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

c b cb31450 at gmail.com
Wed Dec 1 14:10:13 PST 2010


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...

^^^^ CB: Working class partisans aim to draw the petit bourgeoisie to the side of the working class in the final conflict.



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