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Anderson Files: Populism: bigoted scapegoating or multiracial progressivism?
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May 26, 2022
Volume XXIX, Number 38
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welcomes your correspondence via email (letters@ boulderweekly.com) or the comments section of our website at www.boulderweekly.com. Preference will be given to short letters (under 300 words) that deal with recent stories or local issues, and letters may be edited for style, length and libel. Letters should include your name, address and telephone number for verification. We do not publish anonymous letters or those signed with pseudonyms. Letters become the property of Boulder Weekly and will be published on our website. Populism isn’t a coherent ideology, argues John Judis, but “a way of thinking” about politics that can be employed by the left, right or center. In e Populist Explosion, he writes:
“Left-wing populists champion the people against an elite or establishment. eirs is a vertical politics of the bottom and middle arrayed against the top. Right-wing populists champion the people against an elite that they accuse of coddling a third group, which can consist, for instance, of immigrants, Islamists, or African American militants. Leftwing populism is dyadic. Right-wing populism is triadic. It looks upward, but also down on an out group.”
Populist progressives won quite a few victories in the Democratic primaries on March 17. Conservative super PACs spent enormous sums to defeat them. Consider the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania: John Fetterman, the state’s lieutentant governor, will be the party’s U.S. Senate candidate for the seat currently held by a retiring Republican, Pat Toomey. Fetterman’s an unusual politician with a straightforward speaking style, casual dress, shaved head and tattoos.
Fetterman supports Medicare for All, abortion rights, higher taxes on the rich, marijuana legalization and a $15 hour minimum wage. He denounces the libuster and the
Populism: bigoted scapegoating obstruction of Build Back Better. or multiracial progressivism Alexander Sammon of e American Prospect notes that Fetterman’s opponent, by Dave Anderson Conor Lamb, a Pittsburgh-area congressman, “had a not-insigni cant record of voting against the party,” “a close personal relationship with Sen. Joe Manchin, the libuster’s Democratic face,” and “was unable to make the case [for himself as] a Democrat who would actually advance the Democratic agenda.” Fetterman says, “ is is the most important race in the country. Control of the Senate is going to come down to Pennsylvania, and we have to ip this seat.” Lamb has since pledged his support for Fetterman, saying, “Our entire democracy is on the line in November.” Are Lamb’s comments unnecessarily hyperbolic? In many primary races, Republican voters chose candidates who parrot Trump’s election lies and who seem determined to exert enormous political control over voting systems. Right-wing populism is going o the rails. It is getting extraordinarily vicious and stupid. Republican politicians and Fox News yakkers say that the Biden administration is stealing scarce infant formula and giving it to migrant babies and could be deliberately importing fentanyl to murder supporters of Trump. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Biden was giving “baby formula to illegal immigrants while mothers and fathers stare at empty grocery store shelves in a panic.”
