A Word of Caution About the “New” New Populist Movement

After reading Meteor Blades diary about the upcoming populist rally, I sifted through information about the stakeholders behind the event, and while I’ve made no definitive decision, yet, there are some red flags that can’t be ignored.

Perhaps the most alarming was an article written by Robert Borosage. Here is a rather large excerpt from the article:

4. Populist movements are an answer, not a threat.

Republican politicians, it is said, fear their activist base, while Democrats disdain theirs. The adage is particularly true for the Clinton crowd, which now is hailing Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for teaching Hillary how to "tame the left" (raise lots of big bucks and drown any challenger in attack ads while playing mock humble). It's not accidental that Hillary's opening video presented everyday Americans on their own, not as part of a movement in struggle.

But the populist movements of this time offer Hillary an answer, not a threat. Republicans will paint her, in Karl Rove's words, as "old and stale," Obama's third term. She's tied to Wall Street's money and its influence. Oppo researchers will roll out endless stories of unseemly money deals around the Clinton Foundation. Republican candidates are already contrasting their humble roots with her regal lifestyle.

By standing with people who are organizing and championing their cause, Hillary could paint herself in the tradition of Roosevelt -- Teddy and Franklin -- and make herself a far more convincing agent of change.

In virtually every case, the causes that people are mobilizing around -- higher wages, balanced trade, investment in education, taxing the rich and corporations, cracking down on Wall Street excesses, getting big money out of politics, expanding Social Security, immigration reform, rebuilding America -- are very popular, particularly in the broad Democratic coalition.

Movements are messy, polarizing, angry and irreverent. Hillary's instinct -- and that of the advisors around her -- is to stay above the fray. Like Obama, she wants to present herself as someone who can bring us together and make Washington work. She could easily end up looking like the status-quo candidate: "The economy is working; we need to do a bit more; I know how to make Washington work." If the change she represents is primarily to be the first woman president, she will have a hard time mobilizing the Democratic coalition.

The populist movements aren't driving Hillary to the left; they are inviting her to join the emerging majority of Americans and champion the change we need.

5. Hillary's candidacy will test the new populism.

The populist temper inside and outside the Democratic Party continues to build.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announces he'll enlist progressive leaders to put out an Inequality Contract for America to force the debate. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Elijah Cummings launch a Middle Class Prosperity Project, promising hearings across the country. Three major national grassroots groups and the Campaign for America's Future will announce an alliance to drive a Populist Platform across the country. The AFLCIO promises convocations on raising wages in all the early primary states. The Center for Community Change and other groups plan to launch a campaign for jobs.

Hillary's campaign will test this activism. Her campaign juggernaut will inhale liberal money. Unions, civil rights groups, women's groups, and environmentalists will be pushed to sign up and chip in. Pressure will build on progressive leaders to get on board. Already there's talk that a contested primary would be disruptive. No one wants Republicans to gain control of the White House. The temptation will be to paint Hillary as "likeable enough" (in Obama's demeaning phrase), as progressive enough, as a reformer worthy of support.

This won't do. The wealthiest 1 percent are capturing 95 percent of the income growth coming out of the Great Recession. This doesn't happen by accident. It happens only because the rules have been rigged to benefit the few. It can only be altered with fundamental changes in policy and direction. Despite the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression and the worst military debacle since Vietnam, the elites and institutions that dominate our economic and national security policy remain largely in place.

As Frederick Douglass taught us, "power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will." The lesson of the Obama administration is clear. Those movements that continued to mobilize, drive the debate and challenge the administration made progress. Those that folded into the White House operations got lost.

After a quarter century at the apex of American government, Hillary is an unlikely champion of the fundamental changes we need. But she is brilliant and resilient. It's clear that the argument posed by Elizabeth Warren has already concentrated her mind. She'll lead the charge only if populist movements and upheavals make her do it. This isn't a time to stand down in the name of party unity. This is a time to turn up the heat.

You can read the article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-l-borosage/hillary-is-in-the-challe...

While Borosage has pushed the right populist hot-buttons, he seemed more focused on establishing ways for Hillary to assume the mantel of populist leader, and that raises a very large red flag.

And some of his statements suggest the current push may be less grass-roots driven, and more tactical, and the chances of it being used as a vehicle to disarm progressives by having Hillary emerge as a new leader who has seen “the light” is alarming.

The platform contains enough populist champions to maintain credibility, but there is a danger of conflating the fight against Fast Track and the TPP with the grass roots populist movement, and while both movements have a common goal, true populism doesn’t generate change by asking a leopard to change its spots.

