With
the rise of Trump, Sanders, Corbyn and Brexit, hundreds of pundits,
reporters, and talking heads have been warning about the problems
of "populism" and its alleged attack on democracy over the past
three years.
But
what exactly is populism? How
is a term that allegedly applies to Hugo Chávez and Bernie Sanders
also casually used to describe fascists and far-right
forces?
Under
the thin, ideology-flattening definition of
populism, the
term is more often than not used as a euphemism for demagogic cults
of personality and fascism and as the ultimate horseshoe theory
reduction to lump together movements for equity and justice on the
Left with those of revanchism, nationalism and explicit racism on
the Right.
We
are joined on this episode by writer and historian Thomas
Frank.