Category Archives: Populism

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Every nation has fringe candidates and public spectacles in its political life, but today, the American right celebrates the abandonment of dignity and virtue.

First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.

Ohios U.S. Senate candidates, Tim Ryan and J. D. Vance, held their first debate last night in Cleveland. I wrote last year about why I find Vance so execrable, but my friend Jim Swift, a native Ohioan, argued today that while Ryan gave a serviceable performance, he didnt beat Vance into the ground, and given how far Ohio has gone in a MAGA direction, thats what he needed to do.

One moment, however, struck me. At a rally in Ohio last month, Donald Trump declared, J. D. is kissing my ass, he wants my support so badwhile Vance was standing right by the stage. Last night, Ryan slammed Vance for selling his dignity:

I dont know anybody I grew up withI dont know anybody I went to high school withthat would allow somebody to take their dignity like that and then get back up onstage. We need leaders who have courage to take on their own party. And Ive proven that. And he was called an ass kisser by the former president.

I understood Ryans exasperation. Im not from Ohio, but I was raised in a working-class neighborhood. Where I grew up, if you sneered that a man was kissing your assand said it to his facethat other fellow might react by knocking you on that particular part of your anatomy. But Vances reaction to Trump calling him out as a spineless loser at his own rally was to run up to Trump like a puppy that just got a treat, wagging his tail for another tasty biscuit.

It is possible, even likely, that Vance will gain a Senate seat. But he can never regain his dignity. He doesnt seem to careand neither, apparently, do voters.

Americans once expected politicians to carry themselves with a seriousness that indicated their ability and willingness to tackle problems, whether poverty or war, that were too difficult for the rest of us. We elected such people not because we wanted them to be like us but because we hoped that they were better than us: smarter, tougher, and capable of being leaders and role models.

We often failed, and sometimes we even enjoyed electing scoundrels, such as James Traficant and James Michael Curley. Democracies always welcome a certain amount of playacting and mischief as reassurance that our leaders are not too far removed from our own experiences as citizens. And yes, many politicians have used that as cover for their misdeeds. But even some of the most flawed people we elevated to high office at least pretended to be better people, and thus were capable of inspiring us to be a better nation.

Today, we no longer expect or even want our politicians to be better than we are. The new American right, however, has blown past the relatively innocuous populism of the past 40 years and added a fetid cynicism about almost everything related to public life. Not only are the MAGA Republicans seemingly repelled by the idea of voting for someone better than they are; they support candidates who are often manifestly worse people than the average citizen, so that they may slather their fears about their own shortcomings and prejudices under a sludgy and undifferentiated hatred about almost everyone in public office.

These populists not only look past the sins of their candidates but also defend and even celebrate them. Let us leave aside the cult around Trump, which has now reached such levels of weirdness that the specter of Jim Jones is probably pacing about the netherworld in awe. Instead, consider how many people cheer on unhinged cranks such as Marjorie Taylor Greene or allow themselves to be courted by smarmy opportunists such as Vance and Ted Cruz.

This new populism, centered in the modern Republican Party, has no recognizable policy content beyond the thrill of cruelty and a juvenile boorishness meant largely to enrage others. The GOPs goals now boil down to power for its elected royalty and cheap Colosseum pleasures for its rank and file. Republicans, therefore, are forced to lower theirand ourstandards for admission to public office, because the destruction of dignity is the only way they can find the candidates who will do what decent men and women will not, including abasing themselves to Donald Trump.

The same Republicans who claim to venerate the Founders and the Constitution have intentionally turned our politics into a scuzzy burlesque. Last night, Fox Newshome to some of the loudest carny barkers on the freak-show midwayplayed a snippet of a 2018 phone call from Joe Biden to his son Hunter. The message revealed a fathers love and worry; the Fox host Sean Hannity tried to make it seem scandalous. Meanwhile, GOP leaders continue to defend the Georgia candidate Herschel Walker, whose callousness to his own children (and their mothers) is on full display. They ridicule Bidena decent and good man who was worried that his son was going to die from addictionand make excuses for Walker, who seemingly forgot about multiple children hes fathered and has made incoherent responses to charges from the mother of one of those children that he financed an abortion for her. She has also said that he later asked her to undergo a second abortion; Walker continues to deny all of these claims.

Im an adult. I get it. Our elected officials arent saints, and only rarely are they heroes. But must they now be a cavalcade of clowns and charlatans, joyously parading their embrace of vice and their rejection of virtue? The Republican Party seems to think so.

Related:

Scientists Can No Longer Ignore Ancient Flooding Tales

By Chris Baraniuk

It wasnt long after Henry David Inglis arrived on the island of Jersey, just northwest of France, that he heard the old story. Locals eagerly told the 19th-century Scottish travel writer how, in a bygone age, their island had been much more substantial, and that folks used to walk to the French coast. The only hurdle to their journey was a riverone easily crossed using a short bridge.