In fact, the easiest way to discredit a populist movement is have it embrace the leaders it is trying to oust.

I like Dave Johnson. He has been a very strong voice in the fight against unfettered free trade, but now that I’ve seen his ties to Robert Borosage and Roger Hickey, and knowing a little bit about their past efforts, I’m beginning to question his agenda.

I’ve worked on enough PR campaigns to know that something isn’t kosher about Meteor Blades article; especially given the USSR style disinformation makeup of the Dkos.

Or maybe six years of fighting Obama’s duplicity has just made me paranoid.

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Comments

NCTim's picture

It is a donation and funding filter. The board and executives will collect six figure checks for helping us be populist.

The political system is awash with grifters. There are candidates that don't have a snowball's chance in hell living on PAC money. There are "grass roots activists" directing special interest money.

It has shifted the conventional wisdom for trust but verify to, do not trust until verified.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

Big Al's picture

answers the question in my book. If that's what they think then they're so far out in left field they won't
be able to help us.

To be honest, can I be honest on this blog?

I did a little checking too, something I do all the time. I'm not an insider, never been one, never will be one.
So I'm not really familiar with these people or their organizations. I searched a bit on the National People's Actions, the
Campaign for America's Futiure, and the Alliance for a Just Society. What I found is a trail of funding that leads directly to
such places as the Rockefeller foundation and George Soros. Many different foundations of the rich contribute to these
type of organizations.

Many on the radical left have complained about these faux liberals since time began. There were the same type of complaints
during the Vietnam war. The establishment liberals, the status quo liberals, these are the ones who talk a good game then tell
us to vote for Hillary Clinton. The shoe does not fit.

It's interesting when you look at all their websites. Many of them are identical, many of the organizations have the same damn
board members, just like the other neocon and neolib foundations, thinktanks, and organizations in the D.C. area. They have
conferences, they collect money, then they do it again. They seem more interested in keeping their operations going then in actually
taking on the system, and they won't take on the system anyway, they want to work within the system.

As I said yesterday, these are not the people who we need to lead to the revolution. They're mostly white, mostly middle class or above,
well educated, it's like looking at the Democratic party only different. In fact they might be more dangerous to us then the right is. The wolf
in sheep's clothing thing. You can see some of that now with the protests against the TPP. Why haven't there been protests against the
Syria war, the Libya war, the war against Russia and the alliance with Saudi Arabia in Yemen? Because these organizations control the pulse
of the protest movement and they don't want to go there. The TPP is an easy one to protest.

I'll say it plainly, if Borosage is for Hillary Clinton and the Democratic party, then fuck him and his populist bullshit.

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NCTim's picture

they're so far out in left right field

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

Big Al's picture

Put me in coach, even right field.
I'm ready to play today.

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Big Al's picture

first ball from the stands. Look at his form. Perfect.
Ike was a player!

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NCTim's picture

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

Big Al's picture

I like the way the big bird kept his mitt there after the throw.

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Big Al's picture

Sounds kind of like, "Project for a New American Century", or "American Enterprise Institute"., who also
have Presidents and Board Members.
If they feel they have to be the same, then they are the same.
When they take off their fucking suits and ties and get rid of the establishment attitude, then maybe they
can play with us.

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Shahryar's picture

after all, that's part of what makes a Mod. Although the Leaves might disagree.

Too many things
Too many things
Too many things
Too many things that I got to do
Too many bags that I got to run through
And the last thing that I'll ever do
To prove that I am a man like you
Is turn away the girls
Even though I want a whirl
And worry just because
That's what everybody else does
And chase myself around
So that I'm not called a clown
Wear a suit and tie
When I'd rather sit and die

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NCTim's picture

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

Unabashed Liberal's picture

you've seen the light!

Yahoo

Seriously, I'm working under some time constraints with Family still visiting, but I've managed to squeeze in a hour or so of web browsing, and located some material regarding the previous Populist Conference (by the same suspects).

One of my favorite publications, CounterPunch, called that effort 'a distraction.'

Before I post anything, I'd like to see what mimi has learned from her attendance at the conference/rally yesterday. She may have arrived at the same conclusion. If not, I'll at least get an idea of which issues/individuals to further research.

There's absolutely no doubt that the vast majority of the organizations referenced are long time status quo/Establishment Dem Party special interest organizations. Some with K Street "contact" addresses on their web site.

