Figuring Out Populism

WHAT, PRECISELY, IS "POPULISM"? I had always been given to understand that populism was a political movement of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, spearheaded by Robert Lafollette, which embraced the ideal that political power ought properly to begin at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid, and trickle up, a political system wherein the working class took charge of society, extending democracy to the masses, contrary to the explicit wishes of the founders and the constitution, and wrested control from the wealthy elite class. As such, it seemed to me to be a movement of the left. That, however, was in the days when working class America favored liberal causes, government intervention in the economy, and regulation of corporate behavior, in the bygone era before the emergence of Donald Trump and the transition of the white working class into a conservative base. In Lafollette's day, populism was associated with what was, and still is, termed the "progressive era", hence progressivism, or liberalism. The very notion that a populist movement could be led by a billionaire(alleged billionaire, with hidden tax returns) president, with a cabinet filled with certifiable billionaires, and a congress cutting taxes on the wealthy would have seemed utterly ludicrous - until now. Now we have a right wing brand of populism, which is highly nationalistic, xenophobic, and non inclusive, foreign concepts to Lafollette. Trumpian populism appears predicated upon the assumption that everyman is entitled to his own version of the truth, that fake news is any news which fails to vindicate right wing public policy, and, most of all, that everyone is entitled to be his or her own expert. There are no experts, other than the common man and his own choice of alternative realities. Thus we are free to accept or reject whatever scientists choose to tell us, and all academics are no more knowledgeable than the rest of us. Who needs research on the consequences of vaccinations, when we have Jenny McCarthy? She says that vaccines cause autism, and, after all, she is a celebrity, case closed. Climate change? Forget climate science. Your guess is a good as anyone's. Although the scientists tell us that Genetically modified food is perfectly safe, if you say it isn't, it isn't. Bear in mind that most conservative populists believe that higher education is detrimental to American society, and that climate change is a liberal hoax. Welcome to our modern American version of "populism".