populism

That first paragraph was spoken like a true commie, but now that I think of it, it could be a certain strain of tea partier, and finally I guess it is the rant of a populist.

And now that I think about it, you were a big fan of George Wallace, who was something of a populist. I believe you know this better than I, but before he got into that racist crap, wasn’t he kind of for the little (white) guy, who was getting cheated by the fat cats?

My favorite of those guys was Huey Long of Louisiana, the central character of All the King’s Men. William Jennings Bryant was not one that I favored, but I believe there were several lefty populists around the turn of the century. I suppose there was some of that in the new lefty types of the 60s, but their appeal was mainly with college student types.

Among the hoi polloi there are all kinds of soreheads, people who are not doing so well and being taken advantage of by those who are at the top of the heap who they think are fucking them over, and most likely they are, and the guy who took to the stump and said just that, well he became their leader. Back at the turn of the century it was the fat cats who were the enemy, and though the old left raised a ruckus, they were never able to take power and once the dems coopted their ideas the balloon deflated.

One thing I have to say though, is those turn of the century populists lefties adopted some pretty unenlightened ideas on race and women’s rights, and immigration.

Around the sixties, or most accurately when the civil rights bill was pushed by LBJ, the dems adopted progressive ideas on social issues which the repubs have been dropping like bad habits ever since, and now they have taken over the formerly radical states like Kansas, pointing at the gov, as opposed to the fat cats, as the real enemy.

But the thing about that populist vote is that it is a sorehead vote and doesn’t love anybody long, and now you see the tea party, and loath as I am to say anything good about it, I have noticed it spouting some anti fat cat rhetoric lately.

But the main problem with the tea party is it wants outsiders, it wants people it’s never heard of before and who have never done anything before, only they are untainted by that awful Washington, but because the tea party rhetoric is so simplistic anybody can speak it so you have all kinds of misfits losing to gaffes, and if they get into office they are prone to all kinds of scandal. And because they are unknowns they have to rely on the big pacs who are all run by fat cats to get into the primaries. So they are ultimately hopeless.

So come on over to the red side Beagles, we don’t have a chance either, but out hats are so much cooler than the hats of the tea party, and oh that bright red flag.