Where Have All The Populist Gone?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-lux/a-modern-populist-movemen_b_639408.html


I found this article last night as I was researching the Populist Party in America, and I was left asking: Where have all the Populist gone?  There are a few Populist minded people in government these days, but there are very few if any true Populist from what I can tell.  These folks like the VW Microbus and Tab have faded into memory or exist in such a small number to be recognized.  Everything I read concluded that the Populist Party in the United State ended with William Jennings Bryan, though it sputtered to life in some of the policies in the New Deal.  There was a very brief resurgence in the 1970's but that puttered out quickly.  So what is a Populist? Why has there not been a ground swell of the party today?  Do we even need a Populist Party today? Where have all the Populist gone?

Asking the initial question lead to more questions as usual.  I read up more on the Populist platform and deduced that the party was primarly for the betterment of the working class, but not necessarily at the expense of the wealthy.  They wanted government working for the working person and raise them up to a equal and level playing field.  So I asked myself: Do we even need Populist today?  My conclusion. Yes! America today matches closely the American in which Populism flurished.  Any student of political history understands that the famous "Cross of Silver" speech given by Populist idol William Jennings Bryan was a plead for backing the currency with silver rather than gold.  Such a shift would benifit the struggling agriculural and working industrial class of the country. It was their last ditched hope of staving off the tide of robber barons and the industrial elite that was threatening to take complete control of every aspect in American life.    Even the America of the early Populists like Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk bears a striking resemblance to today's America.  Landed elites were gaining control of the import/export market at the expense of the country, inflation reached epic proportions for that time, and the railroads were just starting to make millions of dollars tearing up the frontier.  Populism rears it's head most at times of corporate greed and a diminishing middle class...Hmmmm sounds vaugely familiar.

So yes, while there are some Populistish members of Congress, we need a strong, real Populist Party today.Why has there not been a ground swell of Populist towards that need? Yes we have groups like OWS and even the TEA PARTY (the more I think about it they are both pretty Populistic). I think some of lack has to do with the political climate created by the Neo-Conservative Movement and this notion that to help the poor is too much like socialism.  Last time I checked it does not but who is counting.  The middle class ought, at least in my opinion, to be flocking towards Populism.  One voice against a roar is nothing but many voices will shut up a lion.  As Americans watch the middle class disappear like their bank accounts there is very little we can do to stem the tide.  The wealthy continue to gain wealth, while I am left hoping my car stays together so I can get to my teaching job.  There is nothing..nothing socialistic about helping me, or anyone else in my place.  There is very little socialistic about help people who do less and have less than me. Welfare is not a drain on the rich and anyone who might tell you other wise might need to take a real look at their accountant.  Wealthy people don't pay for poor people.  Wealthy people don't even pay for the what is left of the middle class.  The middle class pays for the poor, all the while educating the wealthy's kids, managing their factories, and cooking their high end meals at fancy restaurants. 

Populism or any movement towards such is also choked out by the two party system where people with alternative ideas are forced into one of the two parties and delegated to a life of chipping away at the dam.  It should not be this way, but it is what it is.  We've backed ourselves into a very tight corner with little hope of getting out in these regards.  No third party has ever one the Presidency, though the Populist have put up some of the best runs at the White House.  They also put a not a few Congressman into office during the heyday.  A third party like the Populist would need to spend decades sewing the seeds of a return..perhaps it is now..before it can become a vital party against.  With the decline of the Republican Party it is possible but it is a long up-hill climb.  Grass roots organizing would be a very viable route for the Populist as well as fund raising under the current limits.  Lots of middle class and poor can give $10, where very few would or could give the limits.

Where have all the Populist gone?  I think they have gone by the way with the American middle class, and the cowboy.  This is unfortunate, because now is a time ripe for Populistic movement in the country.  There is the Great Recession, corporations on the loose..hell even considered people..and we have at least a faint threat of a robber baron being handed the keys to the White House.  Populism could really catch on.  It needs to catch on.  Where have all the Populist gone?  I don't know, but I can tell you were one lives.