenomenon. This is an excellent, informed, outsider's view on the current situation, how it was arrived at and a stimulator of thought about where things might be going, or end up.
October 9, 2016
Don Watson has a way with words, insightful, humorous and intelligent. His essay on the current US election is entertaining, scary and balanced. His use of Wisconsin to show the contradictions of the USA was the highlight. He doesn't draw too many conclusions other then the US and the World need a lot of hope and a leader who can lead (sanely).
January 19, 2018
Top-Notch writing by one of Australia's most important intellectuals!
Review
Review
November 5, 2016
"Ten years after Jimmy Carter talked about an American malaise, John Updike wrote an essay about the state of the union ... poverty (one in four children), homelessness, crime, industrial decline, racial and generational discrimination, lawyers, bankers, doctors, foreign takeovers, AIDS, environmental squalor and destruction, stalemate in the Middle East, obesity - it was a long list. He called it a "malaise"." - Don Watson
As an Australian, I cannot help but think we have little or no reason to back this nation in their foreign policy; I see no concrete reason why we should sacrifice our men and women to uphold a false sense of freedom.
I didn't rate this 5 stars because you need to be truly interested in American politics and political culture to appreciate what Watson so clearly lays out. As an outsider looking in, this is as fair and unbiased a view. Clearly articulated, well researched, this essay makes you THINK - because in a world full of sound bites, our thoughts seem to stray to the ignorant and the uneducated ... because it's easier than reading a 25000-word essay. In turn, it leads a nation to be easily bred on fear. We have that in one of our senators already. This essay is as much for Aussies because is this the route we want to go down? I think not.
As an Australian, I cannot help but think we have little or no reason to back this nation in their foreign policy; I see no concrete reason why we should sacrifice our men and women to uphold a false sense of freedom.
I didn't rate this 5 stars because you need to be truly interested in American politics and political culture to appreciate what Watson so clearly lays out. As an outsider looking in, this is as fair and unbiased a view. Clearly articulated, well researched, this essay makes you THINK - because in a world full of sound bites, our thoughts seem to stray to the ignorant and the uneducated ... because it's easier than reading a 25000-word essay. In turn, it leads a nation to be easily bred on fear. We have that in one of our senators already. This essay is as much for Aussies because is this the route we want to go down? I think not.
February 26, 2023
I've never been disappointed in a quarterly essay - while I learned about the American psyche and its elements, such as paranoia, self-belief, and the concept of American exceptionalism, the book sometimes felt biased. It seemed to push a particular agenda rather than a balanced view. Additionally, the author's tendency to go on side tangents and speculations sometimes made it hard to follow. Overall, I can't say that I enjoyed reading it, but it did provide some insight into the American mindset.
May 31, 2020
Right now, it feels like America is literally collapsing in front of us. I went back to re-read this essay by Don Watson written just before Trump was elected President. I learnt a lot about the American psyche - the paranoia, the self-belief, the concept of American exceptionalism.
February 27, 2023
Super interesting about Trump’s appeal to certain people. This was written before the 2016 election in America and I wonder what would have been different in the essay had it been written after the election.
November 25, 2016
You know what you did? You embraced the insanity you were telling us about.
– Don DeLillo, Great Jones Street
– Don DeLillo, Great Jones Street
December 8, 2023
Other countries are 'free from worrying about freedom'. A perfect quote to capture current America.
April 10, 2017
I read this latest Quarterly Essay while The Spouse drove home from the Annual Shelmerdine Art and Wine Lunch in Tooboorac organised by my Alumni Association, and so I was perhaps feeling more relaxed about its subject matter than might be expected. I have never taken the slightest interest in American politics except to feel a mild sense of resentment that we in The Rest of the World have to put up with the results without ever having any opportunity to vote. But the prospect of Trump winning the forthcoming election is so appalling that I have made an effort to understand how it could have come about. Despite the broad scope and intelligent analysis in Don Watson’s essay Enemy Within, American politics in the time of Trump I get the feeling that at heart he is as mystified as the rest of us.
