Via the great Avedon, this excellent essay on populism by John Emerson:

Where are the Pitchforks?

In 1930 or 1940 the average American was dirt poor, whereas Ruy Texeira and others have concluded that the contemporary “poor” demographic is relatively small and hard to mobilize. Furthermore, a high proportion of middling Americans have decided — actively or passively, explicitly or tacitly, for better or worse — that they’re in on the game, and that they shouldn’t rock the big-money boat. (America has been economically successful enough to produce a demographically significant group that thinks of itself as “elite”).

Obama has an historically historic opportunity to be one of the great populist presidents, getting the gig at a time when most Americans are keenly aware that far-reaching changes are needed, beginning with shoring up the threadbare safety net.

If "progressives" can do little better than playing the cultural-superiority card vs. the ignorant Bubbas who are too unhip to know racy associations for the word "teabag" — rather than defending and promoting the economic policies that are proven to be the best answer to recessions and depressions — we're just begging the Republicans to become populist heroes.

**From a tip by alert reader bringiton:

"The American People Deserve To Know Where We Stand, and What We Want to Do." Tell 'em, John.

I know, I know- my smart friends keep telling me to ignore what I perceive to be a Republican revolt, and an upswell of "libertarianism" in that party. OK, I'm probably wrong. But then there is this thread. It probably means nothing. And yet- on a recent drive thru this state, going up north to the country, what did I see? A lot of poverty, and misery. And, a lot of signs. For one guy, and no one else. That guy was Ron Paul.

I am not a Paul supporter. But I keep talking about him, and his flunkies, because I know them to be like me. That is, lost, and forgotten, and without a real party or representation. I think they are confused about reality, but they likely think the same of me, and in the end, we all understand that we have more in common with each other than we do with our "leaders" in either party.

UPDATE: Ian proves his brilliance once again. Read the whole, devastating thing, but remember this powerful money quote:

Now the problem here is that MoveOn has been a very effective proxy for a long time, running ads that say things the Democrats can't.Every time they try and act as a proxy in the future what Republicans will say is "MoveOn are a bunch of extremist who were condemned by a bipartisan motion in the Senate." Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant to damage a proxy like that. Can you imagine Republicans ever doing that to, say, the NRA.

Democrats who don't hate you are as follows. Remember this list, in the coming months. These are representatives who don't hate populism, and probably hold more of the values you do that the rest of them:

Senate Resolution 315 (to condemn MoveOn)

NAYs ---25
Akaka (D-HI)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)

Just got in from one of those "public's opportunity to comment on an ongoing government action" thingees, and I'm both uplifted and disheartened. Uplifted to realize how many people really do care enough to show up for a boring, unsexy three hour gov't hearing, and to speak out for the environment. Disheartened to realize that corporations really do run our government, no matter how much we want to believe otherwise. Mining is a "hot" news topic these days, and this post is being filed away for a future 'I told you so' moment I have no doubt we'll someday have over the mine in question. It won't surprise you at all to hear that essentially, it's yet another case of short term corporate profit winning out over logic, common sense, science, popular will, and long term environmental concerns. And economic concerns, as that is understood to affect all, and not a few, people in this state.

Here's the deal: a pristine, and undeveloped (except logging decades ago) area of northern Michigan is the target, and a very bad company wants to put in a sulfide mine. The supporting view is that it will "bring jobs and tax revenue to Michigan." But that isn't really grounded in fact, and the citizens of this state know it. Too bad one of the bureaucrats told me that he didn't really care and that the mine would likely go in anyway.