AMERICAN democracy is on trial today as much as it has been at any time throughout its turbulent history. The simplicities, stupidities and villainies of the present Bush administration illustrate yet again the ugly underside of the world's most sustained full-scale experiment in majority rule. These vices were well understood and matchlessly expounded by Alexis de Tocqueville, the young French aristocrat who went to America in 1831 at a time of rampant egalitarian populism there to study what he regarded - with deep misgivings - as the probable future for France and all Christendom.
QUESTIONWas The Wizard Of Oz a coded political satire? THE Wonderful Wizard Of Oz by Frank L. Baum was first published in 1900 and has never been out of print. Its vibrant and colourful story with fabulous characters made it a much-loved book of children worldwide. For some adults, though, it is an insight into the political landscape of late 19thcentury America. This view was taken to the extreme by Henry M. Littlefield in his essay The Wizard Of Oz: Parable On Populism, published in the American Quarterly in 1964.
Ironically, it was Henry Luce, founder of Time, who in 1941 divined the "American century" as an American social, political and cultural "victory" over humanity and the right "to exert upon the world the full impact of our influence, for such purposes as we see fit and by such means as we see fit". An ordained national memory consigned these to the historical margins and "imperialism" was all but discredited in the United States, especially after Adolf Hitler and the fascists, with their ideas of racial and cultural superiority, had left a legacy of guilt by association. The idea of imperialism, the word itself, was all but expunged from the American lexicon, "on the grounds that it falsely attributed immoral motives to western foreign policy", argued one historian.
...My guess is that a populism will emerge in the next few years, igniting a powe...
THE Democrats convene in Boston today to nominate Senator John Kerry as their presidential hopeful. The European media will be there in droves to misunderstand and misreport. You see, United States politics is different, and the Europeans just don't get it. So, if you can bear with me, I'll translate. The missing political concept in Europe, which still heavily influences US politics, is an ideology called populism. Far from US politics being an ideology-free zone, populism has infected it for nearly 200 years. The latest exponent of populism is Michael Moore, the radical, anti-Bush documentary maker. European leftists drool over his emotional assaults on Bush or the gun lobby, and his rabid attacks on big corporations. Untutored Marxists and free range Lib Dems think Moore is in their ...
This is a classic case of America and Islington being divided by a common language. ...
Populism is an important part of the American political tradition, in a way it has not been in England since the mid-19th Century, with the Chartist demand for a more democratic constitution. The Tea Party movement, which has had such an impact on last Tuesday's American mid-term elections, refers back to the Boston Tea Party, which was one of the triggers of the 1775 War of Independence.
Sdebt to get back to growth and out of this depression. The European Union needs a success story to show that its austerity policies are working. Ireland is the EU's best chance of a success story. So they must give us a deal. Or so we are told. Yet the eurozone powers have shown they are in no hurry to give us a deal. Indeed, if you listened closely to the statement made by Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the Eurogroup, at the end of the eurogroup meeting in Cyprus on Friday, you would have noticed he said nothing about delivering a deal for Ireland.
... the President of the United States of America gives a State of the Union address to Congress eve... such a comment about elections as 'populism'. Which is why in his State of the Union speech he...
...aid and doubt America's commitment to Arab self-determination. However, ... elected president of Egypt will bow to populism and turn Egypt's foreign policy away from the U.S....
[broken bar] ND the eurozone recession goes on getting wider and deeper and more deadly: of course it does. But let's list the 'shock' events of the past three days: in France, the victory of anti-fiscal treaty Francois Hollande in the first round of the presidential election and strong showing of the anti-EU Marine Le Pen; in the Netherlands, the collapse of the coalition government because of the finance minister's insistence on deep spending cuts to meet the targets set by the EU; in Spain, the bond prices rocketing back above an impossible 6 per cent; while the economic indicators on German falling demand stunned Berlin. All of these events have shocked the markets into turmoil.
... European elite ignore it, but already in America, economic commentators such as the Nobel Prize-win... noses and speak in contempt about such 'populism'. Me, I keep hoping that sound outside the commiss...
[broken bar] UCH. The Washington Post, generally a reliably Democratic organ, said that Barack Obama's latest television attack ad against Mitt Romney was "on just about every level ... misleading, unfair, untrue". The ad described Romney as a "corporate raider" who outsourced thousands of jobs while working at Bain Capital. Trouble is, the Post explained, Romney wasn't a "corporate raider". He didn't "outsource" jobs while working at Bain.
...America's first black presidential candidate promised to b... to be betting that a diet of hectoring populism will win the day. Mitt Romney is a rich guy, ergo ...
[broken bar] ND the eurozone recession goes on getting wider and deeper and more deadly: of course it does. But let's list the 'shock' events of the past three days: in France, the victory of anti-fiscal treaty Francois Hollande in the first round of the presidential election and strong showing of the anti-EU Marine Le Pen; in the Netherlands, the collapse of the coalition government because of the finance minister's insistence on deep spending cuts to meet the targets set by the EU; in Spain, the bond prices rocketing back above an impossible 6 per cent; while the economic indicators on German falling demand stunned Berlin. All of these events have shocked the markets into turmoil.
... European elite ignore it, but already in America, economic commentators such as the Nobel Prize-win... noses and speak in contempt about such 'populism'. Me, I keep hoping that sound outside the Commiss...
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