In this issue:

• What is populism?

• Why do some people call right-wing extremists “populists?”

• History lesson: The rise of populism in America

• Extra credit: How populism became wrongly associated with racism, demagoguery and more

• Conclusion

• Further reading

• Download a printable PDF of this issue

• Extra, extra credit: Some words for Hightower from Lawrence Goodwyn in 1977

When we were considering the topics available to us for the debut of the The Deep Lowdown, we certainly weren’t lacking choices—and your suggestions offered even more options into what we might consider for these new, more expansive articles. The breadth of bullshit that’s out there gives us an unfortunate pile of source material! But that wide selection made us take a step back and examine what those challenges fundamentally have in common, and that returned us  to Hightower’s lifelong organizing principle: too few people control too much of the money and power, and they’re using that control to grab more money and power from the rest of us. That principle is the foundation for the set of values that comprise, and movement that is, populism.

So we’re kicking off The Deep Lowdown by sharing our vision of populism: we’ll define it for the work we face today, we’ll share the historical context of its evolution, we’ll grapple with the elements its history that sullied its good name, we’ll show why it remains a politically powerful identity, and we’ll suggest that it’s the connective tissue that supports and coheres all the different issues and causes championed by progressives and small-d democrats. Because, as we see more and more people identifying as real populists, we want to celebrate the movement and welcome everyone in.

Thanks to the devolution of understanding its meaning over the last 80+ years, it’s tempting to start this conversation by sharing what populism is not. Every time someone calls Trump or Marjorie Taylor Greene or, God help us, JD Vance a “populist,” Woody Guthrie rolls over in his grave. But defining anything by saying what it isn’t would also make our high school English teachers roll over in their graves. So let’s start with what it is, and what it means to us.

Populism is, at its core, the movement to create more power for everyday people and the Common Good, and to fight against those who currently withhold that power from us. Specifically in the United States, those in power are often moneyed elites and corporate titans who continually seek to exploit and steal from folks just trying to survive. The whole point of populism is to overhaul the economics that currently benefit the greedy few while the masses suffer. 

Economics systems are also unfairly structured to place common folk at a disadvantage according to different facets of identities, so we also define populism to include the fights for basic human rights, inclusive of (not regardless of!) race, gender identities, sexuality, abilities, religion and every other possible characteristic that makes us diverse human beings. We bring our identities with us to the table every day—populism does not tell folks that their allegiance to a movement or party has to come before their identity to achieve our collective dreams. Populism today acknowledges and reckons with the fact that the American experiment has for too long relied heavily on the exploitation of labor from Black people, women, immigrants and more. Real populists work to dismantle these divisions and to create a future where everyone’s participation is welcomed and celebrated.

Everybody does better, when everybody does better.
— W. F. Hightower, Jim’s dad

If we had a nickel for every time we heard this!