Reply #68: Just a chuckle [View All]

[adwon]

New England Millionaire populist is self-contradictory. Urban liberal populist is pretty close as well.

I don't think Dean could be considered a populist because of his role as a fiscal conservative (emphasis on balanced budgets). Populists are historically advocates of statist policies and have little concern about deficits. They were also consistent advocates of expansionist, and inflationary, monetary policy.

Please don't read this as a condemnation of populism. I just wanted to make the point that it's a hard tradition to reconcile with a rigorous approach toward balancing budgets. Populists would likely not mind deficits in the abstract, but I doubt their position would extend to the current administration's policy.