Invention of the white race

[Dhlazare at aol.com]

Still not quite right.  Populism disintegrated as an organized political party
after 1896, but it lingered on as a kind of political syndrome for a long time
after.  In this form, it grew wackier and wackier, descending into anti-
urbanism, anti-semitism, anti-intellectualism, etc. as the careers of Henry
Ford and Wm. Jennings Bryan illustrate.

Dan Lazare

In a message dated 98-05-29 12:22:25 EDT, you write:

<< 

 > << 

 >  I'm afraid it is your post which is simplistic,

 >  by mechanically cataloging statements out of

 >  historical context.  Watson is a perfect example

 >  of an evolution which ended in racist debacle,

 >  but had a very different historical build-up.

 >  You could probably write a similar paragraph

 >  which dismisses with equal fallaciousness the

 >  American labor movement, or American socialism.

 >   >>

 > But labor or the SP didn't descend into racial paranoia, xenophobia, etc.

 > Populism did.  It seems only fair to ask why....

 

 

 Populism did not remain intact, so there was no

 "it" to descend into anything.  The hold of the

 Democrats on the South, with all the associated

 racism, proved too strong in the end.  What remained

 were the industrial components, who passed into

 different varieties of socialism and northern

 Democratic urban machines.  The racist element

 in the latter was not missing but it was not nearly

 as strong as in the South, obviously.

 

 What could have been is more interesting than

 all-too-familiar, dismal reality.

 

 MBS

 

  >>