Part I: A Bit of History
As the Occupy movement spreads across the country there will inevitably be lots of discussions about what it is and where it might be going. Populism seems like a fairly obvious term to apply, but just what is that? This diary will attempt to provide a brief history of populism in American politics. I think that the background can be useful in providing a context for the present.
At the most general sense populism is a movement by the mass of the people in opposition to the power of the elite. Beyond that there is no standard definition to determine when a particular movement qualifies as populism. There is always the problem of who speaks for the people.
There is a trail of populist uprisings through out recorded human history. There are many instances in ancient Greece and Rome. They occur with some regularity in medieval Europe. Sometimes they turned into full blown revolutions that swept away the existing power structure such as France in 1789 and Russia in 1917. Much more often they have sputtered out in the face of armed suppression. Sometimes they are able to pressure an existing power structure into making significant changes.
The first populist movement in the US was the whiskey rebellion of the 1790s. Farmers in the western mountains were turning their surplus grain into whiskey. However, they resisted paying the newly established federal excise tax simply because they had converted it from carbohydrates to alcohol. It was a position not entirely different from the Boston Tea Party. President Washington climbed on his white horse and led the army into the mountains to put down the rebellion. Being the head of the American state was rather different from being a rebel opposing the British state.
Populist movements have been most likely to arise during times of economic adversity. The 1890s saw a number of movements in opposition to the robber barons and their spreading trust and financial networks. There was a series of agrarian movements in the Midwest and West that often called themselves populist. There was a nascent socialist movement among the urban working class and a middle class progressive movement. The more radical elements in these various groups were typically coopted or suppressed. There was eventually federal anti-trust legislation passed, but it would be difficult to claim that any of these movements had a profound and lasting impact on American political and economic structure.
The great depression of the 1930s was doubtless America's worst economic crisis up to the present. The cumulative frustration and desperation gave rise to a number of protest demanding various forms of economic change. They included the Bonus Marchers and Cox's Army. One of the most dramatic and a direct challenge to FDR and the early new deal from the left was Huey Long's Share Our Wealth movement. It's slogan was. Every Man A King.
The new deal era was a time of turmoil and conflict. It occurred in the context of a most difficult period for the entire world. By the end of WW II America had been profoundly changed. It is not possible to completely separate the programs of the Roosevelt administration from the effects of the war as causes of those changes. However, the new deal did establish at least three important things.
The power and duty of the government to regulate the financial sector.
The power and duty of the government to intervene to protect the economic security of ordinary citizens.
Established the right of workers to form unions and negotiate collective bargaining.
All of these developments represent real change from the positions of either the Republican or Democratic party prior to 1933. Many of them represent changes in FDR's personal positions from the date of his inauguration. Of equal importance is the fact that these changes were so firmly established in American society that they endured for a generation.
It is my view that this is the historical period to which it is most useful to look toward in the effort to understand our present difficulties. It is my view that without rather intense populist pressure the new deal would not have come about. Two subsequent Republican presidents, Eisenhower and Nixon didn't dare touch the accomplishment. However, beginning with Reagan they have slowly been whittled away.
For many years following WW II the US enjoyed economic comfort relative to the rest of the world. This was an atmosphere that did not provide fertile soil for populist discontent. As the neoliberal regime has gained power and control in both parties, that atmosphere has gradually become less comfortable and secure.
The recession on the early 1990s was a turning point. It was the first post war recession to directly hit the salaried middle class in large numbers. It gave rise to the political movement led by Ross Perot. Now Perot doesn't fit the image of a populist as a man with hands calloused from tilling the soil. Never the less it was an act of rebellion against both established political parties and captured enough of the popular vote to create a political speed bump.
The financial crisis and recession that began in 2007 is clearly the greatest economic upheaval that the US and the rest of the world have seen since the great depression. The election of 2008 gave rise to the Tea Party movement which managed to have some electoral impact on the Republican Party in 2010. It has often been called a populist movement. While I find it very distasteful, I wouldn't really disagree with that description.
That's been a very short history. In part II of this effort I am going to look at the Occupy movement in terms of the possibilities of forcing change.