The sun is setting on populism... maybe he's not the genius he pretends to be.
I don't think many people mistake Skippy for a genius.
nonetheless, on populism:
https://jacobin.com/2022/04/canadian-left-freedom-convoy-populismOver the course of the pandemic, the Left has largely been missing in action. Thus far, there has been no political force challenging the rise of Poilievre. As he and the lurking convoy movement build upon their shared affinities, the Left seems to have abandoned the field. Canada’s institutional left — to the extent that it exists — appears to be unable or unwilling to speak to the populist impulses of those who are drawn to the movement but who may yet be reachable. It has thereby left a political space ripe for a pro-youth, pro-worker agenda in the hands of cynical right-wing operators.
The convoy organizers and their supporters, along with Poilievre and his, are making political hay out of issues that are normally the Left’s bread and butter — issues such as good jobs, housing, health care, and sick leave. While many who support convoy politics may be beyond reach — extremists who cannot be reasoned with nor converted — it would be foolish for the Left to cede this ground entirely. Indeed, the Left should pursue a policy of conversion, one that can redirect the anger of these folks.
It should be regarded as no accident that in 2016, when a populist movement carried Trump to victory over his establishment opponents, an equally fervent populist movement propelled Bernie Sanders to a serious challenge of Hillary Clinton's position of prohibitive front-runner.
Voters are regular people who just want to know why they can't get ahead in the world. People who want to know why they work harder and prices go up and their wages don't. People who see the stock market numbers go up and the unemployment index go down and ask "why am I just as broke as before?"
Populism, it seems to me, should be aimed directly at those people. It used to be, didn't it? So why has "populism" become a dirty word?
The left is supposed to have BETTER answers for people like that (which is most of us) than the likes of Trump or Poilievre. So why can't the left reach those voters? Why did the "Rust Belt" states flip to Trump in 2016? Why didn't Biden win a resounding victory in "the Rust Belt" in 2020? Why did Ontario unions support Ford instead of Horvath in the recent Ontario election? Why does it seem like "the left" has become the choice of Ivory Tower egg-heads and completely lost the blue-collar voter who used to be their base?
One of the post-mortems of the Ontario election I read said that Horvath's campaign was a big hit with Twitter people but a complete miss with real voters. Anybody disagree?
-k