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Same as it Ever Was

- A profoundly confusing paragraph on populism is held up to the light and examined by guest blogger Grim at Villainous Company. As noted in the comments section, the paragraph in question reads a bit like the old Warner Brothers cartoon about rabbit season / duck season.

For fun, you might try reading the original article in The Nation to see if you can spot the error in logic on your own. Hint: It comes before this most excellent criticism of the Democratic presidential candidates, which was beside Grim’s point and which he didn’t bother getting into;

[Y]ou cannot run on "populist" politics and count on robber barons to finance your campaigns. It might fool people for a season or two, but when nothing changes, they will punish the culprits.

Amid all of the editorials and articles speculating on whether the American political scene is veering left, this will probably be the most prophetic. And considering how much baggage and scandal is hanging on the major Democratic politicians, I don’t see that party managing power for more than a couple of years before fumbling control of Congress back to the Republicans, who still may not be in a position to hang onto it.

Until a strong and visionary movement takes control of one of these two parties again, voters will continue to be tired of whichever defectives are in running things at the moment, and will wish for the other just for the change. Back and forth. Rabbit season! Duck season!