Forgotten Populists - History Repeats Itself!

Late Night Health Radio

Hard-pressed farmers launched the original Populist movement, calling for a widening democracy to counter corporate monopoly and profiteering. Their resentment of the rich grew as the economy alternated between rapid growth and economic depression, producing both millionaires and destitute families. The Populist challenge to unbridled capitalism would finally force Republicans and especially Democrats to recognize the growing support for progressive change within their ranks. Fast-forward to modern times. Today’s pundits would have us believe that “populists” of the left—no less so than the right—are uniquely drawn to authoritarian politics. According to Babson,” The historical Populists are forgotten today as commentators tell us that Donald Trump, a self-proclaimed billionaire, is somehow also a ‘populist.’"It is because of the political climate of recent times that Babson began to explore how it was possible that politicians of completely different mindsets could somehow be connected to the idea of “populism.” From that exploration came his decision to write Forgotten Populists. “In 2016 I began to wonder how it was possible to describe two men as different as Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump as somehow sharing a link to ‘populism,’” Babson recalls, “one on the left, the other on the right. The more I read and the deeper I probed, the more absurd this claim turned out to be. The original Populists of the 1890s would have detested the likes of Trump, a right-wing billionaire from New York City. “‘Right-wing populism’ is an oxymoron,” says Babson. “The very term ‘populist’ was originated by groups that favored economic cooperatives, public ownership of railroads and utilities, low- cost federal loans for struggling farmers, postal savings banks, and an end to the gold standard. Charlatans who want to manipulate the voting public are demagogues, not Populists, and I wanted to write a history that makes that clear.” Author Steve Babson, Ph.D visits with Mark Alyn.
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