Populism is simply Socialism with a more acceptable name

[maxrandb]

Truly it is.

[brush]

1. Not quite. There have been right wing populists who try to appeal to the common man/woman.

Also fake ones like trump who feeds raw meet to his deplorable base but doesn't really give a shit about them.

[Squinch]

2. I disagree. Populism is not a positive thing. It is the appeal to the lowest common denominator in

all of us.

Trump used populism to get elected.

[OnDoutside]

3. No it isn't. You could have a Populist from any part of the Political Spectrum. Trump is a populist.

Populists are likely to have no moral compass.

[kcr]

4. No. Really, it isn't.

Trump ran a populist campaign and he isn't socialist. The two concepts have little to do with each other.

[NCTraveler]

5. Not even close.

I find very little to be acceptable about populism. Socialism is an arguabley acceptable form of government. Populism is individual in nature and overall reserved for snake oil salesman.

[johnp3907]

6. Oh well. I've been called worse than "populist."

[FSogol]

7. Wrong. n/t

[GulfCoast66]

8. No it is not.

Populism is not tied to any political position.

[lamsmy]

9. Wrong - 2 very different things

Populism defies easy definition but it has always had a few hallmarks.

The first most important of these is that populists ALWAYS seek to divide people into different groups, usually the common "people" vs the "elites". It often differentiates between the "native" and the immigrant.

Populism seeks to rule on policies deemed to benefit their supporters interests and exclude those who don't meet their criteria. The policies usually emphasize the fear factor of outsiders or newcomers through appeals for law and order and reducing immigration.

Equally important, is that populism champions policies that may be popular, but do not necessarily actual help the average citizen. Case in point is immigration. Every single respected study demonstrates that immigrants, regardless of their origin, make a positive economic contribution to their new home. In other words, something that is actual good for joe average is portrayed as something harmful. That's populism - popular but dumb.

Socialism is many respects, the exact opposite. Socialist policies stress the common good even when they are not necessarily popular. Sentencing reform is an example of this.

Socialism also avoids differentiating between groups and finding a common good. For instance, EVERYBODY, benefits from a strong public school system and therefore everyone should contribute to funding it. That's why most states and cities try to give the children of illegal immigrants access to education - not educating them causes more expensive headaches later on.

In a nutshell, populism is about irrational fears and distrust, while socialism relies on evidence based policy making and trust.

[MineralMan]

10. Populism is a much-misunderstood word.

Trump is a populist. Hitler was a populist.

Populism is not a definition of any political belief. It is a tactic used to promote politicians. Populists can have any sort of political belief. Populism is merely the use of particular political strategies to stir up support. Those strategies can be used to promote evil people or good ones.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populism

[jcgoldie]

11. Nope

Not even close. Populism is not a political ideology. More often than not its been associated with right wing politics.

[JaneQPublic]

12. In Al Gore's 2000 campaign, he was said to position himself as a populist...

...at least in contrast to Bill Clinton's DLC "New Democrat" approach.

As I recall, about all Gore did to earn that distinction was to speak more about the working people left behind by the economic boom and less about supporting the business world. (And his running mate, Joe Lieberman, was not at all happy about it, as it turns out.)

But then, George Wallace was also described as a populist, so as other have said, populism can be embraced by politicians regardless of their position along the ideological spectrum.

[Wounded Bear]

13. One of the biggest incorrect assumptions people make about "populism"...

is that they assume it equates with "the majority."

Looking back on history, most "populist" leaders aren't really backing or backed by a majority of the people. They tend to be a very loud minority which gets all the press/publicity. In most cases it is classic astroturf, a very loud, insistent minority backed by tons of dark money from wealthy patrons who take over governments for their own purposes. Religion is a favored tool as well. The Tea Party comes to mind, which lead us pretty directly to Trump.

One should extremely leery of jumping on 'populist' bandwagons.

Just my:

[tenderfoot]

14. Uh no...

eom