There's been a lot of talk of
What's the Matter With Kansas? and redstate vs. bluestate, Liberal vs. Moderate.
These are valid arguments, and should be discussed, but what I want to see, nay what we NEED to have is Progressive Populism.
So what is populism?
let's go to webster's:
1 : a member of a political party claiming to represent the common people; especially often capitalized : a member of a U.S. political party formed in 1891 primarily to represent agrarian interests and to advocate the free coinage of silver and government control of monopolies
2 : a believer in the rights, wisdom, or virtues of the common people
more on the flip.
Ok, i'm not talking about the political party clearly, and the Republicans have run for years on the fake populism talked about in definition 1. (See: "Who's looking out for you?")
#2 is what i'm talking about, a believer in the rights, wisdom, or virtues of the common people.
Let's look at the announced candidates for president:
Hillary Clinton
Wesley Clark
Russ Feingold
Joe Biden
Mark Warner
Evan Bayh
Tom Vilsack
John Edwards
John Kerry
Can you pick the populists out of that crowd?
Here's a hint, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Joe Biden are not. I don't count astroturf positioning as populism.
I think John Kerry loves America, I think he's a good Senator and would have made a fantastic president, but I don't think he's a believer, a true believer in the common people. Certainly he is not a populist, and his attempts at populism sound almost as phony as Bush's attempts at compassion.
It's not his nature...
Edwards is good at this, even if his policies don't always reflect the philosophy. Clark has his moments and is a good work in progress, Feingold is easilly the best example of the Progressive Populist.
Hillary Clinton's attempts at populism come off almost as hamhanded as Kerry's, it's the kind of effort that reminds you of an older, respected aunt trying to be "hip" with the kids lingo. It doesn't work, and not just because it doesn't fit the frame, but because it sounds phony.
Now here's the thing to consider, populism can take all forms... the anti immigrantion folks are all populists. That is to say that popular opinion is not always right, and the masses, can indeed be asses.
But the way to win is to embrace populism, especially at a time when an out of control Republican government seems bound and determined to prove their out of touch, rules don't apply to us, elitism.
-C.