{"id":21390,"date":"2015-05-18T05:45:14","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T09:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=21390"},"modified":"2015-05-17T16:19:32","modified_gmt":"2015-05-17T20:19:32","slug":"everybodys-a-populist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/05\/everybodys-a-populist\/","title":{"rendered":"Everybody’s a populist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Just about everybody in politics is claiming to be a \u201cpopulist\u201d these days\u2013leftwinger Elizabeth Warren, rightwinger Ted Cruz, establishment icon Hillary Clinton, the Christian right\u2019s Mike Huckabee, Occupy Wallstreeters, Tea Partiers, and on and on.<\/p>\n

Rutgers history professor David Greenberg points out that the term once had a very specific meaning, relating to the farmer\/labor coalition against the railroads and bankers in the late 19th century,\u00a0 as led by William Jennings Bryan.\u00a0 The ideology combined a type of socialist economics (nationalize the railroads!) with respect for \u201cordinary\u201d Americans (a man of the people! champion of the common man!).\u00a0 Today liberals are seizing upon the economic part (while comprising the cultural elite that the old populists scorned), while conservatives are seizing upon the ordinary American part (a demographic that today tends not to like socialism).<\/p>\n

\n

But this reminds us that the left owes a big debt to William Jennings Bryan, today often mocked for his creationism at the Scopes Monkey Trial.\u00a0 And that there was a time when evangelical Christians were often leftists.<\/p>\n

From\u00a0 David Greenberg,\u00a0<\/span> We\u2019re all populists now \u2013 The Washington Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Candidates of the left, right and center have something in common: They all want to be seen as populists. Hillary Clinton attacks income inequality and issues booklets showing how well she stacks up, even against Sen. Elizabeth Warren, as a booster for the embattled middle class; Sen. Marco Rubio invokes the American dream; Mike Huckabee and putative libertarian Sen. Rand Paul are against giving President Obama a free hand to negotiate the Pacific trade pact.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, pundits and journalists prowl for populists everywhere: Sen. Ted Cruz is a \u201cpopulist egghead.\u201d Rubio showcases \u201cpopulist themes\u201d of up-by-the-bootstraps success. Huckabee is going \u201cfull populist.\u201d And Paul\u2019s \u201cpopulist country music video\u201d blamed banks and Washington for lost jobs. The only top-tier contender seemingly unlinked to populism is Jeb Bush \u2014 son of one president, brother of another, backed by establishment heavies \u2014 although even his approach has been labeled \u201cpopulist,\u201d too.<\/p>\n

Yet these aren\u2019t modern versions of William Jennings Bryan, fiery crusaders jousting on the campaign trail, railing against politicians who \u201conly legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous\u201d and thereby \u201ccrucify mankind upon a cross of gold.\u201d All the candidates have taken what was once a very specific ideology and extracted their favorite parts, selectively interpreting the vision and generally bowdlerizing it. With so many different policies and philosophies vying for the label, the word \u201cpopulist\u201d is in danger of losing all meaning. If we\u2019re all populists, it\u2019s because populism has been stretched so thin.<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .]
\n<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just about everybody in politics is claiming to be a \u201cpopulist\u201d these days\u2013leftwinger Elizabeth Warren, rightwinger Ted Cruz, establishment icon Hillary Clinton, the Christian right\u2019s Mike Huckabee, Occupy Wallstreeters, Tea Partiers, and on and on. Rutgers history professor David Greenberg points out that the term once had a very specific meaning, relating to the farmer\/labor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,19,20,25,36],"tags":[563,1292,1761,2361],"class_list":["post-21390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-government","category-history","category-language","category-politics","tag-conservatives","tag-liberals","tag-populism","tag-william-jennings-bryan"],"yoast_head":"\nEverybody's a populist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Just about everybody in politics is claiming to be a "populist" these days--leftwinger Elizabeth Warren, rightwinger Ted Cruz, establishment icon Hillary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/05\/everybodys-a-populist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Everybody's a populist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just about everybody in politics is claiming to be a "populist" these days--leftwinger Elizabeth Warren, rightwinger Ted Cruz, establishment icon Hillary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/05\/everybodys-a-populist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-18T09:45:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-05-17T20:19:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/05\/everybodys-a-populist\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/05\/everybodys-a-populist\/\",\"name\":\"Everybody's a populist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-18T09:45:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-05-17T20:19:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"Just about everybody in politics is claiming to be a \\\"populist\\\" these days--leftwinger Elizabeth Warren, rightwinger Ted Cruz, establishment icon Hillary\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/05\/everybodys-a-populist\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/05\/everybodys-a-populist\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/05\/everybodys-a-populist\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Everybody’s a populist\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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