Populism
November 20, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Recalling from Power Line’s Lexicon of Political Terminology that “populism is when the wrong person wins an election,” the reaction this morning to Javier Milei’s victory in Argentina’s presidential election yesterday makes evident that the real threat represented by the the victory of Donald Trump (and Brexit) in 2016 is that it demonstrated that voters felt free to choose candidates not approved and certified by the established political class and
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June 28, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Let’s go with a couple of maps today instead of charts and graphs or tables. First up, while Britain’s Tory Party appears heading for an electoral wipeout at the next general election—the first since their historic sweep in 2019—chiefly because the Tories have governed as though their cabinet positions were inhabited by alien body snatchers from Planet Labour, over on the continent, right- or populist-leaning parties continue to gain ground
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September 29, 2022 — Steven Hayward
William Galston, the liberal columnist for the Wall Street Journal‘s editorial page (they always like to have one around) writing every so gently yesterday on the need for Democrats to pay attention to the legitimate grievances of populism lest they get buried in a populist electoral tide: “Powerful forces in the Democratic coalition oppose crafting the sort of moderate policies that could win back these [working class] voters. But if
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September 26, 2022 — Steven Hayward
We’re getting another confirmation today of a key definition in Power Line’s Lexicon of Leftist Terms: ‘”Populism” is when the wrong person or cause wins a free election”.’ The corollary is that every Republican candidate for president is Hitler, and now we learn that every Italian conservative is Mussolini. On the other hand, I can see why the authoritarian elites of the European Union, who have made vague threats against
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September 25, 2022 — Steven Hayward
John notes below the latest “mainstream” polls showing both Biden and the Democrats reaching the burnt toast stage of this election cycle, but amidst the lingering questions about the accuracy of polling these days, it should be noted that the outcome of the midterms presents a huge dilemma for Democrats no matter how the election turns out. If Democrats get drowned in a wave, they face the serious problem of
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December 28, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The estimable Henry Olsen thinks so. He writes: Many anti-Trump Republicans long for the day when they can retake their party and expel the populist deviations from orthodoxy that vex them so. Evidence from around the world shows this is a pipe dream. Olsen explains: The same fissures in the old conservative coalition that plague the GOP appear in virtually every other modern democracy. Nationalist and populist parties have grown
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July 13, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Poland’s incumbent president, Andrzej Duda, has been elected for another five-year term. He narrowly defeated Rafał Trzaskowski, the mayor of Warsaw and friend of the EU. With nearly all votes counted, the split was 51.2 to 48.8. Duda is an ally of President Trump. Duda visited Trump at the White House shortly before the first round of presidential voting, in which he also came out on top. Duda is a
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December 31, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Modern democracies are said to be in the grip of “populism” that the dictionary defines as “a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.” Most of the learned commentary from academia and the news media describe populism as a harbinger of the apocalypse, a threat to democracy, and the second coming of fascism, all stemming from racism and
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September 21, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Spiked has posted the film below “about the transatlantic populist revolt” with this introduction: Brexit and Trump were two ballot-box revolts that, though different in many ways, shared one clear thing in common: the fury they provoked from the establishment. Politicians and commentators, in the US and UK, immediately denounced voters as uneducated, racist and deplorable. Democracy itself was called into question. We travelled from the Rust Belt to the
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July 8, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Greece will have a new Prime Minister and a new government. Its conservative party has defeated the leftist party headed by current Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. I doubt that anyone is surprised by this result. When we visited Greece last Fall, we scarcely met a Greek (outside of Crete) who didn’t complain bitterly about the economy. From the ancient taxi driver who had to fight his way through brutal Athens
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May 24, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
John Fonte is probably the leading American critic of what he calls “the Europe of Brussels.” Thus, his is a voice worth listening to in connection with the European parliamentary elections now being held. John discusses what’s at stake in these elections in an article for “American Greatness” called “The Virtues of Patriotism.” The election, says John, represents a “war of ideas between the ‘Europe of Nations’ and the ‘Europe
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May 23, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Voting in the European Parliament elections begins today. It will continue into the weekend. As I understand it, different countries vote on different days. The “populist” parties are expected to make their best-ever showing. I wrote about this development here. In that post, I suggested that if the populists make the gains they are expected to, they will fall far short of making up a majority in Parliament, but will
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May 19, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
European parliamentary elections will take place on May 26. I’m old enough to remember the early elections in which my wife’s socialist cousin refused to vote on the grounds that the EU had no power and the elections didn’t matter. Ah, the good old days. Nowadays, the EU has vast power, so the elections are not so easily dismissed. However, it’s possible that the results of this election might cause
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May 9, 2019 — Scott Johnson
So far this week we have previewed three stellar review/essays from the new (Spring) issue of the Claremont Review of Books (subscribe here). It is an invaluable magazine for those of us who love penetrating essays on, and reviews of books about, politics, history, literature and culture. We continue this morning with Michael Anton’s review of Tucker Carlson’s book Ship of Fools. Tucker has a book? Well, yes, he does.
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April 12, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
This column by Fareed Zakaria is called “Democrats need an antidote to nationalism.” The most interesting thing about it is that Zakaria never describes such an antidote. Instead, he seems to favor nationalism, but one that isn’t “populist” — one that’s “informed and influenced by other values such as liberty and equality.” We’ll get to this prescription in a moment. For now, let’s consider what the alternatives to nationalism are.
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March 21, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Don’t ask me to explain why just now, but lately I reread Christopher Lasch’s last book, The Revolt of the Elites, published in 1995 shortly after his death. I recall disliking the book somewhat back then, in part because I had a bias against Lasch, who not only sympathized with the New Left in the 1960s, but whose 1978 book The Culture of Narcissism was said to be one of
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February 20, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Anti-Semitism is on the rise in France. The French Interior Ministry reports that instances of anti-Semitic violence increased by 74 percent in 2018. Anti-Semitism has been increasing for some time in France. The rise corresponds to the increase of the Muslim population and its growing radicalization. However, recent developments suggest that anti-Semitism is also percolating up from France’s native population. The “Gilet Jaune” (“Yellow Vest”) movement is a mini-rebellion by
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