Populism Without Heavies

[struggle4progress]

By Harold Meyerson
Wednesday, July 28, 2004; Page A19

<snip>
Under Reagan, and now far more so under George W. Bush, the official policy of the U.S. government has been to throw money at the rich. When Reagan ruled, this policy was justified by the doctrine of trickle-down economics: The rich would invest their tax cuts in job-creating American enterprises. The theory sounded a lot better than the actual process worked, but at least there was a theory. Under the latter Bush, there's not even that. When the rich invest today, their money flows to enterprises that span the globe. Trickle-down economics is gone; what we have today is trickle-out economics.
<snip>

Picking up the cudgel of class warfare that Bush has compelled the Democrats to fight, yet making clear he was not targeting upscale voters as the villains, required Clinton to choose as his representative Bush-beneficiary a guy he thought rather highly of. In an indication that he's lost none of his political cunning, Clinton chose himself.

"I almost sent them a thank-you note for my tax cuts," Clinton said, "until I realized the rest of you were paying the bill for it." And then he was off on a Clintonian riff demonstrating yet again that he is the Democrats' greatest framer of issues since Franklin Roosevelt. "They chose to protect my tax cut," he said again and again, over after-school programs and cops on the street and port security. Bush and the Republican leaders in the House "thought our $5,000 was more important than doubling the container checks at our ports and airports."

That's not just universalistic populism. It's national security populism. It's a mantra for Democratic victory.
<snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19731-2004Jul27.html

[PVnRT]

1. This party needs a dose of populism

That is, trump the "populism," that is, exploitation of social wedge issues, that the GOP has used for 30 years.

[dumpster_baby]

2. I do not have ANY PROBLEM with "attack the rich" populism!

In fact, I think we try and convict and HANG a bunch of rich people.