Ep. 42: 'Populism' - The Media’s Favorite Catch-All Smear for the Left
Added 2018-06-27 19:35:55 +0000 UTCWith the rise of Trump, Sanders, Corbyn and Brexit, hundreds of pundits, reporters, and talking heads have been warning about the problems of "populism" and its alleged attack on democracy over the past three years.
“Populism and immigration pose major threat to global democracy,” the Gates Foundation insists. “The Dangerous Rise of Populism - Global Attacks on Human Rights Values,“ wrote Human Rights Watch in 2017. “Trump's Rise Proves How Dangerous Populism Is for Democracy” NBC says. “Populism is still a threat to Europe,” The European University Institute tells us.
But what exactly is populism? How is a term that allegedly applies to Hugo Chávez and Bernie Sanders also casually used to describe fascists and far-right forces?
Under the thin, ideology-flattening definition of populism, the term is more often than not used as a euphemism for demagogic cults of personality and fascism and as the ultimate horseshoe theory reduction to lump together movements for equity and justice on the Left with those of revanchism, nationalism and explicit racism on the Right.
We are joined on this episode by writer and historian Thomas Frank.
Guest
Thomas Frank is a journalist, political analyst and historian. He is the co-founder of The Baffler magazine and author of several books, including What's the Matter with Kansas?, Pity The Billionaire, and Listen, Liberal, or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?
Show Notes
Forget Trump – populism is the cure, not the disease
Thomas Frank | May 23, 2018 | The Guardian
Stop using the term 'populist' for right-wing demagogues
Adam Johnson | May 18, 2017 | The Los Angeles Times
America in Populist Times: An Interview With Chantal Mouffe
Waleed Shahid | December 15, 2016 | The Nation
To Lump Him With Trump, Zakaria Lies About Sanders on Brexit
Adam Johnson | July 1, 2016 | FAIR
On the Front Lines of the Populism Wars
Anton Jäger | June 8, 2018 | Jacobin
Us v Them: the birth of populism
John Judis | October 13, 2016 | The Guardian
Jan-Werner Müller | September 21, 2017 | The Nation
Why nativism, not populism, should be declared word of the year
Cas Mudde | December 7, 2017 | The Guardian
For a Left Populism - Chantal Mouffe, Verso Books
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References
Centrists Are the Most Hostile to Democracy, Not Extremists
David Adler | May 23, 2018 | The New York Times
The news that bots share on Twitter tends not to focus on politics
Stefan Wojcik & Michael Barthel | June 21, 2018 | Pew Research Center
April 8, 2018 | Pew Research Center
Populism is still a threat to Europe — here’s how to contain it
Richard Maher | June 6, 2017 | The Conversation
The Dangerous Rise of Populism - Global Attacks on Human Rights Values
Human Rights Watch | 2017
Populism and immigration pose major threat to global democracy, study says
Rebecca Ratcliffe | Nov 15, 2017 | The Guardian
Trump's Rise Proves How Dangerous Populism Is for Democracy
Evan McMullin | October 11, 2017 | NBC News
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The Media's Trump-Sanders 'Populism' Nexus
5 Ways Bernie Sanders & Donald Trump Are More Similar Than You Think (Bustle, December 28, 2015)
What Trump and Sanders Have in Common (The Atlantic, January 6, 2016)
How Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump’s Campaigns Are Similar (Huffington Post, January 21, 2016)
5 Ways Bernie Sanders And Donald Trump Are More Alike Than You Think (NPR, February 8, 2016)
Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump Look Like Saviors to Voters Who Feel Left Out of the American Dream (The Guardian, February 28, 2016)
The Angry White Men That Gave Trump and Sanders Their Victories (Ha'aretz, March 9, 2016)
Why Americans Are So Angry in 2016:The Rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, Many Say, Is a Reflection of the Anger in America Today. (CNN, March 9, 2016)
Why Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders Both Appeal to Angry, White Men (Fortune, March 9, 2016)
Angry White Males Propel Donald Trump—and Bernie Sanders (Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2016)
Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders Are Delusional on Trade Policy (The Daily Beast, April 11, 2016)
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The Media v. Democracy
The Case Against Democracy (The New Yorker, November 7, 2016)
The problem with our government is democracy (The Washington Post, November 10, 2016)
The trouble with democracy (Al Jazeera, December 28, 2016)
More professionalism, less populism: How voting makes us stupid, and what to do about it (Brookings, May 31, 2017)
The British election is a reminder of the perils of too much democracy (The Los Angeles Times, June 9, 2017 )
Two eminent political scientists: The problem with democracy is voters (Vox, June 24, 2017 )
The Problem With Participatory Democracy Is the Participants (The New York Times, June 29, 2017)
Politics Shouldn’t Be Like Open Mic Night (The New York Times, January 25, 2018)
Why American Democracy Is Broken, and How to Fix It (The New Republic, July 29, 2017)
Why Democracy Doesn’t Deliver (Foreign Policy, April 26, 2018)
The Middle East Doesn’t Lack Democracy. It Has Too Much. (The Washington Post, May 31, 2018)
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Transcript
A full transcript of this episode is available here.
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