Sunday, November 12, 2006

The New Populists


Quote of the day:
"Anti-war books are as likely to stop war as anti-glacier books are to stop glaciers."
--Kurt Vonnegut

Headline of the day:
“For Incoming Democrats, Populism Trumps Ideology.”
--Today’s "New York Times"

Populism is the political word of the moment. The word is used six times in today’s "" front-page story.

A “populist” is defined in the New Oxford American Dictionary as “a member or adherent of a political party seeking to represent the interests of ordinary people.” That seems clear, simple and desirable. And the new members of congress seem to be genuinely interested in making our government work better for us.

But the label “populist” is cause for some reflection. “Populism” has not always been a good or even benign philosophy of governing. Huey Long rose to extraordinary power as a populist, and his fame now rests on being one of the most corrupt politicians in our history. And, of course, Adolf Hitler and Mussolini both rose to power as populists, rebelling against the elites of their time.

It’s very tempting to jump on the populist bandwagon. After all, who wouldn’t want to stand against our “elites” right now, whether they are “pointy-headed-ivory-tower-liberal-intellectuals” or “greedy-corporate-insider-big-money lobbyists” or “fundamentalist-right-wing-holier-than-thou moralists” or “neocon ideologues.”

Louis Menand talks about a 1960s film that covered the court-ordered desegregation of the University of Alabama. This culminated in Governor George Wallace’s famous “stand in the schoolhouse door.” Wallace also built his career as a populist.

This how Menand describes the film: “Robert Kennedy, in the White House, and his deputy, Nicholas DeB. Katzenbach, in Alabama--Ivy League liberals, supremely assured of their virtue--are seen discussing their strategy for handling Wallace as though Wallace were an inconvenient road hazard, a man, in their calculus, of no moral account whatever.

“And Wallace is seen arriving at the university and accepting expressions of support from the people waiting to greet him, with the easy familiarity of a man who knows them and is part of a genuine community.

“Wallace was as successful a populist as the postwar era produced, and the Kennedy administration was undoubtedly the incarnation of the modern liberal mentality....

“There is something slightly chilling about the confrontation, as there is when you watch any ancient and deeply rooted thing smoothly and expertly obliterated by the forces of ‘progress.’ But Kennedy and Katzenbach were right, and Wallace was wrong.”

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