In our third installment of this gripping drama … dammit, release your grip on me, sir!
Reader Commentary
A reader writes concerning a resource I’m using:
Meanwhile, the diagram makes no sense. Left/Liberal can certainly be considered approximately the opposite of Right/Conservative for these purposes, at least to a first order. But Libertarian and Populist are not even on the same axis, much less opposites. If one insists upon squishing them onto the same axis, they’re much more in the same direction than opposites. Both smack of individualism over society and community.
For the forgetful random reader, here’s an example diagram from On The Issues, former Governor Hogan’s (R-MD) as it happens:
Libertarians are generally four-square behind individual freedoms. The Reason magazine byline is Free Minds and Free Markets, and Reason is arguably the leading libertarian rag. Their ideology is fairly easy to describe: minimal governmental regulation. For some uber-libertarians, minimal means zero, and they explicitly claim the market will correct all, well, I suppose the applicable word would be inefficiencies. I recall, from a mimeo newsletter that I inadvertently received, called The Utilitarian, the authors argued an attempted justification for even crime being correctable through the market and prisons being unnecessary, a remarkable delusion concerning the rationality, or lack thereof, of mankind.
Populism, on the other hand, is less of an ideology. From Wikipedia:
Populism is a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of “the people” and often juxtapose this group with “the elite“. It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed in the late 19th century and has been applied to various politicians, parties and movements since that time, often as a pejorative. Within political science and other social sciences, several different definitions of populism have been employed, with some scholars proposing that the term be rejected altogether.
It does continue …
A common framework for interpreting populism is known as the ideational approach: this defines populism as an ideology that presents “the people” as a morally good force and contrasts them against “the elite”, who are portrayed as corrupt and self-serving.
But I think populism is less an ideology than a meta-ideology, a set of rules to attain political success. That is, populists adapt to conditions on the ground. If the people want to march in a particular direction, the populist will scramble to get in front of the mob and be the leader. Ideologically, they can be flexible.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, although I think regarding populists with greater suspicion is definitely warranted; too often they are self-interested power-mongers and not selfless defenders of the public weal.
So far as the diagram goes, I see that axis as an indication of ideological rigidity. Whether it’s useful or not is another question; I suspect On The Issues will have substantial arguments for their presentation. But this is how I see it at the moment.
More Resource News
In the previous installment of this series I described the Siena College Poll as respected. Despite achieving the highest ranking in FiveThirtyEight’s evaluation of political pollsters, former Rep Joe Scarborough (R-FL), now an independent, and co-host of cable TV show Morning Joe, disagrees, along with Gary Sargent of WaPo, and others. They believe Siena and the Times are manipulating the data to stir up the political world and increase Times revenues, and they point at polling experts describing anomalies and poor methodology at Siena. Munchausen on Daily Kos presents a wrap up and summary.
I’m no polling expert. Maybe the best in the business is no longer the best in the business. Perhaps money has corrupted them.
Or maybe the cited pundits are suffering from denial of their confirmation bias. That is, liberal expectations that President Biden’s successful Administration should translate to public accolades are disappointed, and someone has to be blamed, so Siena takes the hit.
Oh, And Then There’s That Other News
- Speaking of Maryland Senate candidate and former Governor Larry Hogan (R-MD), he now claims he’s pro-choice. An acknowledgment of the Democrats’ biggest weapon in the election, will the Maryland Republican base tolerate it? Or is this a nudge-nudge wink-wink situation? Will Maryland independents believe him? Or will it all blow up in his face? Certainly, it suggests that Hogan’s private polling agrees that Democratic opponent Angela Alsobrooks’ ten point lead is real, and he needs to do something desperate. But is this the right thing?
- Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) has won nomination for his seat in the Senate for Connecticut, as expected, and is expected to win reelection easily. His acceptance speech was a bit apocalyptic, though.
