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| Bad populism v good populism |
Mark Mardell returned to the theme of populism on today's The World This Weekend.
He interviewed two American writers on the subject, John B. Judis and Laura Grattan.
Unfortunately, their presence gave Radio 4 listeners no thrilling clash of ideas as they both hold almost identical views on the subject (and, reading their writing on the subject, they use almost identical language about it too).
In a nutshell, they both admire 'radical, egalitarian left-wing populism' whilst deploring 'dark, demagogic right-wing populism'.
Thus, Laura Grattan couldn't stop talking today about the "racist sentiments" and "racial resentment" of right-wing phenomena like the Tea Party and Trump and, with encouragement from Mark Mardell, John Judis talked of the 'scapegoating' of other groups ("illegal immigrants, Muslims, African-Americans") by "populists of the Right".
This discussion would have been considerably more interesting if it had been far less of a left-liberal echo chamber and if the presenter himself hadn't also adopted such a sniffy tone about right-wing populists ("these people").
This is Mark Mardell's The World This Weekend though, so, unfortunately, that was only to be expected.
This is Mark Mardell's The World This Weekend though, so, unfortunately, that was only to be expected.