Travelling about in the MidWest, from civilised places like the University of Wisconsin where progressive thinking is the norm to Bible-bashing places where they are against family planning, Watson tries to make sense of the mindset that underlies American exceptionalism. He says, and I believe him, that Americans do not realise how low they have sunk in international measures of equity. The statistics he quotes about child poverty and people dying because they don’t have health insurance are all the more shocking because America is so rich. And yet they seem to believe that acknowledging these social problems is disloyal and that progressive strategies will impact on their cherished ‘freedom’. They don’t seem to understand, he says, that there are other countries in the world that have as much freedom as they do, and a better standard of living for their people.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2016/09/03/e...
Travelling about in the MidWest, from civilised places like the University of Wisconsin where progressive thinking is the norm to Bible-bashing places where they are against family planning, Watson tries to make sense of the mindset that underlies American exceptionalism. He says, and I believe him, that Americans do not realise how low they have sunk in international measures of equity. The statistics he quotes about child poverty and people dying because they don’t have health insurance are all the more shocking because America is so rich. And yet they seem to believe that acknowledging these social problems is disloyal and that progressive strategies will impact on their cherished ‘freedom’. They don’t seem to understand, he says, that there are other countries in the world that have as much freedom as they do, and a better standard of living for their people.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2016/09/03/e...
October 15, 2016
Half travel memoir, half political meditation, Enemy Within is not the best fit to the Quarterly Essay format. Watson's style tends toward the discursive, and there's just not enough space here for him to do what he does best. Not to say that this isn't a fine read and a worthwhile way to spend an hour or two, but by the same token, there's nothing new here about the putative topic. No great insight into Trump or the America that supports him that you won't have already garnered from John Oliver or Samantha Bee or whoever.
What there is, and what makes me give this four stars, is an exploration of how American politics got here - although as I implied above, it's the merest beginning, crying out for more space in which to reach its fullness. Several past Quarterly Essays have been reproduced in expanded editions - I hope that this one soon joins their number.
What there is, and what makes me give this four stars, is an exploration of how American politics got here - although as I implied above, it's the merest beginning, crying out for more space in which to reach its fullness. Several past Quarterly Essays have been reproduced in expanded editions - I hope that this one soon joins their number.
November 6, 2016
As Don Watson always writes well, as I usually am in political sympathy with him and as he has long been a student of the United States, his essay was helpful to me (though I was unable to understand some of the background and terminology). I am passionately interested in the progress of the Presidential campaigns and can only hope now that the next President will be another Clinton. It seems to me that Don Watson would have preferred a President Sanders but he thought (when the essay was published in August) that Hillary Clinton is "adaptable" enough to see in the favourable circumstances of the Republican collapse, low interest rates and "a public appetite for radical reform" the chance to lead social and economic regeneration - a New New Deal.
September 11, 2016
This Quarterly Essay probably does not add much that is new to the commentary that Paul McGeogh has been providing in the Fairfax papers, or Guy Rundle in Crikey. It is good, however, to read an extended-length reflection on the American elections, even if it feeds into our despair over a decision that will affect us all, and upon which we can have no influence whatever.
See my full review at:
https://residentjudge.wordpress.com/2...
See my full review at:
https://residentjudge.wordpress.com/2...
November 7, 2016
Brilliant essay. Don Watson is one of the great commentators of our time and this goes beyond a mere preview of the upcoming US election and its two protagonists. More an exploration of the human condition.
May 3, 2018
One of the best QE's in a long while
October 20, 2016
Written in Don Watson's usual excellent style. Some good insights into the mindsets of the Midwest. However, this will be overtaken by events particularly those on Nov 35.
November 6, 2016
There's not a lot of new information in this text if you even somewhat follow US politics and the current Presidential election. However, a concise summary of its current state.
November 14, 2016
"If fascism makes scapegoats, Trumpism has them in abundance." p.53
November 29, 2016
Interesting reading now that the election has indeed chosen Trump. Watson makes some interesting points as he explores that as a possibility.
December 9, 2016
I was expecting an essay on Trump in the manner of a recent Quarterly essay on Bill Shorten and in this I was disappointed.
March 22, 2017
Prophetic.
April 17, 2017
Obviously recent history made a mockery of this - and we're all hanging on in there to see what happens, but some good writing here. And some sage analysis. Pity it was all for nothing eh...
April 25, 2017
Not sure why I read this, because I am so Trumped out. It all feels like a Ben Elton novel to me - but it's real!
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews