It's interesting to me how differently I look at this. To me, populism is simply the proposition that government should seek primarily to serve the interests of people who are on the outside of the existing power structures. We have a pretty good idea of how the power structures are currently composed in the United States: Wall Street, Silicon Valley, defense contractors, Big Pharma, issue NGO's, teacher's unions, etc., control government via lobbyists and law firms who control politicians via their ability to finance campaigns and related expenditures.
Both parties have traditionally had their respective bases within those power structures, but it's clear in 2021, to me at least, that the power structure has for now at least largely fused with the Democratic Party, with the Republican Party having been taken over by first the Tea Party then the #MAGA movement, both of which are populist in essence. There are left populists who have tried to similarly take over the Democrats, but the power structure has too firm of a grip and it's not possible. Thus, the power structure is now largely Democratic.
It's still a little early IMHO to do a full post-mortem on Trump, but at this point, I'm focused on a couple of maybe related things: (1) he wasn't/isn't smart enough; and (2) it's not possible to "drain the swamp" entirely, at some point, you have to make friends and allies there. This isn't entirely about Trump either, the GOP as a whole does generally represent that "unrepresented" (i.e. the middle class of middle America), which from an electoral standpoint is certainly not a bad place to start, but the way our democracy works at present, you can't win with just by representing a (theoretical) majority of the electorate. To state the obvious, the power structure has all the power.
Maybe if Trump was a little smarter, he could've figured out a way to defeat the UN, EU, CCP, drug/trafficking cartels, Democrat Party, GOPe, CIA/FBI/DOJ, WHO/CDC, Gates/Bezos/Bloomberg/Soros/Zuckerberg/Dorsey, CNN/MSNBC/Fox/ABC/NBC/CBS/NYT/WaPo, AFl/CIO, NEA, etc., etc. (and in fact he came within a few late night ballot dumps of doing so), but the GOP/populists may need to think about what parts of the power structure are most amenable to the interests of the unrepresented and build some ties. At this point, I have to acknowledge that we don't live in a real democracy as I would define it. We can vote, but the outcomes are fundamentally predetermined and mediated by an unelected power structure that we cannot dislodge. Something has grown up in between the Constitution and our votes and it's for the foreseeable future a permanent feature of our political system. What to do about that is the basic question facing "populism" as I would define it.
I am honestly tired of these stupid fucking essays suggesting idiot political solutions to a hyperpolitical problem. The question of power in America is a different type of problem, with a different solution to match. Stop suggesting answers of pure rhetoric, promises, visions, ect, and start building a political industrial complex that spans beyond just simple policy.
It's interesting to me how differently I look at this. To me, populism is simply the proposition that government should seek primarily to serve the interests of people who are on the outside of the existing power structures. We have a pretty good idea of how the power structures are currently composed in the United States: Wall Street, Silicon Valley, defense contractors, Big Pharma, issue NGO's, teacher's unions, etc., control government via lobbyists and law firms who control politicians via their ability to finance campaigns and related expenditures.
Both parties have traditionally had their respective bases within those power structures, but it's clear in 2021, to me at least, that the power structure has for now at least largely fused with the Democratic Party, with the Republican Party having been taken over by first the Tea Party then the #MAGA movement, both of which are populist in essence. There are left populists who have tried to similarly take over the Democrats, but the power structure has too firm of a grip and it's not possible. Thus, the power structure is now largely Democratic.
It's still a little early IMHO to do a full post-mortem on Trump, but at this point, I'm focused on a couple of maybe related things: (1) he wasn't/isn't smart enough; and (2) it's not possible to "drain the swamp" entirely, at some point, you have to make friends and allies there. This isn't entirely about Trump either, the GOP as a whole does generally represent that "unrepresented" (i.e. the middle class of middle America), which from an electoral standpoint is certainly not a bad place to start, but the way our democracy works at present, you can't win with just by representing a (theoretical) majority of the electorate. To state the obvious, the power structure has all the power.
Maybe if Trump was a little smarter, he could've figured out a way to defeat the UN, EU, CCP, drug/trafficking cartels, Democrat Party, GOPe, CIA/FBI/DOJ, WHO/CDC, Gates/Bezos/Bloomberg/Soros/Zuckerberg/Dorsey, CNN/MSNBC/Fox/ABC/NBC/CBS/NYT/WaPo, AFl/CIO, NEA, etc., etc. (and in fact he came within a few late night ballot dumps of doing so), but the GOP/populists may need to think about what parts of the power structure are most amenable to the interests of the unrepresented and build some ties. At this point, I have to acknowledge that we don't live in a real democracy as I would define it. We can vote, but the outcomes are fundamentally predetermined and mediated by an unelected power structure that we cannot dislodge. Something has grown up in between the Constitution and our votes and it's for the foreseeable future a permanent feature of our political system. What to do about that is the basic question facing "populism" as I would define it.
I am honestly tired of these stupid fucking essays suggesting idiot political solutions to a hyperpolitical problem. The question of power in America is a different type of problem, with a different solution to match. Stop suggesting answers of pure rhetoric, promises, visions, ect, and start building a political industrial complex that spans beyond just simple policy.