The Populist Cure Is Worse Than the Elite Disease

Populism is never separate from this “voice of passion.” That is its defining characteristic. It begins in deep grievance. Some of those grievances can be quite real and consequential — such as when modern populist anger is rooted in fury over the Great Recession, long wars in the Middle East or shuttered factories in the Midwest.

Some of the problems, however, that motivate populists aren’t problems at all, and populist anger is rooted in something else entirely. Segregationist zeal fueled Southern populism for generations, for example. Xenophobia has always created fertile ground for populist demagogues.

But regardless of whether the grievances are justified, the real energy of populism is in its emotion — in its raw, unmitigated anger. It’s that passion that makes populist movements so vulnerable to charlatans and demagogues.

Another way of putting it is that solving grievances with good policy is hard; inflaming passion is much easier.

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If policy is hard and passion is easy, then the shrewd populist politician leans on the passion. The shrewd populist politician mirrors and reflects that populist anger right back at the public. The shared emotional connection delivers a singular message: I am your champion, and you are my legions.

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In its final form, populism can become almost entirely devoted to a person, the champion who both channels populist rage and possesses the towering self-confidence to declare, “I alone can fix it.”

And when the elected populists don’t fix everything (because they can’t), they lean back on their shared emotional bond to avoid accountability or consequences. After all, in the never-ending battle of us versus them, one can always blame the other side for every failure and frustration. At least for a while.

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This brings us to the con. In one sense, the entire enterprise of building a populist cult of personality is a con all by itself. It ruthlessly exploits public anger and public civic ignorance.

If you watch populist media or listen to populist politicians, there is very little ambiguity or nuance. Stories are mapped out in terms of good versus evil (or friend versus enemy). “They” are always wrong. “They” are worse than wrong — “they” are callous, uncaring, even evil.

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Populism’s evergreen appeal is easy to understand, but it’s difficult to defeat — especially when it’s rooted, as it usually is, in real concerns and very real problems, including real failures by the entrenched elite.

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Opponents of populism have to be very careful that their opposition to Trump doesn’t devolve into a rote defense of the status quo. The answer to Trumpist populism isn’t “everything is fine.” It’s pointing out that the populist cure is worse than the elite disease while also addressing the real problems and real needs of the populist public.