What DC Democrats Don’t Get About Populism

[eridani]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/179013/what-dc-democrats-dont-get-about-populism-and-lot-america

Weiland speaks the language of the old-time populists. He says, “I was born here. I grew up on this land. It was ours because our democracy kept it that way. Today our democracy is being bought by big money and turned against us. To feed their profits we lose our jobs, our homes and our farms, our kids’ education, even our health, and the Congress they have bought looks the other way, or worse.”

The Democratic contender campaigns as the populists did, not with slick television commercials but on the road, with a commitment to visit every one of South Dakota’s 311 towns.

Why,” as the Washington-insider journal The Hill asked this week, “is South Dakota’s Rick Weiland getting [the] cold shoulder?”

As The Hill explains:

Rick Weiland will be the Democratic Senate nominee in South Dakota, but party leaders are less than thrilled about it.

Stuck with a candidate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has publicly trashed and a race the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee routinely leaves off its competitive list, the seat of retiring Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., now looks like a lost cause for Democrats who face an increasingly difficult map to hold onto the Senate.

[Recursion]

1. Populism is white supremacism thinly disguised as class consciousness

If that leopard has managed to change its spots, it's still going to need a lot of time before it's trustworthy again.

[eridani]

2. Does not apply to Weiland, period n/t

[Recursion]

4. Increase punishments for drug offenses. Eliminate parole. Increase drug testing.

Decrease foreign aid. Decrease immigration quotas. Enact tariffs on global south countries. Increase military spending. Opposes even medical marijuana.

http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Rick_Weiland.htm

Leopards have a way of being spotted...

[Lasher]

3. Does not apply to Weiland or to populism.

[Recursion]

5. Favoring increased drug testing and elimination of parole is white supremacism.

The war on drugs has been one of the biggest populist/white supremacist tools of the past several decades and he definitely is a big proponent.

http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Rick_Weiland.htm

[Lasher]

6. You just linked his general On The Issues page, so I'm not sure where you are coming from.

He supports drug testing for federal employees in sensitive positions. Do you think that makes him a white supremacist? I don't.

Please show how populism is white supremacy. You have only argued that the war on drugs has had racial implications in the past, but you have said nothing to establish that as fact. And even if we assume for the sake of argument that this could be so, you have not shown a direct link between populists and white supremacists. Surely some populists harbor racist attitudes, but it's quite a leap from there to your false dichotomy between populism and racism.

[daybranch]

7. Populism is working for the majority of the people

What about Populism as practiced by Elizabeth Warren and crew is white supremacy? Looking out for the general public is a key element of community and necessary for a just society. To me and most I believe that is what populism means. It does notr mean white supremacy, hell with the one percent we already have that, and populism is part of the fight against the one percent.

[Recursion]

11. Populism, at least as the term has been used until last year, is a style, not an ideology

It's a style of political engagement, not a political position. Its practitioners have run the ideological gamut from William Jennings Bryan to Huey P. Long to Charles Coughlin. But it has always been based on white downscale resentment. Like I said, it's possible this leopard can change its spots, but it will take a long time to prove it. Why people insist on calling Warren, et al, "populist" over the past couple of years, given what the term has actually meant, is beyond me (and notice they give the same label to Sarah Palin). Weiland's positions on crime and sentencing (get rid of parole, increase drug sentences, not even medical marijuana) fit in pretty well with the populist style, and that troubles me.

[TheKentuckian]

16. If you aren't corporate enabler then you are a racist! This is what they are going with.

I think many want a party more or less in line with Bob Corker with a "left wing" round about Jon Huntsman.

[Lasher]

17. I don't want to seem mean spirited, but you clearly do not understand populism.

A populist is the opposite of a libertarian, not that of either a liberal on the left or conservative on the right. Members of the Occupy movement were liberal economic populists. John Edwards said himself that he is a populist. Elizabeth Warren is a progressive populist. There are populist elements of the Tea Party but they are on the conservative side.

Maybe you will be receptive to this, I don't know. But I think you would benefit from reading this:

Populism in the United States

Or if you don't want to be guided by me, then please consider going to Google and searching on populism.

[Scuba]

9. That statement is ludicrous.

[Enthusiast]

18. How ridiculous.

[Exposethefrauds]

8. I went to Mr Weiland web site and there is very little on the site

as where he stands on the issues. However what little there is, is riddled with TeaHadist buzzwords

such as .....'Rick is running so that we can take back our country and our government'

http://rickweiland.com/priorities/

Personally I would not trust the guy nor give him any money or support until he becomes crystal clear as to where he stands on the issues such as abortion for starters.

See Abortion is one of the best litmus tests for a candidate there is, most anti choice individuals are as also against gay rights, equal opportunity, the obvious women's rights, global warming, and they are also typically religious loons. But that is just the way I see things.

If Democrats in SD think Mr Weiland is worthy to Send to DC as a Democrat then either I need to rethink why I am in the Democratic Party or the people of SD need reassess why they are Democrats if this is the best they can come up with.

[smokey nj]

10. I googled "Rick Weiland abortion." He's pro-choice.

http://www.ontheissues.org/social/Rick_Weiland_Abortion.htm

[Lasher]

12. OnTheIssues can be difficult to navigate.

Here, have a look at this view:

http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Rick_Weiland_SenateMatch.htm

He's not perfect but he looks pretty good.

[smokey nj]

13. Nobody's perfect, but he's not bad at all.

I don't expect to agree with anyone on every single issue.

[Lasher]

14. He looks good on some economic issues.

That is particularly appealing to me because we need people to oppose the economic neoliberalism that is prevalent in both parties.

[smokey nj]

15. I agree.