Sarah Palin's a populist, not a conservative

The Star Ledger ^ | Paul Mulshine

[Eric Blair 2084]

I confess that from the beginning I didn't get the Sarah Palin nomination. Everything about it seemed wrong, from her chirpy Matanuska Valley girl accent, to the MTV morals of her family life, to her complete lack of any experience or even of any stated views on national or international affairs.

But now I get it. It represents the last gasp of the effort to turn the Republican Party of 2008 into the Democratic Party of 1896. Or at least I hope it does. The 1896 presidential race represented the high point of populism in America. The Democratic candidate, William Jennings Bryan, represented many of the urges that have since migrated into the Republican Party, such as a distrust of Darwin. If you doubt that, consider what the great H.L. Mencken had to say on the subject in one of his essays on Bryan around the time of the Scopes Monkey Trial:

"The so-called religious organizations which now lead the war against the teaching of evolution are nothing more, at bottom, than conspiracies of the inferior man against his betters. They mirror very accurately his congenital hatred of knowledge, his bitter enmity to the man who knows more than he does, and so gets more out of life. ... What they propose to do, at bottom and in brief, is to make the superior man infamous -- by mere abuse if it is sufficient, and if it is not, then by law."

[Eric Blair 2084]

Just for kicks and giggles, I would appreciate it if somebody here logged on to NJ.com and told him that.

Not that I can’t handle it myself or defend Sarah’s conservative credentials on my own....but a little help from friends would be welcome.

[bboop]

I don’t believe populist means anti-elitist. Anti-elitist, now THAT does. Populist reminds me of Andrew Jackson, who was from the (West?) and went all over the West, leaving the northeasterners in the dust as he campaigned. The elitists might think they are aristocrats, but just holding their noses up and going to Harvard does NOT make them such.

[Oztrich Boy]

But now I get it. It represents the last gasp of the effort to turn the Republican Party of 2008 into the Democratic Party of 1896. Or at least I hope it does. The 1896 presidential race represented the high point of populism in America. The Democratic candidate, William Jennings Bryan,

I see it as closer to 1900. Both the Dem presidential campaign and the Republican VP candidate were "populists", but there the comparison ended

The democratic candidate was an empty headed speechifier, a lawyer and minor legislator whose claim to fame was a speech he gave to the Dem convention 4 years previously, full on sonorous and context free phrasing. The Presidency was well above his pay grade, ans if he had won his term would have been as ignominious as his later stint as Secretary of State

The Republican candidate was a outsider, former rancher, vigorous, athletic, hunter, with only two years as a Governor. But a fully rounded individual, and if the Republicans had lost, he would have succeeded in some other field.

But they won, and after he was President, they carved his head onto Mt Rushmore

[IreneE]

The only time I have ever heard the word “Populist” applied with any meaning was about the film director Frank Capra.

Palin is a Capra Populist.

That’s why this race is so exciting.

Watch some of Capra’s old films. Abe Lincoln is actually a “character” in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

[vpintheak]

Perhaps I will. I am always willing to help set a lost soul straight.

[steve-b]

"The so-called religious organizations which now lead the war against the teaching of evolution are nothing more, at bottom, than conspiracies of the inferior man against his betters. They mirror very accurately his congenital hatred of knowledge, his bitter enmity to the man who knows more than he does, and so gets more out of life. ... What they propose to do, at bottom and in brief, is to make the superior man infamous -- by mere abuse if it is sufficient, and if it is not, then by law" --H. L. Mencken

The Sage of Baltimore pegs it -- and shows that, ironically, creationism advances the left-liberal agenda.

[steve-b]

An alternate expression of the concept:

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded -- here and there, now and then -- are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as “bad luck."
--"Lazarus Long" (Robert A. Heinlein)

[x]

Any politician from a rural state is going to sound "populist" to urban journalists -- unless it's a politician who's been born rich or thoroughly Washingtonized.

So an Alaskan is going to look "populist" to someone from Newark, but that doesn't entitle the New Jerseyan to pull the "a populist, not a conservative" gambit.