Populism

[Brian Sweat]

From Wikipedia:

Populism is, at the most basic level, a political ideology which holds that the common person is oppressed by an elite in society which exists only to serve its own interests, and therefore, the instruments of the State need to be grasped from this self-serving elite and instead used for the benefit and advancement of the oppressed masses as a whole.


My question: Is populism present in the modern Republican movement?

I know that many Democrats make populist appeals, but I am interested in Republicans. Do the Republicans engage in populist rhetoric and if so, how?

[QC]

1. They appropriate the rhetoric, but that's all.

[Clete]

2. Promising tax cuts to the ordinary worker, prescription drug

benefits to seniors and education to the disadvantaged is a GOP reaching out to the common person could be called that. Of course the bait and switch tactics, tax cuts for the wealthy, privatization of prescription coverage and issuing school vouchers for the private schools to benefit at the expense of public schools is typical Republican elitism.

[disgruntella]

3. try searching google for these two words

"buchanan" and "populism"

Lot of articles about the Buchanan campaign's use of the term "populism" and how phony that was.

[Brian Sweat]

4. I not interested in Buchanan.

He has become a fringe player in the GOP. I am more interested in any populist rhetoric used by major GOP players like Limbaugh, O'Rielly, Coulter or any GOP politicians.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Of course they use it

Try a google search for "liberal elite" and the commentator of your choice, eg

"What's really bothering these folks is that they can't control the process. The public has taken charge, and the liberal elite can't stand it." Rush Limbaugh, Aug 13 2003 (re Calfornia elections)
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/recall/6523402.htm

[gottaB]

5. Absolutely

It's like straight out of gramsci. They use so-called cultural issues to appeal to alienated working class whites, forming a powerful political bloc that works against the economic interests of most of its members. It's the perfect illustration of what gramsci meant by "hegemony," but it has elements of the clearly ideological as well.

[DemPopulist]

6. Yeah, conservative populism

The Republicans indulge in their own form of anti-intellectual, anti-government populism. Remember Bush's slogans in the 2000 campaign? "I trust the people" and "The surplus (RIP) is the people's money, not the government's money" - it was a very deceptive, campaign-oriented kind of populism, but it was populism. Also, the attacks against Gore for being "the smartest kid in class" and the - ironic considering this what they said about Al - condescending suggestion that the rest of us were supposed to relate to Bush because he was a dope played into the notion that there's an educated elite that thinks it's better than the rest of us and wants to make decisions for everyone through the government. So there's a lot of populism in your standard, anti-tax, anti-government, anti-UN, anti-intellectual Republican rhetoric.

Somebody else mentioned Buchanan, but I'd also mention McCain too as someone who runs closer to your traditional anti-corporate populism that's been more characteristic of the left.