I also read this effort as mostly, if not exclusively, tactical.

And I suspect that the efforts of some of these influential individuals are about preserving their power and influence as D.C./Democratic Party power players--which would be greatly diminished if a Republican gains control of the White House in 2016.

I hope to really dig into this topic in a couple of weeks.

Nothing I like better than 'investigating.'

Wink

Mollie

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Big Al's picture

Like I said, I did a little digging, but the hole is mighty deep.
In the end, we serfs have to come up with something new in this class war.

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gulfgal98's picture

Populism is on the rise which is why we are seeing both the Republicans and the Democrats attempting to co opt populist language for their own purposes.

I remember with Occupy Tallahassee, we had a rally on the steps of the old Capitol building. There were some non-Occupy folks there, mainly a group of FAMU students. But then some people from Move On got up and starting talking about the 99% and trying to incorporate Occupy language in their speeches. One young Occupier asked me if I knew who they were. When I replied that they were with Move On, a branch of the Democratic party, she turned her nose up in disgust. In that case Move On was trying to co opt the momentum of the Occupy Movement.

While the Republicans are trying to tap into some of the populism, they are hamstringed by their own right wing Tea Party wackos so it is fairly easy to see through their faux populism. The Democrats are far more dangerous in that they appear to have seen the light and it is believable enough to a lot of Americans that they mean what they say. The type of corruption that permeates the Democratic party is not easily evident to the casual viewer which is why their faux populism is so dangerous.

By the way praenomen, you are not paranoid. You have done your homework and what you now see is what you will be getting.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

shaharazade's picture

Move On when I to phone banked for Jim Webb. I was a active member of Move On. I forget what finally did it for me besides Jim Webb but at some point during the Bush regime I wised up at all these so called 'progressive' orgs. People here are sometime freaked out about the term populist. Me I was always uncomfortable with and now full on scornful of the term 'progressive'. Seems to me it's usage was taken up because 'liberal' was considered a dirty word. Moderates is another one I find appalling. What the hell is moderate or even center about anything that is going on in these days? It's a tweaked fictional partisan based spectrum manipulated by pols and hucksters to divide and conquer .

Political 'self identification' using the lines and definitions that are made up by the perpetrators of mass deception just plays into the partisan fiction of representational democracy and a two party state. Populism isn't always fascistic it really movement of people. The Greeks did not move right they moved left. I have nothing against a populist movement it's needed when all our grassroots are owned by the one party state. Insider orgs all for the glory of a lesser evil are a waste of time and seem to be money makers that feed the broken corrupt system we need to fight as people.

I noticed Jim Hightower was involved or speaking at this event. WTF? Et tu Jim. I have been 'radicalized' by the Democratic party and do not trust any org. that is associated with them. Even the so called huge environmental orgs. that bill themselves as non partisan/non profits set my bs. meter going. Here in OR the scandal with Gov. Kitz and his partner in crime was all about funneling government money and contract's to supposedly environmental green orgs and think tanks that if you looked into were just the opposite.

Here's a dkos story about a WA. ballot measure brouhaha about climate change. A citizen ballot measure action vs. the giant insider non profit enviro's. I've been a member of Osprig for 20 years. It used to be a OR radical tree hugging environment org that worked to actually stop environmental destruction by the government. Now they are insider non-partisan lobbyists and part of the illusion of the corporate sustainable economic growth bs. This disaster capitalism is hyped by the Dem.side which is also bought and owned by the grease extractors. We have trainloads of 'clean coal' being sold and shipped to China here in the PNW. That slimy crook Gov.Kitz had the nerve to be one of the key speakers at the big global Portland March last summer. It was definitely an insider co-opted political event that had the Democratic crooks stamp of approval.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/18/1377765/-WA-State-enviro-nonpro...
WA State enviro nonprofits seek to kill citizen climate initiative

"It is a tragedy that the U.S. does not have a comprehensive national climate law. But it is far from tragic that particular bill was not enacted. As Naomi Klein writes in here recent climate book, This Changes Everything, failure to pass that bill "should not be seen, as it often is, as the climate movement's greatest defeat, but rather as a narrowly dodged bullet." One of the Climate Solutions campaign leaders later confessed to me, "Toward the end we were uncertain of the value of what we were promoting." As well he should have been. Stuffed to the gills with subsidies for nuclear power and "clean coal," it was tied to a carbon offset market that would have let coal plant operators continue polluting with minimal reductions into the 2020s. The bill came to include a bar on state and local governments enforcing their own carbon caps. Even support for offshore oil drilling came into the Senate bill. All in all it was a barely digestible, hairball-filled piece of legislative sausage.'

