Populism has distorted our foreign policy and trade policy. It has led to a new breed of irresponsible politicians.
By putting the least sophisticated among us in control, populism is a return to King Mob that Daniel Webster fought against in the 1830's.
Donald Trump's supporters make a lot out of their claim that America is a republic and not a democracy. However, these same people hate the independence of elected representatives. Moreover, a "power to the people " mentality is more democratic than republican.
Another attitude inconsistent with republicanism is Trump supporters' attitude that the former president was the boss of lawmakers, and that he had some kind of right to absolute loyalty and obedience from them.
Trump supporters like to self-identify as "federalists," even though none of them are smart enough to understand the Federalist Papers. Real federalists wouldn't think a president had the right to choose which laws to enforce.
The idea of expansive executive power that Trump believed himself to hold is exactly what America didn't need. The power of Congress has been weakened by 80 years of executive encroachment. Of course, Congress is the kind of institution that defines a republic. Obviously, short-changing Congress may be authoritarian or democratic, but could never be republican.
The concept of party loyalty bears a questionable relationship to principle. The kind of Jack Kemp free-market ethos that used to mark the Republican party was exchanged for a cheezy protectionism that sought to one-up even our allies. Instead of leading the world's democracies, Trump wanted to retreat to Fortress America. He didn't understand the basic fact that our European allies are doing us a favor by being in NATO, and it is for that reason that the United States had always provided most of its funding. Of course, it is probably too much for Orange Blatherskite to understand the UN Charter. And then, of course, there is the fact that he turned a party founded on civil rights into the party of Pepe the Frog.
Populism has also warped our foreign policy discourse by leading rightist media to promote obscure think tanks peddling Jacksonian Nationalism. Fox recently aired a segment with a representative of such a group who excused Putin's past thefts of Ukrainian territory by pointing to the presence of ethnic Russians there. Estase's astute mate pointed out that this was the same argument Nazi Germany made for seizing Czechoslovakia. Smoke screens like this are injurious to honest discussions of Russian aggression.
Josh Hawley is a perfect example of how populism has replaced conservatism. Hawley has said that teaching history in schools is useless. A conservative would want young people to know the accomplishments and sacrifices of past generations. A populist, however, would want people to only know Brian Kilmeade-style distortions of history meant to satisfy the conceits of Jacksonian Nationalism.
Hawley also propagated the fiction that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Peaceful transition of power and the rule of law don't matter as much as holding on to power at all costs. Hawley doesn't want to conserve the Constitutional system--he wants to remake it according to what Donald Trump wants it to be. During the Obama years, Estase saw a right winger online advocating violating the Constitution to protect "the spirit of the Constitution. " For such as Hawley, the "spirit of the Constitution " means right wing populist ideology. Obviously, there is no such thing as a spirit of the Constitution that differs from its written form. That would basically be the equivalent of the "living Constitution " fallacy.
Hawley gets his political oxygen from the Trumpian media, who treat him like a hero instead of the fringy dweeb he really is. Of course, all of these populists would have no more following than Lyndon LaRouche if it weren't for the Trumpian media. And for all his culpability in the events leading up to the Save America Riot, he suffered little blowback .
If our republic has any future, it lies with people who don't claim to have authority beyond that granted by the Constitution. If America is a republic, it's time to quit appeals to an amorphous "people " that really amounts to King Mob.