Pah! Inglis presumably scoffed as he looked out across 22 kilometers of shimmering blue sea between Jersey and the French coastbecause he went on to write, in his 1834 book about the region, that this was an assertion too ridiculous to merit examination. About 150 years earlier, another writer, Jean Poingdestre, had been similarly unmoved by the tale. No one could have trod from Jersey to Normandy, he withered, vnlesse it were before the Flood, referring to the Old Testament cataclysm.

Read the full article.

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Listen. A new episode of our How to Build a Happy Life podcast, about what happens when virtues become vices.

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I often pester my Atlantic colleague Isabel Fattal about increasing her late-20th-century pop-culture literacy. (I do this to many of my younger friends and family; its probably not one of my more endearing habits.) Today, just before a meeting, a song jarred a memory of a movie. I mentioned the film to her and found that she has not seen it. Perhaps you havent either, but you should: The song was Say You, Say Me, by Lionel Richie, and the movie is White Nights, a 1985 film (widely available to rent online) whose plot was little more than an excuse to get Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines dancing together. But do you really need more than that to watch two great dancers?

The interesting wrinkle, and what makes the film a kind of Cold War timepiece, is that it is set in the Soviet Union. (This is why I went to see it at the time, to be honest.) Baryshnikov plays a ballet star who defects to the West, and he finds himself recaptured by the KGB after a plane crash in Siberia. Hes sent to go live with Hines, who defected to Moscow because of the Vietnam War and now lives in internal Soviet exile with his wife (played by Isabella Rossellini). The plot is paper-thin, but the dance scenes are great, Jerzy Skolimowski has a terrific turn as a nasty KGB colonel, and, in addition to Richies hit, the soundtrack features the lovely Stephen Bishop song Separate Lives, performed by Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin.

Tom

Special announcement: Were launching a culture-focused weekend edition of the Daily! Every Sunday morning, an Atlantic writer will share what theyre watching, reading, and listening to. Keep an eye out for the first installment this Sunday, October 16.

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Isabel Fattal contributed to this newsletter.

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J. D. Vance and the Collapse of Dignity - The Atlantic

As the year draws to a close, readers can usually expect the release of some really great non-fiction books. Thats definitely the situation with South African publishing. There have been a number of books released dealing with varying but all equally interesting topics. The Daily Vox team rounds up a few to add to the TBR.

In this book, Bulelwa Mabasa outlines some of the notable legal cases she has led and the lessons she has drawn from them. Mabasa is a director and the head of the land reform, restitution and tenure practise at Werksmans Attorneys. In 2018, she was appointed by president Cyril Ramaphosa to the presidential expert advisory panel on land reform and agriculture. In this book, she explains what sparked her deep passion and interest in land justice and land reform. Mabasa describes in the book the role played by her mentors to get her to where she is. She also dives into the professional and personal challenges she has faced over the years.

Author of The Life of 1652, Patric Tariq Mellet autobiography is an in-depth look at the undefeated spirit Mellet has had throughout his life. The book looks at how Mellet has lived a life torn between many different identities and how the question of who he really was has always defined and troubled him. In the prologue, he writes that in 1997 he became Patric William Tariq Mellet at the stroke of a bureaucrats pen. This was because previously he had been known as De Goede which was neither of his parents names. With the change of name, he finally carried his parents names. The book tells the story of the road he took through life to get to that point.

The Lie of 1652 debunks colonial and apartheid land myths

This was a case that shocked South Africa. In 2008, an 18-year-old boy walked into his high school armed with a samurai sword with a plan to wreck violence on the school. At the end of the day, 16-year-old Jacques Pretorius was left dead and three others were brutally injured. There was much speculation, confusion and horror following the violent incident. Speculation was rife about what caused him to carry out the brutal act from his music obsessions to being influenced by Krugersdorp killer Cecilia Steyn. Now fourteen years later Morn Harme is out on parole. In this book, Nicole Engelbrecht aims to put together the pieces of the tragedy and show what exactly happened and why.

Stellenbosch is world renowned for its wine, gorgeous scenery, and beautiful people. Its the home of students working towards their future, successful businessmen and respected professors. But dont let the luxury and blue mountains fool you. The sleepy town hides numerous crimes that rocked this community, the country and the world. The acclaimed author and journalist Julian Jansens third book reads like a crime novel and contains never before published information on each of the crimes. The book shines a light on the high profile cases as well as the lesser known ones to highlight to true horror.

Book Extract Stellenbosch: Murder Town Two Decades of Shocking Crimes

Renowned journalist and violence researcher Dr. Nechama Brodie takes on an important topic in her latest book: farm killings and murders. Farm killings make up less than half a percent of all homicides reported in South Africa. However, the attention they garner from the media, politicians and various other groupings in South Africa is often disproportional. The reason for this is while very few farm murders are committed for political reasons, the response to them is political. In the book, Brodie aims to challenge the myths around farm killings. Brodie does this through examining news reports, data, legal cases and expert research to make sense of the underlying reality of violence.

