Liberalism, Populism and the Crafting of a Progressive Political Consensus

Liberalism, Populism and the Crafting of a Progressive Political Consensus

For the last couple of years, I have been posting about right and left populisms and American national identity. I argue that traditionalism on the right and progressivism on the left are distinct national identities. Since the Great Recession populist forces are pulling the establishment of each side toward more extreme positions. This endangers the ability of center-right and center-left elites to command a middle ground where a pragmatic political consensus can be hammered out (see table below).

            Populists of all ilks are distrustful and impatient with incrementalism and thus, tend to call for sweeping policy changes. However, for the period of the Biden presidency, I’ve shown that his administration was able to engage and compromise with his party’s Progressive Caucus and pass the infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act, which together are the largest social legislation passed since Roosevelt’s New Deal.[1]

            Meanwhile, Republicans continue to flail around doing Trump’s bidding, threatening to shut down the government, and most recently, scuttling the bi-partisan Senate deal that would’ve funded Ukraine and offered the most extensive southern border security ever; something the white nationalist base of the Republican Party should have liked. It also would’ve shown that incremental bi-partisanship can yield results. Not surprisingly, Trump called for the deal to be quashed and his minions in the Senate obliged.[2]

            I rehearse all of this because many of my friends in the populist wing of progressivism also may also find incremental bi-partisanship distasteful. In the momentous legislative battle over the Inflation Reduction Act the left didn’t get all of the progressive environmental, health care and immigrant protections that had been in the Build Back Better Bill, but they got substantial elements of them. The hard left will continue to ring its hands and be skeptical of politics inside the system.

            I was fortunate to t tune into Democracy Now with Amy Goodman on September 11. She had Noble economics prize winner Joseph Stiglitz and populist stalwart and past Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader in conversation. Both are progressive: Stiglitz, an economist committed to trench warfare to push economic policy in a more human direction; and Nader more of a bomb-thrower who is impatient and skeptical of the fruits of incrementalism. Ms. Goodman skillfully moderates their exchange. Follow the link below to hear how two men who seem different in temperament respectfully go back and forth over Biden era policy. If the liberal and populist wings of progressivism can achieve the same level of tolerance and civility with one another, we could cement an enduring progressive political consensus for the next generation.

Ralph Nader & Joseph Stiglitz on Kamala Harris’s Economic Plans &

Confronting Corporate Power

https://www.democracynow.org/2024/9/11/harris_trump_debate_stiglitz_nader_pt2?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=da6857c078-Daily_Digest_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-da6857c078-192933645

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[1] Vernon Damani Johnson, “The Logic of Populism: The Left Wing,” Damani: Let’s Talk Politics, http://damanipolitics.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-logic-of-populism-left-wing.html

 

[2] William A. Galston, “The collapse of bipartisan immigration reform: A guide for the perplexed,” Brookings,   February 8, 2024, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-collapse-of-bipartisan-immigration-reform-a-guide-for-the-perplexed/

TABLE 1.

Traditionalism

                                                                                 Conservatism                       Populism (Trump)  

Character of Nationalism	exceptionalist (parochial), multilateralist, (unilateral when it suits them)	exceptionalist (parochial), unilateralist
Racial Ideology	white assimilationism,   trending to white nationalism to keep electoral base                              àà à	white nationalism
Character of Polity	liberal democracy	constitutional republic

 

Progressivism

                                                                Liberalism                              Populism (Sanders)

Character of Nationalism	exceptionalist (cosmopolitan), multilateralist	exceptionalist (cosmopolitan), anti-imperialist
Racial Ideology	liberal multiracialism,   trending to structural multiracialism  to keep electoral base     ààà	structural multiracialism
Character of Polity	liberal democracy	multiracial democracy