tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12310464.post1287789638217164243..comments2024-02-26T13:34:55.746-06:00Comments on Comrade Kevin's Chrestomathy: The Limits of PopulismComrade Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393718048145784837noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12310464.post-72375490389620418282009-09-13T04:35:24.112-05:002009-09-13T04:35:24.112-05:00The "share the wealth" proposals all mak...The "share the wealth" proposals all make perfect sense to me.Karlohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15647211317186049289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12310464.post-494581927519608992009-09-12T13:32:31.036-05:002009-09-12T13:32:31.036-05:00You’re taking on an important political topic here...You’re taking on an important political topic here, but so far your focus is solely on the leaders — which means you’re describing Populism in its decadence, not at the height of its power. You wrote, “at the close of the Nineteenth Century, Populism was a movement spearheaded by William Jennings Bryan and championed by those who wished to switch to a bimetallic currency system.” Well, no, Bryan was a late arrival, recruited in a rather desperate bid to infiltrate the two-party system. By that time (1896), the Populist revolt, which originated among exploited farmers in the South and Midwest, had been pretty well suppressed by Democratic fraud and violence. A Populist newspaper was published at Columbiana, Alabama (now a Republican stronghold, as you know) and was burned down by partisans of the one-party “Democracy” that ruled the South. A Populist candidate for Alabama governor, <a href="http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Multimedia.jsp?id=m-2316" rel="nofollow">Reuben F. Kolb</a>, was denied office by electoral fraud and replaced with ex-Confederate <a href="http://is.gd/3c84V" rel="nofollow">W.C. Oates</a>. By the turn of the century, Populist activists who hadn’t been shot to death had either dropped out or turned to race-baiting demagoguery (vid. <a href="http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2540" rel="nofollow">Tom Watson</a> of Georgia). Men like Bryan, Watson, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Tillman" rel="nofollow">“Pitchfork Ben” Tillman</a> of South Carolina were pseudo-Populists who sopped up what was left of the movement to fuel their own rise to political celebrity. Voters placed high hopes in these men, but once they gained power (if they did) as Democrats, they sold out their constituents in the usual manner. <br /><br />Laurence Goodwyn is the most noted historian of Populism. You can sample his book <i>The Populist Moment</i> <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=bht1Gh9FTbMC" rel="nofollow">here</a>. The intro happens to be one of the best pieces I’ve ever read on how to succeed at democratic mass movement building.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com