Citing Alexander Cockburn on Populism is like citing Neville Chamberlain on Peace.
Cockburn's inability to see that populism can move left or right is one reason Matt Lyons and I wrote a whole book on the subject. Populism is not a radical analysis.
See Joel Kovel's critical essay "Beyond Populism" at:
http://www.publiceye.org/Sucker_Punch/Clueless.html
And just in time for light holiday reading:
Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort
by Chip Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons
(New York: Guilford Publications, 2000)
-Chip Berlet
----- Original Message ----- From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2000 7:42 PM Subject: Re: The Democratic Party & the Illusion of Splits in the RulingClass, was Re: Cockburn: The Coup
> Chris Kromm wrote:
>
> >Alexander Cockburn puts the point nicely in one of his essays, that you
can
> >win over lots of people to radical ideas (even marxist ones) in America,
but
> >only if dressed in the language of populism.
>
> Hmm, what's that mean? Put a petit bourg spin on everything?
>
> Doug