It is time for some humble reflection on the part of Climate Solutions, WEC and allied groups on why you have lost so often, and some due respect for grassroots citizens who are driven by passion and concern rather than poll numbers and insider calculations of funder politics. No matter how much money you have, it will take a citizen army to win the game at the ballot box. ....... I hope you take some pointers and consider how you can support the overall success of the climate movement. It will not be by trying to monopolize the issue for your own groups. You need the grassroots. Get out from behind your computers and conference tables, get out of your offices and connect. You might find, as I have, some cause for hope."

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joe shikspack's picture

democrats destroyed the "liberal" name (or brand as the consultants like to call it) and liberals started calling themselves progressives. well, obama and his crew of merry dinos have destroyed the name "progressive," so now that some progressives are starting to call themselves populists... you get the idea, right?

it's part of the game of keeping the base from distinguishing itself from the neoliberal, corporate whores that run the party machinery - because if they could distinguish themselves, hell, they could organize against the party elites and they won't allow that to happen if they can help it.

ok, back to work. see y'all later.

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mimi's picture

I was there yesterday and today. I don't know any of the organizations. There were a lot of real grass root groups working from the trenches. What I kind of found a little "amazing" is that they were talking about a 40 year strategy. The platform is basically all inclusive. It didn't seem to be related to election related organizing. Though some grass root group from NYC in the Bronx said something like that they do not only want to agitate, but to legislate. I am too tired to put up what I have gathered today. I am not sure if it is worth to participate tomorrow at the rally against TTIP to take some photos or some video if Bernie Sanders should say something. I will try a kind of For The Record diary without any judging, as I don't know who is known for what. I don't see what the movement they want to build will result in, as they must decide whom to vote for. If it's not another new party and they don't solve the fact that a third party due to your electoral system will never have influence on the legislature, I don't understand how it would work.

But there are a lot of people, who should never be betrayed, because they work so hard for their local causes. It confuses me a lot.
The article that praenomen has posted is a sign that those who want to have influence on the issues they put on their platform, will be eaten up as they don't have a party structure that would allow them to get into legislatures without bowing to the corporate funded Democratic party.

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shaharazade's picture

endless times at dkos by the partisan loyalist's The platform isn't important to the Democratic party it means nothing. It's just a come on for the suckers. They honestly think this is okay as these platforms are not pragmatic in the political practice and implementation of Democratic style Oligarchical Collectivism. This means accepting this fact and supporting the pragmatic reality of Axlerod's 'world as we find it'. The Dems. can't be far lefty purist's or else they will offend the RW'ers or some such nonsense. So forget about populist platforms or any movement that is democratic other wise your aiding and abetting the enemy. Citizens are not supposed to go outside of the designated veal protest pens or else? Civil unrest, anarchy, socialist's and populist's oh noes. Our duly elected Dem. representatives have it covered and we should all STFU and let the professionals and expert's and their puppet pols lead the way forward. So vote for the Dems. and keep the money flowing to the top including to these fake AstroTurfed so called populist or green organizations. No labels on them but they sure as hell aren't progressive, green, anti-war or populist.

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mimi's picture

who suffer so much and work locally under hard conditions. It's good to see those people in real time. The platform should be used by a third party and then just run with that, clearly sticking to social democratic ideology, I guess. But what do I know. In Germany we would have a party for it if the big parties are too neo-liberal or dependent on corporate interests. They would get influence, as the big parties would have to form a coalition with them and important cabinet posts would be taken by members of that party. All of that doesn't seem to be possible in your system, because of electoral college and campaign finance. I mean why even discuss it, if there is no solution?

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LapsedLawyer's picture

I'm extremely wary of anything that labels itself "populist" -- and even wary of the whole notion of "populism" as a coherent and consistent set of principles around which to build a movement. If you've never read C. Van Woodward's great biography, Tom Watson: Agrarian Rebel, you should. Watson's political journey was as complex as it gets, and mirrors exactly what populism gets us into -- an amorphous, visceral, "Yop!" at what is happening with nothing else driving it other than a sh*t-ain't-right frustration, ripe for plucking and manipulation by any huckster there is.

(Woodward's book, btw, is absolutely brilliant. Much as I liked All the King's Men I felt Woodward had already tapped that vein's richest harvest.)

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"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."
-- John Lennon