General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Too Early, Folks! Kamala Harris Gives a Campaign Launch Speech [View all]Hortensis
(58,785 posts)we need to differentiate between populist and nonpopulist leaders. I despise and fear those who seek power by fanning populist passions, while others flock to them, so the word needs to be used accurately.
I can support Senator Harris because she believes in our democratic institutions and works competently to advance our wellbeing and to protect and improve those institutions from inside. She is the very antithesis of a populist leader, as are all those I believe are good liberal Democrats.
After all, populism by definition is a negative movement that opposes "the establishment" represented by established governments and mainstream political parties. Wannabe leaders who cannot get power by majority vote may try to harness populist passions and convince their followers that the majority are all deluded, exploited fools and that what they support must be destroyed or replaced. What replaces is usually very far from what the discontented ones wanted.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/04/shock-system-liberal-democracy-populism
... There can no longer be any doubt that we are going through a populist moment. The question is whether this populist moment will turn into a populist age and cast the very survival of liberal democracy in doubt. ...
Citizens are less committed to democracy than they once were; while more than two-thirds of older Americans say that it is essential to them to live in a democracy, for example, less than a third of younger Americans do. They are also more open to authoritarian alternatives; two decades ago, for example, 25% of Britons said that they liked the idea of a strongman ruler who does not have to bother with parliament and elections; today, 50% of them do. And these attitudes are increasingly reflected in our politics: from Great Britain to the US, and from Germany to Hungary, respect for democratic rules and norms has precipitously declined. No longer the only game in town, democracy is now deconsolidating. ...
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/dangerous-rise-of-populism