Fareed Zakaria

You know, there's a certain energy there that the people holding the cart together aren't able to exercise.

I think that's a real problem.

And, you know, I mean, somebody like a Mamdani has a way of infusing it with a greater sense of passion because maybe he goes directly to the values.

And even though some cases I don't agree with his policies, I think he's a master communicator and he has solved in a way that problem that you're describing.

But I think there are also two other problems.

Liberalism has always been somewhat agnostic about the ultimate purpose of life.

The whole idea, because it came out of the religious wars, was you get to decide what your best life is, and we're not going to have a dictator or a pope or a commissar tell you that.

But that leaves people unsatisfied.

I think there's a part of people that want to be told, what is a great life?

What is this cause greater than themselves?

And the conservative answer is, well, it's God, family, traditional morality, and those are the things that matter a lot.

If you listen to Vance in Hungary, he says, go out there and bring back the God of our fathers.

Trump represents something different

Trump is appealing to the most naked selfishness in people.

He's saying, what's in it for you?

Why aren't we getting more out of this?

You know, that's one of the reasons I think that he is so comfortable with the kind of open corruption that he represents.

Because in a sense, he's saying, look, those guys had a whole system and, you know, it looks very fancy and meritocratic, but they got the spoils.

Now I'm going to get the spoils.

In a way, he's, I think, thinking of himself as representing his people.