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“Progressive,” We Need a Real Populist Movement

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“Progressive,” We Need a Real Populist Movement 1006Lowdown_final.qxd 6/4/10 6:16 PM Page 1 VOLUME12 NUMBER 6 JUNE 2010 The ❛❛Wall Street owns the country. It is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street, and for Wall Street.❜❜ ——MARY ELLEN LEASE, lecturer, writer, and LOWDOWN political activist, advocate of women’s EDITED BY JIM HIGHTOWER AND PHILLIP FRAZER suffrage, Kansas Populist, a speech in 1890 Populism is not about mobs, anti-government rants, or opinion polls To put the progress back in “progressive,” we need a real populist movement IF A POLITICAL POLLSTER came to my door and asked themselves conservatives or liberals. whether I consider myself a conservative or a liberal, For me, the “ism” that best encompasses and addresses this reality is populism. What is it? Essentially, it’s the continuation of I’d answer, “No.” America’s democratic revolution. It encompasses and extends the ot to be cute—I have a bit of both in me—but because, like creation of a government that is us. Instead of a “trickle down” most Americans, my beliefs can’t be squeezed into either of approach to public policy, populism is solidly grounded in a “percolate the tidy little boxes that the establishment provides. up” philosophy that springs directly from America’s founding princi- Also, most of the big issues that our country faces defy ple of the Common Good. Nright-left categorization. Take conservatism. It’s a doctrine Few people today call themselves populists, but I think most are. that classically embodies caution and…well, conservation. Yet the I’m not talking about the recent political outbursts by confused, used, gushing and spreading Gulf Coast oil disaster was caused by people and abused teabag ranters who’ve been organized by corporate front who proudly identify themselves as conservatives—including top groups to spread a hatred of government. Rather, I mean the millions executives of BP, Halliburton, and Transocean, as well as the top of ordinary Americans in every state who’re battling the real power regulatory officials involved. However, they’re not conservatives, that’s running roughshod over us: out-of-control corporations. With they’re anything-goes corporatists. Likewise, their oceans of money and their hired armies of lobbyists, the five Supreme Court justices who lawyers, economists, consultants, and PR agents, these recently enthroned corporate money over self-serving, autocratic entities operate from faraway democracy (Lowdown, March 2010) are executive suites and Washington backrooms to rig the routinely labeled by the media as “conserva- economic and governmental rules so that they capture tive”—but their reckless rulings destroy our more and more of America’s money and power. democratic values, rather than conserve them. The superwealthy speculators and executives who Again, corporatists all. own and run these far- As I’ve rambled flung, private empires through life, I’ve don’t live in our zip observed that the codes, but their power true political spectrum reaches into all of our in our society does not lives. During the past 30 range from right to left, years or so, they have qui- but from top to bot- etly succeeded in untether- tom. This is how ing their ilk from our country’s America’s economic quaint notion that we’re all in this and political systems together. They’ve elevated their really shake out, with private interests above the public each of us located interest and entrenched them- somewhere up or down selves as the preeminent decision that spectrum, mostly makers over our economy, envi- down. Right to left is politi- ronment, and media—and our gov- cal theory; top to bottom is the ernment. They pull the strings. reality we actually experience in You can shout yourself red- our lives every day—and the vast major- faced at Congress critters you ity of Americans know that they’re not even don’t like and demand a gov- within shouting distance of the moneyed powers that ernment so small it’d fit in the rule from the top of both systems, whether those elites call back room of Billy Bob’s Bait 1006Lowdown_final.qxd 6/4/10 6:16 PM Page 2 2| Hightower Lowdown June 2010 DEMS SUBMIT TO CORPORATE POWER Shop & Sushi Stand—but you won’t be touching the furious, and ludicrous defense of the domineering corporate and financial powers behind the throne. In power of—guess who?