What is Populism

Perhaps ara. But only time will tell if his billionaire team are able to deliver.

Perhaps those in the Bible Belt care less about vulgarity and more about living wages and reform? Friends in the US comment on how low US wages are comparable to high costs.

dd I am beginning to be resigned as I've said on another thread that there is a definite lurch to the right. I just hope it doesn't last too long.

There was a political and fictional author on the radio this morning, who was actually talking about Trump and his election. I can't exactly remember all he said, but he was taken with the crassness and vulgarity of Trump, and the fact that so many in the Bible Belt voted for him. However on an optimistic note he argued that Trumps vulgarity wil only be accepted for a short time and people of the conservative Christian community will very soon begin to reject Trump.

I agree with you, varian. It seems that thought processes based on the Enlightenment have been abandoned.

araabra I don't think anyone will argue with you in that one. But this thread isn't about that. However if you wish it to be.........

USA nepotism hearkens back to Adams, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Bush, Clinton. This is not new news.

I think the OP was pretty accurate in defining populism as Anti-establishment, Authoritarian and Nationalist.

However I would add - Irrational (preference for emotion, usually negative emotion, over knowledge and logic.) Also Dishonest (facts are rejected in favour of lies - you can fool quite a lot of the people quite a lot of the time).

Although I generally dislike jargon, I do think "post-truth" is an accurate expression for the populist messages which seem to have taken hold.

USA seems to have a history of nepotism. It doesnt mean it is right, but the american voters seem to be quite comfortable with it.

I should have said of course they are not!

My point is using or trying to put the time and place, the use of using the words populist/populism into a nut shell is possibly one of those subjects that will never be fully answered no matter how much we try. The scope is too wide.

I noted earlier it was generally considered that Jeremy Corbyn was not populist, have I made the right conclusion?

What do posters think about the words 'populist/populism being attached to Corbyn?

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/25/jeremy-corbyn-populist-democracy-mps

labourlist.org/2017/01/from-nowhere-to-everywhere-corbyn-opts-for-populism-but-isnt-tempted-by-trump/

www.reddit.com/r/LabourUK/comments/4ui12b/jeremy_corbyn_is_a_great_populist_but_thats_no/

I remain of the same opinion as I started with . There is an element of populism in both left and right of politics.

The difference is some see populist/populism if it is 'on their side of politics' as a good thing. If it is on the 'opposite side of their politics' it is the devil incarnate.

Going back to a statement in the OP

'Populism therefore can be described as xenophobic authoritarianism.'

I can't agree because the words populist/populism apply to a wider audience than those some deem to fall into the category such as Marine Le Pen. If Corbyn is seen as Populist or Nicola Sturgeon are they too xenophobic authoritarians?

durhamjen Re your link. I think Emmanuel Macron's supporters might do well to look at the fact that he was a chief adviser and then economy minister to Francois Hollonde. French unemployment is running at 10% Not a good track record, is it.

Yes pogs you are right. But it doesn't harm to remind people that populism can do so much more harm. Look at the Holocaust page.

POGS, do you think when people voted Trump the demagogue into power, they expected to get the whole family as well, considering they were supposedly voting against dynastic rule?

By the way plenty of Nepotism alive and kicking in ALL countries and that includes the UK politics too.

The topic changed and included Dynastic/Nepotism as a matter of course, it was a fair 'discussion' point so can I ask what the problem is?

Durhamjen asked.

'Do you think that when people voted Trump the demagogue into power, they expected to get the whole family as well, considering they were supposedly voting against dynastic rule?"

You asked about 'Jared Kushner' daphnedil so why do wonder why, as you say now, there has been a 'unilateral change in topic'.

I don't follow.

When was Jared Kushner elected?

"Trump said he would appoint his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to try to broker a Middle East peace deal, urged Britain to veto any new U.N. Security Council resolution critical of Israel and criticized Obama’s handling of the deal between Iran and six world powers including the United States which curbed Tehran's nuclear program."

This is nepotism. Nothing like populism, is it?

There's a good radio 4 programme at the moment talking about America and Trump and trying to make sense of it all. Studied and calm.

Eh yes whitewave! I was wondering why there had been a unilateral change in topic too! Nepotism is only one factor of Trump's awfulness and the one where there is a clear reason for thinking that he's breaking federal law. None of the above filled important offices of state with unelected relatives.

Of course nepotism and populism should not be muddled.

The most obvious precedent for Trump nepotism is JFK:

Robert Kennedy was previously the 64th U.S. Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, serving under his older brother, President John F. Kennedy and his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Ted Kennedy entered the Senate in a 1962 special election to fill the seat once held by his brother John after he became POTUS.

But also Clinton was elected in 2000 as senator for New York while Bill was still in office, not quite the same I know.

Michelle Obama took a role as Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago , a highly paid sinecure she would surely not have been given as a former IP lawyer with only a few years experience, were she not the Senators wife!

We certainly have dynastic selections for parliamentary seats in this country too.

www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/15/french-progressives-dare-to-hope-as-maverick-macron-surges-in-polls

Fingers crossed. Hopefully the French have seen the light on populism.

Exactly!

...who seems to think he's a demi-god.

That's because he's a demagogue.