The Perils of Populism

A discontented population is easy pickings for a demagogue

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Populism: A political program or movement that champions, or claims to champion, the common person, usually by favourable contrast with a real or perceived elite or establishment. -Britannia

In Federalist No. 10, James Madison explored the tensions inherent in democratic government. He warned that a faction¹,

…a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community, is the mortal disease under which popular governments have everywhere perished. (Read the full text here.)

At the republic's inception, the drafters of the Constitution sought a balance between what they perceived as two tyrannies: that of a despotic monarch on one hand, and the tyranny of a populist majority on the other. As Madison explained, “the instability, injustice and confusion” that results from populist government leads to “the public good [being] disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties; and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice, and the rights of the minor party; but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.”

It is unlikely there is a majority among us that desires that we jettison the rules of justice and our rights, and that our democratic republic be replaced by an authoritarian regime. Despite the lofty goals the drafters of the Constitution proclaimed in our founding document, however, the truth is they created a pathway to minority rule by including the anti-majoritarian Electoral College and the Senate². That path has been exploited by those seeking political power to advance their own interests.

Throughout the nation’s history, there have been populist movements, and many politicians who have been elected based on a populist appeal. Until Donald Trump, however, we haven’t had a populist in the Oval Office since Andrew Jackson.³ Trump’s visceral appeal allowed him sufficient popularity to ascend to the peak of America’s political Olympus. Unfortunately for the nation, at those heights, his lack of intellect and moral character are plainly in view for all to see.

We effed around, and now we’re finding out

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. ― H.L. Mencken, (The Baltimore Sun, July 26, 1920)

Mencken was acerbically restating what the Founders feared, an unfit President elected by the people. It is true that having the people choose their leaders is no guarantee of effective government. And the fact is that, in this century, authoritarians such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have come to power in democeratic elections. In his partiality towards Russia’s Putin, Argentina’s Milei, and the criminal former President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, Trump plainly desires to also be an authoritarian ruler. As a consummate mythomaniac, he found it easy to convince enough of the electorate to win two elections.

Over time, media and technology have become interwined, creating mass communication mechanisms with the ability to reach millions of people rapidly. Information and disinformation make use of the same tools. allowing for rapid dissemenation of both. From newspapers and magazines, we have progressed to radio, then television, through the advent of the Internet, and into today’s era of social nerworks and a variety of “news” sites. We are operating at a much greater speed now than when Mark Twain purportedly said “A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth puts on its shoes.”. In less than a century, we have moved from FDR’s fireside chats on radio to Trump’s AI-generated online cartoon of him defecataing on crowds.

Such communication methods make it possible to craft messages to target specific audiences. The cynical politician seeking power with an emotional appeal, can propagandize effectively to those susceptible to their message. Stoking fear and exaggerating problems will appeal to pople drawn to a strong leader who promises to improve their lives. In his first campaign, Trump painted a dystopian picture of the country, and claimed in his speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention that “I alone can fix it”. In his second term, Trump has gone full-blown authoritarian, following the familiar playbook that can be tracds back to the Italian fascists and German Nazis. He attacks the institutions of democeracy, especially the media. It is significant that the legacy media- newspapers and cable news, for instance- find themselves competing for eyeballs with online influencers and opinion sites masquerading as news. In a world of alternate facts, the truth becomes elusive. The concept of a “free press” would be qauint, and even laughable, if it weren’t such a red flag of an authoritarian assault.

A bit of history

In Federalist No.1, Alexander Hamilton warned…

…that a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people, than under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us, that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism, than the latter, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics the greatest number have begun their carreer, by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing Demagogues and ending Tyrants.

And so this nation that, over my lifetime⁴, considered itself the greatest in the world, has fallen prey to the lowest form of demagogue, a man whose corruption is matched by his vulgarity, and is inversely proportional to his intellect. In the two-and-a-half centuries of its existence, the government created by Hamolton, Madison, and their fellow Founders has come to reflect the nation’s growth into the world’s leading economic and military power. The 20th Century was the American Century, as the US spearheaded the Allied victory in World War I, the defeat of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan in World War II, and the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. We created a mythology about ourselves: America was exceptional, the land of opportunity, a society built on liberty. We were wealthy and we were strong. We helped rebuild our defeated enemies after World War II, we provided economic and humanitarian aid to the Third World, and we created a world order based on peaceful relationships. In President Ronald Reagan’s words, America was “a shining city on a hill”.

