The American Populism of 2006

Almost everytime I hear anything about former Senator John Edwards' campaign for the White House some talk of populism is often thrown into the conversation. What does American Populism even mean? And what does it have to do with today? I've spent the last few years studying history, particularly 20th century American, and the term populism means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. In my head, the 1st thing to come to mind is the midwest, specifically Kansas, at the end of the 19th century. I think of "traditional" American farmers getting screwed by the growing industrialization of our country. I think of William Jennings Bryant. And I think of the Democrats quieting down the movement by adopting populist ideas and values into their own platform. The history of the American Populist movement is worth reading about. It gives very interesting insights into how our country exists today, politically.

But back to today. Anyone who has ever watched even fifteen minutes of Lou Dobbs knows the gist of the 2006 political populism. It is essentially summed up in six of Lou Dobbs' favorite words: The War on the Middle Class. Populists look for answers to the problems of the middle class, of "mainstream America." In 1900, "Americans" were farmers. Today, "Americans" are middle class suburbanites who go to Church on Sunday, shop at Wal Mart, and are trying to raise a family in our growingly materialistic society (the American Dream, if you will, but I've got other thoughts on that). The populist agenda, as far as I'm concerned, has grown into one of outsourcing of jobs, the decreasing value of the American dollar, hard to manage health care costs, energy independence, and education (particularly college education, but not exclusively). Notice that the important issues are all domestic issues.

The current political debate, and the 2008 election, I think, will be the first time since September 11th that American politicians will realize that more important than everything that is going on in the world, Americans essentially only give a shit about Americans. We always have. The reason American culture was at the forefront of the world during the 20th century post World War II is not that Americans are somehow better than the rest of the world. We just don't really care about the rest of the world. Sure, world affairs are important. But only in how much they pertain to us. Iraq happened cause we love oil. We got into Vietnam and Korea because we honestly believed that Communists could somehow infiltrate our own goverment and destroy every freedom we hold dear in this nation. We got into World War II because Pearl Harbor got attacked. We got into World War I because the Germans attacked a ship with a lot of Americans on it. American foreign policy has always been one of isolationism. We have our own shit to deal with.

The issues of American populism have, really, always been the issues important to most of the people who elect our federal government. Different parties come and go based on who has the better ideas to fix these problems. Right now, the Republicans focus so squarely on the three holy tennents of evangelical politics, gay marriage, abortion, and blindly following the evangelical president, that they've finally managed to piss off more than half the country. The Democrats, on the other hand, haven't said anything of substance in a while. Maybe since Clinton. Maybe not since Lyndon Johnson. The winner of the White House in 2008 has to say something new. He or she has to say something to galvanize the country. Right now, it seems that John Edwards is the only candidate (among the very few right now) who is pulling for Americans first. If that makes him a Populist, then let him be a populist. But listen to what he has to say. I haven't heard too many details from him, but I can't wait to find out his plans.