Posted by
Darvin Dowdy on Sunday, November 25, 2007 5:58:01 PM
One dictionary’s definition of populism: any of various, often anti establishment or anti-intellectual political movements or philosophies that offer unorthodox solutions or policies and appeal to the common person rather than according with traditional party or partisan ideologies.
And wikipedia’s definition: the use of discourses, ideas or policies which try to appeal to “the people” by setting up a dichotomy between the people and the elite.
One can certainly conclude that a so-called intellectual or elitist wrote these definitions and that same person has little respect for the common person or populism. But from time to time the governing intellectuals and elites make mistakes. To err is human. You won’t get these elitists to admit they’re wrong but wrong they are and on several issues as of late. So in this fantastic Constitutional Republic that our forefathers designed and built for us, at times the populace must take time out of their busy lives, and let the governing elites (that they elected/hired) know who the boss is. At the same time it is extremely important for the populace to understand that runaway populism or pure democracy would be the end of our republic resulting eventually in some sort of military coup, marshal law or dictatorship. None of us really want that. Therefore, this “ingredient” called populism must be measured very carefully and sparingly. Too much populism in the mix and you’ll pull a Huey P. Long out of the oven. “Every Man a King”. Well most folks have enough sense to know now days that the true end results of the wealth redistribution that Long tried to implement would be “Every Man a Pauper”. With the exception of modern day democrats and their hard core base. They’ll never learn, though. But they represent such a small portion of Middle America.
So, again, the smart GOP politician had best begin to mix a little populism into their strategy. President Bush has done everything in his power to do just the opposite. Starting from Dubai Ports, to Harriet Miers, branding the Minutemen as vigilantes and waving in the Mexican Trucks. Especially once he lowered his hand on 1/20/05 his good natured grin turned downward into a snarl when it came to the voting base that put his butt into the oval office twice. He began to view and treat them more as disgruntled employees. As a result much of the voting base that had kept the GOP in the majority for decades have now become exasperated and are dropping out of the process because of the myriad of insults flung their way over the last several years by President Bush and the GOP hierarchy.
So our candidates must increase, a bit, the mixture of populism into their strategy to offset the damage done to the GOP by President Bush, K. Rove and the RNC. And most of them have. Some more than others. Really these upcoming primaries are going to be more like a chili cook-off than anything. There’s a flavor out there for every taste. We can only hope the choice we make can take the blue ribbon at the big cook-off on 11/4/08. DD