>The flexibility of the populist framework permits a variety of ideas to be
>clothed in populist garb. What's required is the construction of a
suitable
>reference point in the past: some tangible movement; an intellectual,
>cultural, or political tradition; a noteworthy historical interlude; or
>better, some combination of these. A second key feature is that such a
>reference point serves a majoritarian interest--the many against the few.
Yeah, but isn't that just a load of crap? When was this "suitable
reference point in the past" when the many had their boots on the
necks of the few? There's some always some Golden Age in the past,
some ur-innocence broken by the Outsider, the Usurper. What's the
ideal? Pre-Civil War small-town heartland America?
Doug
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Yes, populism-as-manipulation is indeed a load of crap. Though to some extent any mass politics is a load of crap too. This is more like a vessel. It's import depends on what is poured into it. It could be bad stuff, to be sure.
In the case of the old movement, the reference point was Jefferson. A better historian than I will have to elaborate on the nature of the idealized past that the old movement looked to.
I think two points should be kept uppermost.
Whatever the compromises and resorts to demagoguery, the pops were going squarely against sectionalism, and in the South this meant the Democratic Party. This was a pretty daring thing to do, even for white people.
Second, basic elements of the program reflected incisive, albeit reformist critiques of capitalism. It's a little short-sighted to give more credence to the labor movement or the anti-imperialist league than the pops, since they came to be united.
I would suggest the pops are in the main line of our heritage, whether as progressives, democratic socialists, or whatever. A focus on either labor or abolitionism/Republicanism neglects the crucial area where these constituencies meet their agrarian social peers -- in the realm of economic policy. Democratic money, anti-trust, public ownership of utilities, regulation, and cooperative institutions were all populist projects.
mbs