Populist anger can advance progressive values; OR, that anger can be ceded to the cruel manipulators of the Right

"[A] battle is on right now between the Right and Left to offer an enraged America a populist way to channel its justifiable anger. . . . [A] cautious and sometimes corrupt Democratic Party has become the Washington Establishment via its overwhelming wins in 2006 and 2008. That means it becomes harder to harness anti-establishment fervor in a backlash election climate. . . . On almost every issue, the right is way out of step with America. In that sense, our charge is simply delivering on the progressive promises we've been making. . . . That's why those who berate progressive pressure against Obama and Democrats are so wrong in their outlook. If we don't mount that pressure and Democrats therefore do not deliver, we will help build the Armey/Palin movement into something even more dangerous."

-- David Sirota, in an OpenLeft post today,

"Taking Right-Wing Economic Populism Seriously"

by Ken

There's so much blatant nonsense and cynical astroturf-type manipulation permeating the teabaggers' movement that it's easy to pay too little attention to what's real about it. Oh, I don't think there's much of anything real about the specific complaints and accusations, but the anger and even desperation behind them, which is of course the object and vehicle of all that manipulation, is real, and is going to have consequences that we need to understand, prepare for, and ideally align -- at least to some extent -- with a more rational political agenda.

Some really smart online friends and colleagues have been focusing a lot of attention in this direction lately, and as I digest it and get some requisite permissions, I want to share some of that in hopes of opening up a more positive discussion. Right now I want to start with a new column by our friend David Sirota. In addition to being an exceptionally clear thinker, dogged reporter, and terrific writer, David has an uncanny habit of snagging the issues we should really be talking about, as opposed to the ones that have been manipulated into "burning" issues by clever special interests.

He has been focused on the nationwide wave of populist anger for years now. He was perhaps the only observer of the 2008 presidential election who looked at the politics of it from this perspective, noticing that it was almost entirely Republican candidates, notably Minister Mike Huckabee, who were tapping into it, while the Democratic candidates almost all hunkered down inside the corporatist bunker.

And of course David wrote an entire book on the subject: The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington.

I wrote several posts about The Uprising while I was reading it, and returned to it a year ago in a post about New York State's Working Families Party, one of the manifestations of the populist uprising that David had written about in the book:

I've been promising for some time to write about David Sirota's remarkable book, The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington.What makes it so hard to write about is that the many strands of that populist revolt David's referring to have basically nothing in common except that they have arrived at a point of open revolt against the current distribution, or rather concentration, of economic and political power in the U.S.

What makes the book so remarkable is David's ability as a reporter to get "inside" each of these movements, to enable us to understand and even feel the source of each one's discontent and how this has led to the form that has developed.

The reaction of most of the people I tried to tell about The Uprising was an assumption that the author was claiming that these disparate groups were going to meld into a political movement. Of course he wasn't saying that at all, although he did allow himself some speculation as to how at least some of those groups, which might not seem natural allies, might yet find common political ground. Once people discovered that the book wasn't claiming any such single, clearcut vision of what this uprising was going to develop into, they lost interest.

Not surprisingly, it's David himself who has returned to The Uprising and carried it the next step into the future, in an OpenLeft post this morning. As usual with him, I'm not going to attempt to paraphrase or synopsize. When David wants to make a point, it's usually a good bet that he has found the best way to make it.

Taking Right-Wing Economic Populism Seriously

by: David Sirota
Wed Nov 18, 2009 at 09:16

It's easy to write-off batshit crazy narcissists like Dick Armey and Sarah Palin as what they are: Batshit crazy narcissists. But as Wellstone Action's Jeff Blodgett reminds us in this blog post, Armey/Palin-ism does represent something real and potentially powerful, even if it is insane.

Blodgett is a former aide and campaign manager for Paul Wellstone, so he knows a little bit about progressive movement building and the double-edged sword that is populism. Here's what he sees:

ECONOMIC CONSERVATIVES ARE IN ASCENDANCE -- growing in influence and setting strategy for the right. The social religious wing, dominant in the Bush administration, has become less effective and relevant. Their message is angry, populist, and economic: FreedomWorks' slogan is: Lower Taxes, Less Government, More Freedom. Government takeover is their bogeyman. In 2010, they will focus on exploiting the economic pain in the country, railing against spending and taxes, and blaming all government and certain incumbents.

CONSERVATIVES ARE BORROWING FROM THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT. The NYT article quotes FreedomWorks staff saying that they are making close study of Saul Alinsky and other community organizers. Like progressives, the other side is increasing conservative candidate development (NY-23 and in GOP primaries all over the country), and improving their grassroots advocacy skills (like the impression made at August town halls).

THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT CONTINUES TO BE BETTER FUNDED. FreedomWorks, just one of many groups, easily raised $7 million from donors in 2008, including single gifts of $1 million and $750,000. The Leadership Institute, the premier training center for the right, sustains an $8 million dollar annual budget--at least twice the budget of any of comparable groups (like Wellstone Action) on the progressive side. Americans for Prosperity, another key conservative economic group has 73 staff people nationally and in 20 states.

In the short term, of course, this frothing movement may temporarily self-destruct by virtue of being publicly represented by incoherent and politically unpalatable freaks like Armey and Palin. But in the long term, it's scary stuff, because it represents one expression of authentic anger in the country at large.

As I wrote in my book, The Uprising, populism is value neutral - there's conservative populism and there's progressive populism; there's productive populism and there's destructive populism. And so a battle is on right now between the Right and Left to offer an enraged America a populist way to channel its justifiable anger.

Progressives can win this fight - but we face some disadvantages, not the least of which is that a cautious and sometimes corrupt Democratic Party has become the Washington Establishment via its overwhelming wins in 2006 and 2008. That means it becomes harder to harness anti-establishment fervor in a backlash election climate.

It doesn't, however, mean we cannot defeat the Armey/Palin phenomenon. On almost every issue, the right is way out of step with America. In that sense, our charge is simply delivering on the progressive promises we've been making, while their charge is the much more difficult task of convincing/misleading America into supporting positions the country doesn't already support.

That's why those who berate progressive pressure against Obama and Democrats are so wrong in their outlook. If we don't mount that pressure and Democrats therefore do not deliver, we will help build the Armey/Palin movement into something even more dangerous.

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