Up at the Forks of the Creek: In Search of American Populism

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Abbeville Institute:

Up at the Forks of the Creek: In Search of American Populism

By Clyde Wilson on Nov 16, 2016

 

Editor’s note: With the rise of “populism” around the world, we should revisit what American populism is and what it means.

 

In “Populism” we are confronted with a term that raises so many different connotations in different minds that we well may wonder if the term is usable at all. It is not quite as bad, in this respect, as democracy—a word so abused that no honest thinker employs it any more. Every regime in the world has been declared democratic, with the possible exception of the Vatican and the Sultanate of Muscat.

 

“Populism” implies “The People.” Thus it is, in most quarters, a favorable sign or symbol, a sought-after asset in the public forum. Its fate is similar to that of “liberalism,” a favorable term that has come in the 20th century to cover a very-different set of phenomena than it did in the 19th, to the point that its use can be extremely misleading. A few years on the hustings can destroy any political label. Consider the straightforward old Anglo-Saxon term Whig.

 

To be successful, populism does not need the established respectable leadership of a national political party. It needs wild men like Pat Buchanan who are ready to kick over the traces and call a spade a spade