Reagan’s words were aspirational, but they did not accurately reflect the reality of American society. Despite the lofty language of our founding leaders, slavery and racism, the genocidal treatment of the native populations, and the second-class status of women made a mockery of “all men being created equal”. In truth, we have never fully lived up to our stated aspirations. As we passed into this century to, we still face deep-seated systemic problems; we were still beset by racism, income inequality, an economy given to cyclic disruptions, and a series of unpopular wars. A generation after the Vietnam War, the American people had little stomach for the “forever wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan that served no apparent purpose. The financial crisis of 2008 exposed the failures of an unregulated financial sector. The election of our first black President preceded the election of the revanchist Trump.

Perhaps the inflection points were the bank bailouts under Bush and Obama. The rumblings on popular discontent emerged as the Tea Party. The movement was coopted by a plutocratic class whose long-term project was to control government and eradicate the New Deal. However, in 2016, the populist sentiment settled on Trump, a failed business man turned reality TV star as their champion. The reactionaries stuck with the misguided idea that Trump could be harnessed as their tool to move the country back to the 19th Century. But the emergence of MAGA as a populist force headed by a corruption-adled vulgarian meant that Trump had his own constituency, and felt free to act in his own self-interest.

What Is to Be Done?

This is the burning question that Lenin asked. Following current fashion, I can offer no plan, but I do have a concept, or simply a collection of ideas. The basic principle is that this is not a time to weep and moan, but to understand that crises present the opportunity to improve things. This not a statement of hope, but of the pragmatism that an outcome can be either positive or negative. And that will depend on the actions that are taken.

The first step is to wrap our collective heads around a complex problem. What America faces is not simply a political problem, or a moral problem. It is not just an economic issue. It is sociological, too, and. to a great extent, technilogical.

And it is much more. At 250 years old, our republic is in dire need of rehabilitation, much as an old house requires restoration. We need to restore a sense of public service, not only on the part of our political leaders, but on the citizenry, too. We must accept the cliché that we’re all in this together, that we are all parties to a social contract. Public education must be restored to a level that, at the minimum, it prepares people for citizenship. And to whatever extent may be possible, people should be shown how to think critically.

We need a sweeping program of reform. We should revisit the Constitution, to correct its inequities and restore the balance of power among the three branches. We need to remove money from politics: government is something we choose with our votes, not our dollars. We should expect ethical behavior not only from our political class, but from institutions such as the media, business and finance, and academia.

There is discussion to be made about rediscovering our moral compass, both as individuals and as a society. Religion was formerly the repository of moral rectitude, but their hypocrisies are frequently exposed, and fewer Americans are regular attendees at services. Many so-called “churches” are nothing more than money-making schemes. Perhaps it is time we agree on societal norms of morality and eliminate the human interlocutor. I vote for the Golden Rule as the basic principle.

Finally, in a twisted take of “be careful of what you wish for”, the United States is the wealthiest nation in the world.⁵ But that wealth is so unevenly distributed that , on one hand, we had huge corporations led by the unbelievable rich touching so much of our everyday lives; on the other, 37 million people, 11 percent of the population ,were defined as living in poverty in 2023.⁶ So despite the abundance of our material wealth, we are a country where too many of us are unhappy, dissatisfied, and resentful. I would say, rightfully so, in many cases. The issue of income and wealth inequlity has papable consequence. It certainly makes some susceptable to the siren call of a demagogue.

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1. In the late 18th Century, “faction” referred to what we now call political parties.

2. Article I of the Constitution specified that each state would be represented by two Senators appointed by the state’s legislature, regardless of population. This was superceded by the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913 which made direct election by the people the method of selection. The two Senate per state structure was left in place.

3. Jackson, who felt the Second Bank of the United States, the nation’s central bank, was unconstitutional, ordered the Secretary of the Treasury to withdraw government deposits from the bank. When the Secretary refused, Jackson sacked him and appointed a replacement to carry out his order. The Whigs, the opposition party who were in the Senate majority at the time, pushed through a resolution of censure of the President. While there was no consequence to the censure, it is the only time in our history that such a measure was taken against the Chief Executive.

4. I was born in 1945, before the end of World War II. I grew up with a father and uncles who were all Navy veterans. They were members of The Greatest Generation, the title of Tom Brokaw’s book that pays tribute to the men and women who lived through the Great Depression and went on to serve in the military or on the home front during the war. (Random House, 1998)

5. My DuckDuckGo AI Search Assistant tells me that “The world’s largest economy is the United States, with a GDP of approximately $30.615 trillion as of October 2025. China follows as the second-largest economy, with a GDP of about $19.398 trillion..“

6. Wikipedia