President Obama wanted to get something off his chest Wednesday and went off on what he later conceded was “a rant” about just who is—and is not—a populist.
“I’m not prepared to concede the notion that some of the rhetoric that’s been popping up is populist,” Obama said. He plainly had Donald Trump in mind, though he did not use his name.
As reported by CBS News, the President went on to say he cares about poor people, about workers having a collective voice in the workplace, and about kids getting an education and ensuring that the U.S. has a fair tax system. “I suppose that makes me a populist,” he said, adding that someone doesn’t “… become a populist because they say something controversial in order to win votes. That’s not the measure of populism; that’s nativism or xenophobia…or it’s just cynicism.”
One assumes that, since the President cares about this, it must be a good political season for populism, however one defines it. Up with the common man. Crucify the elites and the bankers and the one percent on a cross of … well, if not gold, then whatever is handy. Donald Trump, oddly, can bring it off, even though he is a part of the one percent. Bernie Sanders, too, might be thought of as a populist, though he lacks the necessary earthiness and crudeness of speech. He sounds, always, like he is reading off a flier that was handed out at the end of the meeting of the Young Socialists League.
But for Obama, it is a reach. He is too cool and cerebral and obviously comfortable in the company of those whom the common people detest. Huey Long, George Wallace, Ross Perot—one can hardly imagine the president in their company. And populism is as much a matter of temperament as it is policy. It is a hard thing to define with any precision; less a series of policies than a bundle of resentments and other passions.
Still, people who can’t define populism know it when they see it. And, well, sorry Mr. President, but you’re no populist.
