Authenticity Just Means Faking It Well

Does Hillary Clinton really keep hot sauce in her purse? How can Bernie Sanders truly be a socialist if he’s a millionaire? Are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s humble roots, featured prominently in her campaign video, enough to prove her authenticity?

“Be authentic”—there may be no more piece of to for office. Yet there’s little agreement on what authenticity actually means, perhaps because the concept is often applied in ways that seem contradictory. An authenticity deficit was as one of the reasons Mitt Romney lost to Barack Obama in 2012. Four years later, it contributed to Hillary Clinton’s defeat to Donald Trump. How can the same quality account for the success of two figures as different as Trump and Obama? How can Trump in particular—an inveterate fabricator born to fabulous wealth who poses as the self-made tribune of the working class—come across