The study of populism and producerism as methodologies implies they are not limited to specific US historic movements but have become "narratives" or "frames" -- ways in which groups of dissidents develop a collective identity and shared agenda.
I do not accept the liberal elitist analysis that demonizes all popular movements, and have writeen extensively on the subject. See "Challenging Centrist/Extremist Theory."
< http://www.publiceye.org/study_right.html >
I am not someone who trashes the working class. When Jean Hardisty started Political Research Associates one of the key goals was to challenge the liberal rhetoric that the political right was a bunch of ignorant Bible-waving rednecks.
What I am trying to do, is get people to consider a body of new research. Instead, I get responses that indicate that folks are reacting to the work of Bell, Lipset, and Hofstadter. I don't like their analysis either! Shake the cobwebs off! Canovan, Kazin, Stock, Betz, Fritzsche, etc. all are critical of cnetrist/extremist theory. The knee jerk reaction that everyone critical of certain forms of populism is a liberal elitist enamored of Lipset ignores the past 20 years of social science.
Some leftists have indeed overestimated the danger of fascism. My argument is that while fascism is the most virulent form of right wing populism, repressive populist movements can damage a society without gravitating toward fascism. They do this by spreading demonization, scapegoating, and conspiracism.
This is not to say that all populism is bad, or that it automatically slips into the repressive scapegoating model. But right wing populism can take a whole sector of the middle class and working class and instead of mobilizing these folks to engage in constructive political action, it sends them out chasing scapegoats, instead of encouraging a discussion about economic policy, it blames secret banking elites or Jews. One does not have to be a dogmatic Marxist to see the futility of this. Nor does it assume that only revolutionary consciousness matters. Political reformism across the political spectrum is equally stalemated by the conspiracist scapegoating of right wing populism. The point here is that repressive character of right wing populism undercuts all sorts of effective political action and enflames pre-exisiting bigotry. This dynamic is what Cockburn and Company fail to recognize when they praise the activism and consciousness of the militias.
Organizers promoting democratic forms of populism need to explicitly expose and reject right wing populism, not form alliances with it as have the Naderites and Fulani. That the Progressive Populist took the space to print two columns (and not by me!) warning about right wing populism and its conspiracy theories is a healthy sign.
Max, stop assuming I have some secret agenda here. What I write is what I think. The new social movement theorists have rejected the liberal centrist/elitist model, the overly romanticized model, and the dogmatic Marxist model. This is useful stuff. It explains how whole sectors of the US political right mobilize their constitutencies. If you get over feeling irritated about the terms "populism" and "producerism" having shifted in meaning, then we agree more than we disagree!
-Chip