The country’s largest labor union is warning that conservatives like Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) could “hijack” the mantle of populism from progressives in the grim economic climate.
“There is a danger of populism being hijacked by the right,” AFL-CIO political director Michael Podhorzer told reporters during a group interview on Wednesday.
“The sort of hidden election among working class voters is populism, and over the last several elections it’s been driven by the success of either right-wing populism — which it was in 2010, and the attacks on Obama and Obamacare and big government and all of that that energized the right in a populist way. And in 2012, when you had a very clear contrast between Obama and a one-percenter like Romney. And you had a very comfortable win for progressive populism,” he said.
Paul and Ryan have both floated reforms to domestic programs which they argue would mitigate poverty, in an effort to improve their own images and the GOP’s brand when it comes to caring for the less fortunate.
Podhorzer tore into the two lawmakers, saying “their rhetoric belies their records” and “their records are ones that have devastated working people.”
(Pictured above: AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, via Associated Press)
Better article or one that ties in neatly with this one along the same lines:
BTW, before anyone gives me grief…read the article beyond the headline to see that this is not an advocacy piece, just pragmatic realism (is that redundant?) for Democratic loyalists like myself that need to take this shit seriously and not be deceived by the wolf in sheep’s clothing.
I’ve been warning about this for many months now. Ron Paul could tap into that simmering pool of “populist resentment” to mask his Ayn Randian anti-populist policies.
The low-information voter can be easily fooled into voting against their own best interests by even a thin veneer of “populism”.
This is how the Tea-Party was created. The Oligarchs saw a populist longing (abandoned by the 3rd Way Democrats like Bill and Hillary) and filled it with slick advertising and lots and lots of money and support in the Reich-Wing Echo Chamber.
This kind of “populism” is what got Obama elected in 2008, but the Belt-Way Democrats ignore it at their own expense.
FYI, the AFL-CIO isn’t a labor union, it’s a federation of labor unions.
IMO this was what the tea party was all along. The populism boat has sailed I think. That and ODS have just entrenched it. The knee-jerk response is now for all intents and purposes reflex. Not sure there’s a lot more to be ‘tapped into’ than has already been exploited tho. I guess that’s the wider question.
Likewise. Democrats need to shrink the size of of government staring with putting a stop to crony capitalism, end corporate welfare and reforming the tax code.