Trump, Milei, and Bukele: the populist three at CPAC
Here’s an interesting trio (emphasis mine):
The “lion of the Andes,” Argentine President Javier Milei, is traveling to Washington next weekend to speak at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference convention and is the second populist Latin leader whom organizers will showcase to the thousands of Republican activists.
He will join El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele at the four-day event that is also expected to feature former President Donald Trump, who is making his record-setting 14th appearance.
The populist presidents won big with promises to reform their governments and bureaucracies dramatically. Bukele was reelected this month with an estimated 85% of the vote. Milei won in November with over 55% of the vote.
Both are also popular among American Hispanics, and their message to the CPAC is expected to be watched closely.
I’ve noticed that “populist” is often considered a dirty word. What makes a politician a populist? Well, he or she pits himself or herself as being for the people against the elites. Therefore it’s a given that most of the elites will frame such people as dangerous and evil. But there’s a wide variety of populist politicians in terms of their location on the left-to-right continuum as well as the statist-to-anarchist continuum.
More:
Although the term began as a self-designation, part of the confusion surrounding it stems from the fact that it has rarely been used in this way, with few political figures openly describing themselves as “populists”. …
In news media, the term “populism” has often been conflated with other concepts like demagoguery, and generally presented as something to be “feared and discredited”. It has often been applied to movements that are considered to be outside the political mainstream or a threat to democracy. The political scientists Yves Mény and Yves Surel noted that “populism” had become “a catchword, particularly in the media, to designate the newborn political or social movements which challenge the entrenched values, rules and institutions of democratic orthodoxy.” Typically, the term is used against others, often in a pejorative sense to discredit opponents.
Considering the way the “elites” have been behaving in recent years – the amount of control they want to dictate over people’s lives, and the transparency of their hypocrisy – it’s no wonder that populist politicians have been gaining in quite a few countries, and even winning in some. And it’s no wonder they are considered a huge threat by the non-populist powers.
The Democratic Party has been abandoning its working-class constituency for decades. Now that the latter has finally noticed, and is looking for alternatives to represent their interests and their welfare, the Democratic Party is painting them as populists, as anti-democratic, racist deplorables, as enemies of the people and the country.
(Yep, it takes a Democrat…)
But as the saying goes, they didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left them.
(Nor does it help the Democratic Party that it has essentially turned against the country’s values, its history and its very existence, are outrageously dishonest and are seething with corruption…nor do they even pretend to give a damn about any of this.)
“And its no wonder they are considered a huge threat by the non-populist powers.”
You mean “…it’s no wonder….” 🙂
Erasmus:
Exactly. Precisely what I meant when I wrote, “Even though I try to pay close attention, I’m always catching myself messing up, and my bet is that, despite my best efforts, some of them have slipped by here.”
Will fix.
Barry gets it 100% right. Thanks.
We are in fact in a non-combat Civil War, Americans versus Democrats.
In the Seventies we were told that Latin Americans were all leftists who wanted to throw off the yoke of yanqui capitalism.
Today it seems like Central Americans have more sense than we do.
_________
Populism is a corrective to elitism, bureaucratic rule and entrenched corruption.
…which is why so many illegals have to be allowed to pour into the country…and then—as is the plan—be allowed to vote…
…at which point things may well become a whole lot more combative…
It would be so wonderful if Bukele and Milei can turn their countries around. It would do much to alleviate the suffering of their citizens, and, hopefully, would be used as a template for other central and south American nations.
Italy’s Giorgia Meloni …. I wonder if she was invited?
Histories cemeteries are full of people who tried what the elites are now trying, some have had short-term success, long-term none!
https://www.azquotes.com/quote/696860
Greed and arrogance and now, fear based reactions are leading the leftist and neocon elitists to a grim fate. In their unreasoning hate and fear of Trump they have ripped aside the facade they have so long hidden behind.
Aggie asks about Milei meeting Italy’s PM Meloni. I read a piece on this just happening, in JustTheNews, this past weekend.
AND we ought to add Geert Wilders displacing Mark Rutte in The Netherlands as a populist winner.
The main story there is still no government formed. Close rivals with parliamentary heft won’t set up government with him because of his anti-immigrant or ant-Muslim stances.
This is not abnormal in The Netherlands, where governing coalitions can take a long time to form. It can take six months or longer.
Meanwhile, how about polling of the public on the possibility of Wilders calling for a new election? His party’s percentage of popular support have grown in the 3-4 months since he won.
The Netherlands has a uniquely fractured parliamentary system — unlike Canada’s or the UK’s. It thrives on more consensus than disputation and dissent like in the US.
“The Democratic Party has been abandoning its working-class constituency for decades.”
Exactly right, Barry. In fact this is THE reason Trump was elected in 2016. His two bedrock issues were immigration and trade. And on these he took the positions that had been held for decades by the industrial (not public employee!!!) labor unions that had been the backbone of the *Democrat* party for decades.
They opposed illegal immigration because it meant cheap labor undercutting American workers. And they were skeptical of so-called “free trade” because they saw good American jobs going overseas. This led to Trump flipping the Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin that gave him the Presidency.
It has been a great tragedy for the country that rather than acknowledging the deep and genuine roots of his support the nation’s elites instead chose to ratchet up hysteria about Orange Man Bad. Note that Republican elites were discomfited nearly as much as Democrats by the reality.
An interesting sidebar to this is the fact that Mexican-American icon Cesar Chavez was vehemently *opposed* to illegal immigration. Because he was a labor union guy – remember the UFW and the grape boycott? One left-wing newspaper fretted, “He sounds like a right wing militia nut” lol.