Being against Buying Elections Is Not Populism 

July 28, 2015

Media analysts have been turning themselves inside out trying to explain first the crowds flocking to hear Bernie Sanders and then even more surprisingly the crowds drawn to Donald Trump.  Explanations of Bernie Sanders focused as the champion of progressive issues, especially growing economic inequality and attributed his appeal to a sliver of the far left of the Democratic Party.  Some of the more prescient analysts did note that Sanders’ economic equality message had been the same for over 30 years and surmised that did give him “authenticity” with some voters.

After Donald Trump entered the race for the Republican nomination and weathered an oft handed remark that John McCain’s heroism was based on his capture by the enemy, the network analysts decided that Trump rise in the polls was due to the same factors as Senator Sanders: populism and authenticity.  Mr. Trump’s primary message, a xenophobic rant against undocumented Mexican immigrants, had been considered the meat of the far rights.  The rest of the Republican candidates for the nomination, although expressing the same sentiment in more dulcet tones, pandered to the same far right element of their party.  

The rest of the Republican candidates for the nomination, although expressing the same sentiment in more dulcet tones, pandered to the same far right element of their party.  

Despite the logical inconsistency of equating Senator Sanders’ egalitarian message to Mr. Trump’s exclusionary one, the media pundits found similarity.  One analyst equated the positions Senator Sanders and Mr. Trump by noting that if one bended the political continuum on which they were located, then the two ends would meet.  This imaginative analyst did not explain how each candidate’s diametrically opposed base would co-exist once the bent continuum met.

Besides the mystical factor of “authenticity” the obvious characteristic of both Senator Sanders and Mr. Trump is that neither is likely to seek funding from billionaire, unlike the other candidates in both the Democratic and Republican races.  While at a stretch Senator Sanders’ decision to continue reject large donors may be populism, Mr. Trump’s forbearance of large donors is more oligarchical than populist.  Despite the media’s failure to note the most obvious similarity, they continue to celebrate equivalency between the Democrats and Republicans, even if the equivalency is false.