[lbo-talk] INSTANT POPULISM: A short history of populism old and new

[Bhaskar Sunkara]

Populism is perhaps best understood as a rhetorical style. Even it's "best"
left-leaning varieties, it's a framework where society is divided into two
contending groups "the people" and "the elite."  This implies two things:
One, that old class identities, forms of particularism, have to be broken
down. There is no room for a working class with interests sometimes
counterpoised to middle class or "petit bourgeois" elements—they are all
"the people."  I'd rather have a labor party with socialist politics...

On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 12:24 PM, Fernando Cassia <fcassia at gmail.com> wrote:


> On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 2:00 PM, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> > but if you can call the New Deal populist, then
> > you can call anything populist; it makes the word useless.
>
> http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Populism
> ---
> 4. ( lowercase ) representation or extolling of* the common person, the
> working class, the underdog*, etc.: populism in the arts.
> ----
>
> "The programs were responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what
> historians call the "3 Rs": relief, recovery and reform. That is,* relief
> for the unemployed and poor;* recovery of the economy to normal levels; and
> reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression. The New Deal
> produced a political realignment, making the Democratic party the majority
> (as well as holding the White House for seven out of nine Presidential
> terms
> from 1933–69), with its base in *liberal ideas*, big city machines, and
> newly empowered* labor unions, ethnic minorities*"
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Labor_Standards_Act_of_1938
>
> "which set maximum hours and minimum wages for most categories of
> workers"<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal#cite_note-0>
>
> FC
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