# Is Palin a populist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 9, 2010, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-palin-a-populist/524288 "2010-01-09T17:04:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-palin-a-populist/524288/21 "2010-01-11T21:54:21Z")
Relevant article: [“Can Populism Be Liberal?”](http://www.salon.com/news/populism/index.html?story=/opinion/feature/2009/11/23/populism) > [@](#): > > In itself, American populism is neither left nor right. Translated into economics, Jacksonian populism spells producerism. For generations, Jacksonian populists have believed that the hardworking majority of small producers is threatened from above and below by two classes of drones: unproductive capitalists and unproductive paupers. While government promotion of public goods like defense, infrastructure and utilities that benefit all citizens is acceptable, Jacksonomics is suspicious of crony capitalists who owe their fortunes to political connections (can you spell B-A-I-L-O-U-T?). And Jacksonian producerism naturally is haunted by the nightmare of a class of the idle poor, who are capable of working but instead live off the labors of others and lack an ownership stake in the community. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-palin-a-populist/524288/22 "2010-01-11T22:38:30Z")
She’s absolutely a populist. I don’t even think she’s genuinely a conservative, not to the extent that her rally cries are even political. Death panels, “quit making things up,” “Real Americans,” are basically just a hand grab at populist buttons. Most of her political rhetoric is about herself, most of her supporters can’t articulate an explanation of what she stands for but resort to personal testaments that she’s a real person, a mom, etc. Their defense of her isn’t based on principles, it’s based on critical judgments of anyone who “attacks” her. I would even go so far as to say that she’s like some kind of religious icon more than a political one. People who would vote for her think that everything will fix itself because she’s a good Christian and… I don’t know, she will be God’s instrument, I guess. She herself believes this, as is evidenced by her comments that her candidacy was God’s plan. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2010, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-palin-a-populist/524288/23 "2010-01-11T22:40:24Z")
If you follow her on Twitter or Facebook she is a sporadic social networker, but her tweets seem to be trial balloons for populist messages. Obama will be the master of the organized social network, but Palin might be the first politician to master the back channel. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-palin-a-populist/524288/24 "2010-01-13T00:33:32Z")
> [@L. G. Butts](#): > > These two quotes about President Obama seem divergent to me. First he “is so outside the mainstream in terms of his background and politics (with a extremely expansive view of the role of government relative to American norms)”, then he is “cut from the same cloth as Bush and Nixon”. Both Nixon and Bush believed in big government. Nixon was a major force behind affirmative action, instituted wage and price controls, killed off the gold standard, and proposed nationalized health insurance. Bush pushed through the prescription drug benefit in a time of war and enormous deficits, both of his own making. > [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > He’s also completely self-made, having started out without any kind of money or connections, and established himself on the strength of sheer academic achievement and personal talents. His grandmother was a bank vice president. His mother had a Ph.D. and worked in international economic development. His father had a master’s from Harvard and was a high government official in Kenya. It’s not as if he was the son of a janitor from Watts. > [@DanBlather](#): > > You admit your assertions is crap, though, right? Shockingly, I do not. > [@](#): > > Nixon and Bush were in office 16 of the last 40 years, so it’s hard to say policies they implemented were out of the mainstream. If their policies were mainstream then God help us all. > [@](#): > > Furthermore, the size of the Federal govt grew more under the conservatives presidents than the liberals. Absolutely, at least within the last 50 years. > [@](#): > > Then, you had the power of the govt expand under Bush to effectively neuter habeas corpus. I wouldn’t quite say that, but he would have if he could have gotten away with it. > [@](#): > > Disagree all you want with Obama and his policies, but it is completely disingenuous to assert that he is some loony left-winger trying to radically increase the reach of govt. I seem to recall specifically stating that I was not accusing Obama of being “loony left”. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-palin-a-populist/524288/25 "2010-01-13T00:44:25Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > His grandmother was a bank vice president. Whoop-de-doo. This helped him in his career how? > [@](#): > > His mother had a Ph.D. and worked in international economic development. His father had a master’s from Harvard and was a high government official in Kenya. Both things were completely irrelevant to helping him with his career, especially the absent father. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-palin-a-populist/524288/26 "2010-01-13T00:50:46Z")
