Pocketbook Populism and the 2004 Democratic Primary [View All]

[cryofan]

Robert Kuttner of The American Prospect has come out with another laserlike analysis of how economic populism should really be the primay issue of this campaign:


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

About this time every election cycle, we start receiving stern lectures from the Wall Street Journal and kindred spirits warning that the prospective Democratic nominee is sounding alarmingly "populist." Front-runner John Kerry is following the pattern, and so are a lot of commentators.
In his victory speech Tuesday night, Kerry declared, "I have a message for the influence peddlers, for the polluters, the HMOs, the drug companies, big oil and all the special interests who now call the White House home: We're coming. You're going."

....

"Populist" is a sly epithet, because it evokes an ugly history. In the American past, the term has been variously used to describe racists, anti-foreigners, and know- nothings. But economic populism, in modern usage, simply means a politics of advancing the well-being of working- and middle-class Americans, using the leverage of government policies. If the rhetoric occasionally gets hot, Bush and his corporate allies have richly earned it.

There's nothing "anti-growth" about insisting on a progressive tax system, or a public policy that balances drug company profits against the public's health. In the glory years of the post-World War II boom, well-to-do Americans lived nicely with higher tax rates, and corporations did just fine despite tougher regulation. The regulation saved capitalism from its own excesses. Wall Street might have been spared the carnage of 2000-2001 if tougher financial, accounting, and securities regulations hadn't been gutted (with one Joe Lieberman cheering on the repeal.)
...

Kerry and the other populists in the Democratic field should take these elite assaults as signs that America's most privileged are getting a little worried, and wear them as badges of honor.



more here:
http://www.prospect.org/webfeatures/2004/01/kuttner-r-01-29.html