Populism is the Old Faithful of American politics, erupting at intervals — from President Andrew Jackson railing against the “giant Augean stable” of Washington corruption to William Jennings Bryan’s “cross of gold” speech to Pat Buchanan’s “America First” tagline.
What they all had in common was a vision of a united and virtuous “We the People” facing off against a corrupt and self-serving elite. Ross Perot’s presidential campaigns of the 1990s brought that boiling underground river of populism to the surface in ways that anticipated and influenced the tea party movement a political generation later and Donald Trump’s successful presidential run. CONT.
Geoffrey Kabaservice (Niskanen Center), Washington Post