—corporate barons. DEMOCRATIC LEADERS fact, weak government is the political wet dream of cor- Yet, few in the media peek behind her façade. After in Washington have porate chieftains, which is why they’re so ecstatic to hearing Palin loyally denounce the unmitigated evil responded to the Supreme have the Tea Party out front for them. But the real issue of government at a recent Tea Party convention, for Court’s January dictate isn’t small government; it’s good government. (Can I example, Washington Post columnist David Broder, allowing oceans of corpo- get an amen from Gulf Coast fishing families on that!?) the eminent establishmentarian, gushed about her rate campaign cash to flood This is where populists come in. You wouldn’t know “pitch-perfect populism.” America’s elections. it from the corporate media, but in just about every Even worse than the media’s misapplication of the It’s the DISCLOSE Act (or, town or city in our land you can find some groups or label is its desperate determination to marginalize what more fully, the Democracy coalitions that, instead of merely shouting at politi- is actually a venerable and historic movement as noth- Is Strengthened by Casting cians, have come together to find their way around, ing more than assorted gaggles of grumps and quacks. Light on Spending in over, or through the blockage that big money has put George Will, the effete conservative commentator, Elections Act). Gosh, in the way of their democratic aspirations. Also, in the sniffed in a February column that populism is “a cele- couldn’t they come up with process of organizing, strategizing, and mobilizing, bration of intellectual ordinariness.” Then he dismissed a more cumbersome title? these groups are building relationships and commu- its political importance with a sweeping declaration The substance of the bill nity, creating something positive from a negative. that populism “always wanes because it never seems is that campaign ads must This is the historic, truly democratic, grassroots serious as a solution.” reveal who paid for them. populism of workaday folks who strive (and, more Perhaps George had his signature bowtie too tightly That’s good but—that’s it? often than not, succeed) to empower themselves to tied that day, cutting off the flow of blood to his mem- That’s like legalizing bank take charge economically as well as politically. ory cells. Otherwise, someone of his intellectual extra- robbery, as long as the rob- With the rebellious spirit and sense of hope that have ordinariness would have recalled that the populists of bers wear name tags. defined America from the start, these populists are the 1880s were the ones who formed the first U.S. A nationwide coalition directly challenging the plutocratic order that reigns over political party to propose and push such serious solu- is pushing a tougher us. This populism is unabashedly a class movement— tions as women’s suffrage; wage protections and an response—a constitutional one that seeks not merely to break the iron grip that cen- eight-hour day for labor; direct election of U.S. senators amendment to overrule the tralized corporate power has on our country, but also to by the people; elimination of poll taxes and literacy Court: www.freespeech build cooperative democratic structures so that ordinary tests for voting; corralling the power of lobbyists; forpeople.org. people—not moneyed interests—define and control our civil-service laws; pensions for veterans; a graduated Meanwhile, the bank- country’s economic and political possibilities. income tax; elimination of all subsidies to private cor- porations; outlawing the Pinkterton system of corpo- sters of Wall Street have Reclaim populism also escaped real change in rate mercenaries to bust unions; and preserving America’s natural resources from being monopolized the Democratic-controlled It’s necessary to restate the solid principles of pop- ulism and reassert its true spirit because both are now for speculative purposes. Congress. The American being subverted and severely perverted by corporate It’s important to reclaim populism from dissemblers people demanded reform, manipulators and a careless media establishment. To and hijackers because populism is a legitimate, positive, said the Senate banking these debasers of the language, any politicos or pundits uniting political expression with a rich history (though chairman, and “this [bill] is who tap into any level of popular anger (toward Obama, largely untaught), a genuine appeal to today’s disaffected their victory.” So why are liberals, the IRS, poor people, unions, gays, immigrants, majority, and a huge potential for making real demo- all the big bankers smiling? Hollywood, community organizers, environmentalists, cratic progress against corporate rule. There is serious Because despite et al.) get a peel-off “populist” label slapped onto their power in the concept, which is precisely why corpo- Washington’s populist rhet- lapels—even when their populist pose is funded by and ratists are out to hide its long and proud history and to oric, they know that the operates as a front for one or another corporate inter- squeeze its meaning down to something as vacuous as White House and Congress est. That’s not populism; it’s rank hucksterism, disguis- “popular,” allowing them to capture it for their own use.
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