07-25-2019, 09:26 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-25-2019, 09:30 PM by Eric the Green.)
Here we go again. Boris Johnson is a "populist," we hear. Donald Trump was too. Maybe even Scott Morrison and Bolsonaro.
NO, they AREN'T.
Populism originally meant the program of the Populist Party of 1892. I hold that this party's platform was foundational to American politics of our age and to the Democratic Party, which it virtually swallowed in 1896 with the candidacy of W J Bryan. It doesn't just mean appealing to concerns of the people who are "disregarded by elite groups" (and today's so-called elite groups that "disregard" angry white guys are not the actual elite; these supposed disregarded groups are the ones who PUT the elite in power over and over again, as they did in 2016). Populism means advocating putting actual political power back into the hands of the people, and that means wealth also, because wealth is power. So populism means redistribution and equalizing wealth and power, so that the people rule and not a small group of rich and connected big shots.
Bernie Sanders is a real populist, and Elizabeth Warren is a populist; FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt were populists; Marie Le Pen, Boris Johnson, Donald Trump et al are NOT populists-- never were, and never can be. Trump is the opposite of a populist, because he is putting all power back into the hands of his own wealthy class, and reversing every regulation, tax and law that benefits people so that the wealthy class can make more money. This phony populism or actual anti-populism is usually sold on the basis of trickle down economics; the fable that if the wealthy do well, then the "job creaters" will make more jobs and opportunity available for the lower classes. And of course the other big fable is that we can blame scapegoats and those "alien others" for our own problems.
If people who have economic problems are fooled by these ruses, that is their own problem. Some can be persuaded to support the real solutions offered by real populists instead. Real populism is NOT the political practice of taking advantage of the ignorance and gullibility that broadly exists among the populace-- particularly the less educated, and assuming that they can always be fooled, and that fooling them is populism because the common people are fools. But they aren't always fools.
It's too bad that this has to be constantly explained. The word populist is one of the most abused words around today. But, so be it. Intelligent people need to be around to clear up the baloney that exists all around.
NO, they AREN'T.
Populism originally meant the program of the Populist Party of 1892. I hold that this party's platform was foundational to American politics of our age and to the Democratic Party, which it virtually swallowed in 1896 with the candidacy of W J Bryan. It doesn't just mean appealing to concerns of the people who are "disregarded by elite groups" (and today's so-called elite groups that "disregard" angry white guys are not the actual elite; these supposed disregarded groups are the ones who PUT the elite in power over and over again, as they did in 2016). Populism means advocating putting actual political power back into the hands of the people, and that means wealth also, because wealth is power. So populism means redistribution and equalizing wealth and power, so that the people rule and not a small group of rich and connected big shots.
Bernie Sanders is a real populist, and Elizabeth Warren is a populist; FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt were populists; Marie Le Pen, Boris Johnson, Donald Trump et al are NOT populists-- never were, and never can be. Trump is the opposite of a populist, because he is putting all power back into the hands of his own wealthy class, and reversing every regulation, tax and law that benefits people so that the wealthy class can make more money. This phony populism or actual anti-populism is usually sold on the basis of trickle down economics; the fable that if the wealthy do well, then the "job creaters" will make more jobs and opportunity available for the lower classes. And of course the other big fable is that we can blame scapegoats and those "alien others" for our own problems.
If people who have economic problems are fooled by these ruses, that is their own problem. Some can be persuaded to support the real solutions offered by real populists instead. Real populism is NOT the political practice of taking advantage of the ignorance and gullibility that broadly exists among the populace-- particularly the less educated, and assuming that they can always be fooled, and that fooling them is populism because the common people are fools. But they aren't always fools.
It's too bad that this has to be constantly explained. The word populist is one of the most abused words around today. But, so be it. Intelligent people need to be around to clear up the baloney that exists all around.