Historical populism has that small producer cast and a nasty dose of racism. Tom Watkins was a virulent white supremacist. But I think the word has acquired a looser tone of being on the side of the little man, Frank Capra, Mr Deeds, etc. I wouldn't use it myself, but I think what what is meant is that we should express our class analysis in American tones rather than German or Russian ones. --jks
>
>Justin Schwartz wrote:
>
>>In my experience, the Marxist critique of capitalism is common sense
>>to most working people; it's pretty obvious that the rich run
>>things, that democracy is a joke, that work is drag because the
>>bosses exploit us, etc. These ideas can gain wide currency if
>>expressed without Marxist technical vocabulary,w hich is offputting.
>>The basic ideas of socialism, that democracy would be extended to
>>the economy, that we can run things ourselves without bosses to tell
>>us what to do, can also be "sold" to a lesser degree if expressed in
>>plain, commonsense terms. The "opulist" overtone is a matter of
>>playing on class resentments. Is this a petit bourg spin?
>
>Opulist? Like Donald Trump?
>
>Socialism is about collective control of the economy. Isn't populism
>instead saturated with the consciousness of small producers (and the
>fantasies of those who want to be)? Oh, that's me; does that make me
>a populist?
>
>Doug
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