Global Populism
Introduction
Global populism is a revolt against elitism and the inequalities it creates.
An example is the USA, as shown in different backgrounds of Democratic and Republican voters
“…The most important divide in American life is the diploma divide. College-educated folks tend to vote for Democrats and high-school-educated folks tend to vote for Republicans. Thus, the richest places tend to be Democratic. The Democrats dominate the media, universities, the cultural institutions and government. Even the big corporations, based in places such as New York and San Francisco, are trending blue.
The ruling-class Democrats live in very different worlds to high-school-educated Republicans. The average high school grad dies nine years sooner than a college graduate, is more likely to be obese, is less likely to marry and is much more likely to divorce. The overdose death rate for high school grades is about six times as high as the rate for college grads……Worse, educated-class folks have rigged the game. Children from affluent families tend to attend public and private schools flushed with cash, while working-class kids don't. By the eighth grade, children from affluent families are performing at four grades levels higher than children from poor families….”
David Brooks, 2024
Students from wealthy families score considerably higher points for admission to university than those from poorer families:
“…Students from families in the top 1% of earners are 77 times more likely to get into the Ivy League as those from families making less than $US 30,000 a year…”
Raj Chetty as quoted by David Brooks, 2024
Global populism is
“…driven by a sense of the educated class has too much cultural, academic, political and economic power…”
David Brooks, 2024
Other areas of polarisation in America include:
- economics (Republicans have a more individualistic approach than Democrats; the Democrats.
“…see themselves as increasing the size of government to help the downtrodden. But many Americans look at these efforts and just see affluent people amassing more power for themselves in Washington…”
David Brooks, 2024)
- social moral cohesion (Republicans have a more rigid moral order
“…with permanent standards of right and wrong within family structures that have stood the test of time, with shared understandings on gender, ie male and female……
Democrats can be rugged individualists when it comes to morality. They are more likely to adhere to a code of moral freedom that holds that individuals should be free to live their own values. Individuals get to choose their own definition of when human life begins. Any form of family and social life is OK so long as the individuals within it give their consent. This is the privatisation of morality…”
David Brooks, 2024)
NB
“…The lack of social and moral order is that practical calamity of less-educated folks. For them, economic policy is tied to social issues and moral values. The things that derailed their lives are broken relationships, infidelity, out-of-wedlock births, addictions, family conflict and crime. When Republicans talk about immigration, crime, faith, family and flag, they are talking about ways to preserve social and moral order. Democrats are great at talking about economic solidarity, but not moral and cultural solidarity…”
David Brooks, 2024
Furthermore, surveys show that of Americans
“…69% agree the political and economic elite don't care about hard-working people and 63% agree that experts in this country don't understand the lives of American people…”
Gallup Poll as quoted by David Brooks, 2024
“…In other words, many Americans feel betrayed, distrustful and angry. They feel that the American dream has been destroyed…”
David Brooks, 2024
During the 2024 US presidential election, the Republican candidate Donald Trump successfully used populism to boost his successful campaign.