Word: populist
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Populism has been on everybody’s minds lately, probably because a populist group was responsible for many of Obama’s troubles in the wake of the Massachusetts senate race that catapulted Republican Scott Brown to Washington. The Tea Party movement, organized last spring around a shared disapproval of reckless spending in Washington, DC, was crucial for mobilizing support for Brown during the race. Over the past several months, the movement has grown so popular that, according to a recent New Yorker article, it would attract more support than the Republican Party if it were...
...Like all populist movements, the Tea Partiers base their ideology around a divide between political elites and “ordinary” citizens victimized by Washington’s insider culture. But in order to spread their ideology, the populists must ensure that politicians sharing their views reach political office—in other words, ensure that these politicians participate in the very culture the populists claim to reject. Consequently, the ideology of the Tea Party directly limits its chances for success. The Tea Partiers either have to sacrifice their populist beliefs or their influence, the former leading...
This conundrum also explains the failure of Obama’s own populist pleas. Populism is less a coherent set of beliefs than an anti-ideology, defining itself entirely by its opposition to political elites; once it takes part in this system of elites through electoral success, its failure to articulate a set of ideals results in its demise. Sensing the populist anger that resulted in Scott Brown’s victory, Obama tried to tap into it, but his efforts necessarily failed; as an elected official, he was a participant in the Washington culture that the Tea Partiers despised...
During his State of the Union, Obama’s vow to veto any Congressional acts that didn’t measure up to his standards of “real reform” represented his descent into the populist trap; rather than articulating a clear ideology or outlining what “real reform” looks like, he simply promised to reject proposals offered by others. Obama’s plan to limit commercial bank activity represented an even more extensive use of populist rhetoric, and its populist nature is now revealed by the fact that...
Obama needs to acknowledge the populist criticisms directed at him without exploiting the techniques that his critics employ. Doing so is the only way he can move forward, which is, after all, what he promised in his forward-looking, hope-saturated campaign. The American people deserve for Obama to deliver on his promises, and he can start by abandoning the populist rhetoric that he employed during his latest debacle with the banks...