Pick Your Populism

It will always be easier to make a populist case for taking from the rich and giving to the "middle class" than it is to make a populist case for letting the rich keep more of their own money. But other positions that traditionally have been seen as populist, including protectionism, farm subsidies and maintaining Social Security in its current form, can plausibly be portrayed as favoring special interests at the expense of a less affluent and less influential majority.

The relevant question is not whether a policy benefits an elite but whether the elite is thereby unjustly enriched. Whatever your political perspective, then, there are good and bad kinds of populism. But one variety we should all agree to oppose is the mindless, anti-intellectual populism to which Biden and Palin resorted during their debate.

If you want "a good barometer" for the economy's health, according to Palin, you shouldn't look at statistics or consult economists; you should "go to a kid's soccer game on Saturday, and turn to any parent there on the sideline and ask them, How are you feeling about the economy?'" If you want a detailed comparison of McCain's economic, educational, health care and foreign policies with those of the Bush administration, according to Biden, you shouldn't pick up a newspaper or do research online; you should "walk into Home Depot with me" and "ask anybody in there." This is the sort of populism that insults voters' intelligence while trying to flatter it.