3 ms·
Yeah, I think 2016 with Bernie employing one populism and Trump another one tells this story well. They're more different than similar, to be clear but their pi
by kevinmchugh 3y ago
Yeah, I think 2016 with Bernie employing one populism and Trump another one tells this story well. They're more different than similar, to be clear but their pitches had similar shapes. There's an elite, they cause all the policies you dislike, and if we could just engage all the disaffected voters we'd easily get the things we want. For Bernie it was the economic elite preventing expanded welfare programs, especially Medicare For All. For Trump it was a globalist elite preventing nativist policies.
It was more obvious in 2020 (with a less complicated, more policy-driven primary) that tons of Democratic primary voters don't want Medicare For All, and that the story as Bernie had told it didn't match the reality on the ground of differing policy goals even within the party's constituents.
- tptacek 3y agoImmediately following 2016, there was a vogue for left populism as a response or corrective to the right populism that carried the election, an idea that "our side" needed to get some of that energy for itself. 2018 was a test of that idea, and it failed pretty conclusively.