American Dreaming is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. The problem with populism — right or left — isn't that the grievances it animates itself around are bogus. Mass immigration, income inequality, lack of accountability, globalization, the decline of two-parent households, the undemocratic flaws of democratic systems, the increase in suicides and deaths of despair, and the decline of the middle class, to name just a few — these are legitimate concerns for people to have. It doesn't make one a fascist to be concerned about the unprecedented flow of foreign populations into one's country. It doesn't make one a socialist to be concerned about extreme income inequality. It doesn't make one religious to be concerned about the superficiality of modern life, and how our materialistic consumerism is fundamentally unfulfilling. And it doesn't make one a social conservative to be concerned about the disintegration of family life. These are real issues that deserve serious attention. So what’s wrong with populism, then?
Populism has a specific definition, and the way that you try to describe what you consider populism makes it clear that you've never come across it. A better read on the history of anti-populism is The People, No by Thomas Frank.
Populism has a specific definition, and the way that you try to describe what you consider populism makes it clear that you've never come across it. A better read on the history of anti-populism is The People, No by Thomas Frank.
This is a perfectly brilliant column. Fantastic.