Q and AHC: Liberal Populism and Right Anti-Populism

First, a question -- do you agree with the idea that the left/liberal America used to have the populist bona-fides, which have since been lost and taken up by the right? And if so, what how, in an ATL, could said switch be best averted?
 
Hmm. I'd say there are right and left populisms in America, and right and left anti-populisms.

If you want the Democrats to be a populist party, you probably have to go back to FDR and the Great Depression, when the Democratic alliance with progressive technocrats was cemented.
 
This was the case up until 1972, when the left-liberal 'progressives' took the Democratic Party away from its traditional labor-liberal populism and towards more of the single-issue, nonmaterial issues that appeal more to the upper middle class than to the party's traditional working class base.

If you want to avoid that, you probably have to avoid President Richard Nixon, or hasten his coming. If Nixon wins in 1960 or if he simply loses to Humphrey, right-populism doesn't have it's biggest showman and supporter. Without Nixon paving the way, Reagan doesn't have a chance in hell of being known for anything other than 'B-movie actor turned Goldwaterite'.
 
Agree with above. Another idea is Rocky instead of Nixon. I doubt he'd in anyway help the Republicans with blue-collars. When I first read the title, my mind immediately flashed to "Jefferson vs. Hamilton" as the basis for political parties. Rocky could easily play Hamilton.
 
It's not just a US thing though it's stronger there and happened first as so often. Look at Australia; now obviously the political set up is different there with the National (formerly Country) Party which from day one has espoused rural populism making up part of the right-wing Coalition with the more elitist Liberals. But ever since Keating's second term Howard and now Abbott have successfully played the populist card against the Australian Labor Party.
Just look how Howard brilliantly played having the most open migration policy in Australia's history alongside the "boat people" issue. He managed to simultaneously boost the economy and put "White Australia" into the past by having a massive legal migration program while appealing to outer-suburban voters by cracking down very severely on illegal migration. Brilliant policy and politics combining populism with sound policy.
In contrast the ALP can't stop itself from sounding snooty and seeming to look down on ordinary Australians, though the complete capture of the ALP by the white-collar, inner city, tertiary educated, latte-sipping elite is responsible. It says something that the ALP has a higher percentage of MP's with post-graduate qualifications than the Coalition.
 
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