Populism

Do moderates also label themselves as populist?

Populism tends to be "common sense concerns" and moderates tend to have that type of thinking aswell (even do some populist do declare themselves right or left).

But, a general question to moderates here, do you see yourself a populist aswell?

[edit on 25-7-2006 by infinite]

Originally posted by infinite
But, a general question to moderates here, do you see yourself a populist aswell?

Populism is just one side of the fence... Elitism being the converse. I see populism as a slippery slope to anarchy... But that's just me.

en.wikipedia.org...

Leaders of populist movements have variously promised to stand up to corporate power, remove "corrupt" elites, and "put people first." Populism incorporates anti-regime politics, and sometimes espouses, especially among the right wing varieties, nationalism, jingoism, racism or religious fundamentalism (Canovan, Kazin, Betz). Many populists appeal to a specific region of a country or to a specific social class, such as the working class, middle class, or farmers. Often they employ dichotomous rhetoric, and claim to represent the majority of the people.

An interesting historical read:

en.wikipedia.org...

Ahh!

Mirthful Me, thank you for the links

i must admit, populism does seem abit like "we'll follow what is "cool" at the moment" sort of thing

A couple years back I did a report on populism, more spefically, The wizard of oz being a populist parable.

Nonetheless, I consider populism to share more beliefs with socialism than with capitalism. I think its hard to compare being moderate to populism just because some beliefs are shared. Im sure the democratic party and the republican party share many common beliefs as well.

I believe the majority of people in either mainstream party in the U.S. share these common sense concerns, its just unfortunate that the leaders of these parties choose to ignore those common sense concerns once voted into office.

Originally posted by Mirthful Me
I see populism as a slippery slope to anarchy...

en.wikipedia.org...

Leaders of populist movements have variously promised to stand up to corporate power, remove "corrupt" elites, and "put people first."

The corporate power elite would paint any populist movement that held such beliefs in a negative light and would pull out of the stops to prevent such a movement from getting traction. I consider myself a libertarian populist, so I guess I know what mirthful thinks me.

All of these moderate and populist threads never seem to evolve beyond attempts at self indentification which never materialize. Perhaps a better approach would be to find some common ground on the issues or based on economic policy.

Can we at least all agree that we need more honesty in government than is being provided by either of the demopublican parties?
.