Populism is not a political philosophy, but rather a political strategy. A populist is "a person, especially a politician, who strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups."
In this respect, Trump is a populist in so far as he appears to working-class Americans who feel they are taken advantage of by the political, financial and social elite. Johnson is a populist in so far as he promises to prevent the poloitical elite from evading the result of the Brexit referendum and blastic the European power brokers who are portrayed as dictating to Britain policies that should be resolved by the British themselves. Both in fact are members of the elite, using populism to gain and maintain their positions of power. Neither acts like a real conservative; just look at the massive deficits Trump is running up and the way Johnso is tearing down the traditional restraints on executive power in the UK. Dan Matyola http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/danieljmatyola On Mon, Sep 9, 2019 at 2:13 PM Paul Stenquist <pnstenqu...@comcast.net> wrote: > “Populist” is the most abused word in the English language. In truth it > just means someone who supports the little guy and plays to majority > opinion. Today, it’s used to describe anyone leftists don’t like. I don’t > like Trump and am reserving judgement on Johnson, but neither is truly a > populist. > > As someone will undoubtedly point out, none of this crap belongs in the > list. > Paul > > > On Sep 9, 2019, at 1:45 PM, William Robb <anotherdrunken...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > > It really just goes to show how absolutely dangerous and foolhardy it is > to > > elect populists to power. > > > > They are generally incompetent, have no real leadership skills, and are > > only good at the required to be a populist job of self aggrandizement. > > > > Johnson is a poster boy for clueless buffoons everywhere, and he seems > > proud to be taking his cues on the subject from trump. > > > > trump, at least, has shown the world how completely hypocritical American > > conservatives are and, unfortunately, how untrustworthy the United States > > actually is. He had boldly shown that eventually, the USA turns on > > everyone, including it's own citizens. > > > > Both will go down as the worst individuals ever to be elected to office > > anywhere. > > Neither can be referred to as leaders, since neither has the ability or > the > > inclination to lead. > > Both are in it purely for personal enrichment. > > -- > > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > > PDML@pdml.net > > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