I see “Palin” and “Populist” in the thread title. Nothing about Obama having a background that portended an inevitable presidency. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-palin-a-populist/524288/27 "2010-01-13T00:53:47Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Whoop-de-doo. This helped him in his career how? Are you saying he had no particular advantage over the average person? Where do you live, Palm Beach? ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-palin-a-populist/524288/28 "2010-01-13T01:03:37Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > Are you saying he had no particular advantage over the average person? Where do you live, Palm Beach? The average person is a drooling moron without the connections to get a job at McDonalds. What about the average politician? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-palin-a-populist/524288/29 "2010-01-13T01:13:41Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > Are you saying he had no particular advantage over the average person? What **Dio** originally said was that Obama is “also completely self-made, having started out without any kind of money or connections”. What you’re talking about—namely, having “no particular advantage over the **average** person”—is not quite the same thing. Having a solidly middle-class and well-educated family, which Obama certainly had, does give you an advantage over the average person. But “having money or connections” generally implies being wealthy or influential far beyond the level of good education and solid middle-class status. I admit it’s a rather peculiar locution: if you say that somebody’s family “has no money”, you mean that they’re poor, while if you say that they “have money”, you mean that they’re rich. Neither of those expressions applies to the middle-class people in between, who are left in the odd position of not “having money” but also not “having no money”. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-palin-a-populist/524288/30 "2010-01-13T02:35:30Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > What **Dio** originally said was that Obama is “also completely self-made, having started out without any kind of money or connections”. I would describe Bill Clinton as _completely_ self-made, but not Obama. If anything, he had a terrific set of genes. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-palin-a-populist/524288/31 "2010-01-13T04:55:28Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > Are you saying he had no particular advantage over the average person? Where do you live, Palm Beach? I would say that these are not remarkable advantages, no. Certainly not the stuff that typically launches Presidents. His academic, professional and political career did not happen because his grandmother worked at a bank. I would say his “advantages,” such as they were, came from a supportive family, an encouraging mother and an above average natural intellect inherited from both parents. Terrific. I have all those things too. They are nothing compared to the kind of advantages and connections of a Bush or a Gore or a Kennedy. ---
**Author:** ![Recliner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a88e57/32.png) [@Recliner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recliner)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-palin-a-populist/524288/32 "2010-01-15T16:57:17Z")
> [@quixotic78](#): > > It’ll cost somewhere around $500 to get to see her speak at Tea Baggin 2010 (Electric Boogaloo), or ~$350, if memory serves, to JUST see her. I’m not sure if she’s ever taken a question since Katie Couric was all mean and gotcha-y, but if she ever does, I’d like someone to ask Mrs. Hockey Mom Populist why she’s comfortable speaking at a gig where it costs $350 just to gaze upon her lipstick. > > Personally, I think she’s just cashing in while the cashing in is good. I almost respect her for that… I mean, why the hell do the hard work of politickin’ if you can make more money by NOT doing the hard work of politickin’? This seems to have summed it up. I was under the impression that she was being groomed (or grooming herself) for future office; this changed when she became a Fox correspondent the other day. I believe she’ll settle in as a pundit, and thats that. Is she a populist? Well, the term has a pretty seriously negative association, these days – but in the pure sense? Yes, I believe she attempted to tap into general notions of “the people” with her Everywoman angle. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-palin-a-populist/524288/33 "2010-01-15T18:27:13Z")
> [@cricetus](#): > > She’s absolutely a populist. I don’t even think she’s genuinely a conservative, not to the extent that her rally cries are even political. Death panels, “quit making things up,” “Real Americans,” are basically just a hand grab at populist buttons. Most of her political rhetoric is about herself, most of her supporters can’t articulate an explanation of what she stands for but resort to personal testaments that she’s a real person, a mom, etc. Their defense of her isn’t based on principles, it’s based on critical judgments of anyone who “attacks” her. I agree with you. It’s interesting to see people overlay her rather ambiguous rhetoric with their own political leanings and find whatever they seek in her. She’s a “true conservative” according to many, while having at least as many “non conservative” actions and policies as, say, Huckabee. But while he is reviled for them, she is revered. She’s a cipher. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-palin-a-populist/524288/34 "2010-01-16T02:18:22Z")
In the final analysis, everybody who gets elected is populist. Depending, of course, on who is defining populist. There is not a consensus on the true definition. hh ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-palin-a-populist/524288/35 "2010-01-16T02:24:35Z")
I guess the real question is, is she a demagogue. And the answer is: yes, they could put her picture next to the word in the dictionary. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-palin-a-populist/524288.md?page=1)