There are many that see the uptick in populist thinking as something good……and others that seem to be afraid of it…….regardless of which side you are on….we all have to admit that things are not gong well in our beloved country…..but can populism save us from ourselves?
This is an important subject….please give us your feelings on this……..
Can a New Populist Movement Fight Off American Oligarchy? | Common Dreams.
College of Political Knowledge
Subject: Political Theory
It all pretty much began back in the days of the 2004 political season with John Edwards appealing to votes on a us against them sort of platform and it has continued through 2008 and 2010 elections….the media has labeled this phenom as populism…..but is it?
The political ideology of populism began in the US in the 1840’s, I believe…….and reached a high point at the beginning of the 20th century…basically it was a revolt against the railroads and banks by the common people in the heartland….a fight against the “robber barons”………
Let us leap forward to the present……look at the populism of today, some of it faux and some real, such issues as the bailouts or the rule by special interests, etc. etc………..the media is billing at as populism when it smacks of reactionary to me……reactionary will seldom be used because it has a bad rep from the days of hunting commies behind every door…you know kinda like the Tea Party of today…….
Reactionary is defined as…….relating to, marked by, or favoring reaction; especially : ultraconservative in politics, as according to Webster’s…..and since populism is a reaction to a specific issue….I will say that it is reactionary…..to me it is also a description of pragmatism……reacting to an issue and taking the most simple solution…….by simple I am referring to the most advantageous to have it enacted…..
Populism was a reaction to a political problem…….and populism was a pragmatic approach to the problem…ergo it was reactionary……reactionary then, reactionary now…..seldom is it about well thought out solutions but rather a reaction….a real solution would be one that is based on knowledge not one based on numbers or stats or emotional tantrums….but then that is what we Americans are noted for…..reaction…seldom a well thought out response……
College of Political Knowledge
Professor’s Classroom
Paper #26
Here is a subject that absolutely NO one has any idea what I am talking about! In 2008, Obama was a semi-populist and Edwards was the populist voice and now it is Palin and Bachmann and the Tea Baggers, as a whole that is the populist voice of America. But what is the Populist Voice?
Populism is a political stance, basically, that means an appeal to “the people”. It is a modern device of political activity. And as an extreme form tries to use the US Constitution in a way to block any and all legislation that they do not agree with. A voice against a supposed opponent, like foreigners, outsiders and especially the “elite”. The later describes that appeal; of the populist voice of today….they are fighting against the elite, as they see it.
One way to fight the elite, in the populist frame of mind, is to state that they speak for the “people”…the use of unclear expressions and catch phrases with NO clear decisions on how to repair a situation.
But as populism has grown it has become more about political opportunism than anything else. The use of “the people” as a tool to further an agenda….not necessarily for the good of the country but rather the good of a political movement….it depends heavily on the fact that most Americans are low information voters or one issue voters and as such can be molded into political force….a force that has NO foot in reality.
For instance, the populist Tea Party is still having people echo that the present admin is raising their taxes….when in actuality most Americans taxes have gone down….but that does not matter to these people……if Obama is a Dem then he MUST be raising taxes, is their thinking……..
As usual, today’s populism is short on solutions and short on principles but long on slogans, generalities and misinformation….none of which is good for American democracy.