September 13, 2007
by Clay Barham

The People's Party, or Populist Party, started in the agricultural areas of the West and South at the end of the 19th century, by small farmers and laborers who blamed their economic depression on corporations and their owners.  Early populists advocated sweeping federal intervention to curtail corporate abuses, and prevent poverty among farming and working-class families. Republican Theodore Roosevelt resurrected many Populist planks and re-cast them in new forms as he expanded federal regulations of all corporations. Populists simply sought protection.

Media created terms like populism and populists.  They describe a party and candidates who stand up for the "little guy."  Two of the past notable Populists, according to the press, were Huey Long, one time governor of Louisiana, and Wright Patman, Congressman from Texas, both of whom were Democrats.  Long ran his campaigns as a struggle to help the "little people" in Louisiana against the business interests.  Patman was notable for his support of the Mom and Pop grocery and dry goods stores threatened by the growing chain stores.

Huey Long was a down-to-earth campaigner who reached out and touched those on the lowest rungs of the ladder, as well as those on the top rung, all looking to him for the largesse and benefits access to a state's treasury affords.  He epitomized the idea of taking from those who have to give to those who have not, while enlisting those seeking political power.  His populism bankrupted the state, and he proved protection costs the individual too much.  He defined, however, the new politics of the old Democratic Party.

Wright Patman led the cause to defend small independent retailers against large corporate retailers.  It was another defining position for the new Democrats, making them the party of the "little guy."  He attacked Penney, Kroger, Safeway and all the big chains stores that offered better products at better prices to the consumer.  The consumer voted Democrat to protect less efficient mom and pop stores, but voted with their dollars for the chains.  The Democratic Party became the party of Populism during the time of the Great Depression, even though consumers and voters benefited more from those the Party attacked than those it supported.  Populist protection still had a big price tag.

Labor Unions jumped on the Populist bandwagon as well, to protect the "little guy" against the Robber Barons of industry.  In the press and on the stump, those who created new enterprises, hired workers, are characterized as enriching themselves at the expense of oppressed workers. The new Democratic Party was adopted as the new party of the "little guy," while serving the interests of those seen as the "big guys."  The "Wobblies" told their workers to "throw off the chains that bind you" in order to take control of the engines of production.  Populism, at the start of the 20th century, became the one label covering all manner of socialist schemes.

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Populism today is still the one "label" for those who want to keep from losing their individual freedom, looking for protection again, but this time, not from government. They see themselves swallowed up and stepped on by Democratic Socialists and Republican Royalists in government. The few elites from both parties want to manage the many in America.  The Immigration Reform Battles in Congress have shown all of us that each major party believes in the globalization of America, a globalization that must, to succeed in their view, regulate the economic decisions of free men and women, protecting them from themselves. 

They prove free trade does not mean free markets, or their willingness to allow free men and women to invent, create, manufacture and distribute whatever they please.  This is not to imply globalization is wrong, only globalization based on some Old World models is.  Globalization as an extension of American individual freedom could work, if the free market determines who wins and loses, not rationed allocations that manipulate national standings by the United Nations or the State Department. Populists now want protection from those they once looked to for protection.

Today's Populists still see a threat to their personal welfare and wellbeing, only it is not from an employer, an entrepreneur, a chain store or corporation, but from government bureaucracies and agencies at all levels,  Government has so much of the people's wealth, and hired so many employees, they smother us with their zeal to manage our lives.  They hobble us with unpredictable regulations and conditions.  They can take our property and give it to another private person, for the benefit of community.  They elevate the interests of community, making individual interests subordinate to it, because they care, even though it is not their job to care.  .

Today's Populism is, again, opposition to Americans prevented by others to be free and independent, no matter who those others might be and the extent of their care for us.  America worked best, grew best, created prosperity best, when Americans were free to pursue their own legitimate self-interests.  It is time to return to those ideals, if they are still popular.

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Clay Barham [send him email] has been a candidate for the California legislature and a stand-in talk show host for ABC.  He was educated in physical and behavioral sciences, with a Ph.D. in sociology.  He is the author of five books, with his latest being Foundations of Modern American Conservatism and Liberalism: The Roots of Freedom and Tyranny.  Visit his website at http://www.claysamerica.com.