Thursday, March 26, 2009

Populist Rebellion, Hardly

Is the tea party movement, which has received the most coverage via Glenn Reynolds, but which has received little coverage in the mainstream media, a rising populist rebellion?  I don’t think so, unfortunately.

I am not the only individual who doubts a populist rebellion.  Mother Jones has an interesting piece up on this subject titled Why Bank Rage Is Not Populism, comparing today’s bank rage to the populist movement which formed after the Civil War.  From the piece.

What’s going on today bears little resemblance to the great surge of political organizing that began in and spread through the South and West in the 1890s. To begin with, it isn’t now, nor is it likely to become, part of any larger mass movement. It’s directed at the worst excesses of the system, not at the system itself. And it doesn’t offer an alternative vision, beyond a few more progressive “reforms.” (Contrary to what Rush Limbaugh and Newsweek may say, we are definitely not all socialists now.)

Via Fred Lapides’ GoodShit.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/26 at 09:02 AM
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