TW: As I have written previously populism is at once pervasive but almost always destructive. We are amidst challenging times, we do not need populism to morph into a destructive force. Few recall that FDR's greatest challenger for the presidency in 1936 was not a Republican but another Democrat, Huey Long of Louisiana. Long was assassinated in 1935 conveniently pricking a growing bubble of populism embodied by Long and others such as Father Charles Coughlin.
From Jesse's American Cafe blog:
"Demagoguery refers to a strategy for gaining political power by appealing to the popular prejudices, emotions, fears and expectations of the public — typically via impassioned rhetoric and propaganda, and often using nationalist or populist themes, usually singling out a group or groups. >
No, not demagogue or demagogy. The Word for the Week is "them.
Why should we help them.
We are being dragged down by them.
Blaming them feels good.
It makes one feel as if they were successful, not part of the problem.
It wasn't us, it was them.
They caused their own problems.
They caused our problems. It is unfortunate but they would be better off somewhere else, out of sight, no longer an impairment or competition for scarce resources.
They are the scapegoats, usually singled out by the group or groups that caused the problems, and even those who benefitted indirectly, made some money out of the bubble, less deservedly than they might like to imagine.
They are the weak, the poor, the defenseless, the different, the other.
And the circle of the ones that are considered them spreads wider and wider.
Because even those shouting and waving their fists in the crowds against them are also them to someone else higher up in the power structure. Useless eaters.
And then someone will come and take them away, where they do not wish to go. And then comes the descent into madness and destruction, for all."
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