NEWS TAKING LIBERTIES
THE REAL POLITICAL POPULISM OF
‘Middle Class Joe’ Biden By Joel McNally
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here’s probably no description in politics that has become more meaningless in the last four years than “political populist.” The proof is that political reporters regularly apply that term to both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, two politicians whose political values, driving passions and most devoted followers couldn’t be any more different if they came from different planets. They kind of do. But beginning Wednesday, Jan. 20, Americans are going to be reminded once again what a real political populist in the White House actually looks like. If populism still means anything, it has to include improving the lives of ordinary, working-class people instead of simply passing enormous tax cuts for the rich and powerful “elites” at the top. Golly, I wonder which president actually cares about doing that. Could it be incoming President Joe Biden, “Middle-Class Joe” as he was known when he was the
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poorest man in the U.S. Senate, or the departing (kicking and screaming all the way) President Trump, the billionaire heir to a family fortune whose only legislative achievement was passing another massive Republican tax cut costing $1.9 trillion over 10 years going overwhelmingly to millionaires and billionaires?
IF POPULISM STILL MEANS ANYTHING, IT HAS TO INCLUDE IMPROVING THE LIVES OF ORDINARY, WORKING-CLASS PEOPLE Trump’s claim to actually care about “forgotten Americans” left behind was just another lie among more than 25,000 that Washington Post factcheckers couldn’t keep up with because Trump was fabricating such a blinding torrent of lies during his term and reelection campaign.
The irony is the early model of fiery populist demagoguery in American politics was Huey Long, the corrupt Democratic political boss elected governor of Louisiana in 1928 and Senator from 1932 until his assassination in 1935. Long ruled through corrupt political patronage, but he also delivered real results for the poor and working-class Louisianans he roused with his rhetoric. He expanded social programs, including free medical care, free textbooks for students, college financial aid, prison rehabilitation and massive job-creating public works. Long was an avowed enemy of the political power of multimillion-dollar corporations, the primary beneficiaries of Trump’s corruption along with himself and other wealthy Americans.
A NEW NEW DEAL? Long was an early Democratic supporter of President Franklin Roosevelt but split from FDR in 1933 and began attacking the president from the left. Long was preparing to run against FDR in 1936 with his own
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