Statistics surrounding South Africas farm murder rate are more political than accurate

This book which features several different authors takes a closer look at populism. It examines how populism is rewiring the world. The authors analyse 13 countries across the world to understand what populism is and how its impacting on the global world order. Some of the authors involved in the book include Greg Mills, Lyal White, Christopher Clapham and Tendai Biti amongst others. They look at Argentina, the Philippines, Zimbabwe, Hungary, Brazil and others. The central questions the book aims to answer is whether populism is evolving into a threat to countries around the world and whether there is a way to return to rational policy-making.

Put together by the MSF analysis department, this book focuses on the Syrian refugee crisis and humanitarian disaster. Ten years after the war started in Syria, the book aims to focus on the humanitarian and medical costs of the conflict. Each of the eight chapters in the book go in-depth into key humanitarian and medical dimensions of the Syrian war. The book explores the politics of aid in the Syrian war and conflict. The book features different writers, academics, analysts and humanitarian practitioners. It has been edited by MSFs Jonathan Whittall, Jehan Bseiso and Michiel Hofman. The book has been commissioned and produced by MSF.

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7 non-fiction book releases to add to your TBR - The Daily Vox

Tetyana Patsuk, 72, by her house in the retaken village of Velyka Oleksandrivka, Ukraine. After more than six months of Russian occupation she still sleeps in the basement. Photo / AP

OPINION:

The European Union has faced a series of emergencies in recent years.

The 2008 global financial meltdown that began in America triggered a European sovereign debt crisis that pitted richer EU members against poorer ones.

Unrest in the Middle East provoked a migrant crisis that fuelled anti-immigrant populism inside many EU countries and exacerbated divisions between Brussels and eastern members like Hungary and Poland.

Then came Brexit.

The election of Donald Trump as United States President created deep uncertainty in Europe about Washington's reliability as Europe's security partner.

The pandemic then inflicted economic damage across the continent.

Now Russia's invasion of Ukraine has generated another, and larger, wave of refugees, an energy crisis, and fear of a new East-West confrontation.

The election of new governments led by parties of the far-right in Sweden and then Italy, the EU's third-largest economy, have again raised questions about the EU's strength and resilience.

Yet, the European Union is stronger than ever.

How is this possible? Jean Monnet, one of the EU's earliest visionaries and architects, once predicted that: "Europe will be built in crisis and will be the result of the solutions." He was right.

A crisis can (sometimes) create opportunities for positive change that would not have been possible without the need for a collective response. In important ways, Covid-19 and Russia's invasion of Ukraine have done exactly that.

The financial and sovereign debt crises, migrant crisis, and Brexit all helped persuade EU leaders that economic inequality breeds resentment, and that the resulting anger stokes populism.

With support from all 27 EU member states, European governments agreed in 2020 on a multibillion-euro recovery package that included funding for both Covid response and the reinforcement of safety net protections for workers and businesses.

These financial packages also include stimulus for investment in green technologies and regulations that require non-EU countries that want to trade with Europe to align with European technology standards or face higher taxes, boosting European influence in global regulation of new technologies and environmental protection.

There was also a 1074 billion EU budget passed for 20212027 that gave Brussels the means to distribute substantial sums that member governments badly needed.

It will be years before all of the money is distributed, but the unanimous emergency response showed the value of shared sacrifice at a time when country-first populism had thrown the EU's future into question.

Covid has also shifted the balance of power in the EU's battle with Eurosceptic member governments.

Hungary's Viktor Orban, a skilled politician who has built his reputation on confrontation with the EU, won a landslide victory in April. It might appear that victory would help him resist EU demands to comply with the EU rules on democracy and rule of law he has flouted for several years.

But the European Commission has found a way to use Covid relief funds to bring Orban in line. Last month, it formally recommended that 7.5b intended for Hungary be withheld until Orban's Government offered a list of demanded reforms.

Hungary already faces high prices, a weak currency, and an energy crisis, and its budget deficit is now far higher than the Government had forecasted. Add 14.9b in much-needed grants and loans from the EU's Covid Recovery Fund, and Brussels now has Orban's full attention.

The same political dynamic exists in Italy. Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy Party and her country's next prime minister, has waged a "culture war" against EU protections for minority and migrant rights in her country.

But Italy's economic vulnerability in a time of economic hardship will ensure that reassurances about respect for the EU and solid support from her incoming government for Nato and Ukraine won't be enough to win her unconditional support in Brussels.

Italy, with the EU's second-highest debt-to-GDP, needs 200b in Covid Recovery funds from the European Commission, and it needs the European Central Bank to continue to buy its debt. As in Hungary, feeble economic growth, stubbornly high inflation, and looming energy shortages leave Italy's Government in need of EU goodwill, and it's the pandemic that has given the EU the economic and political leverage to demand fiscal and other reforms.

Russia's attack on Ukraine and Vladimir Putin's threats against Nato and European governments have rallied the EU in a similarly dramatic way.

They have created an urgent unity in Brussels' relations with Washington that has not existed in decades.

It has strengthened Nato by bringing in capable new members (Finland and Sweden), persuading reluctant EU governments (particularly Germany) to spend much more on defence, and brought member Poland closer to the EU consensus on many issues by proving each side's value to the other.

Perhaps most importantly, Europe's greatest security vulnerability has long been its dependence on Russia for energy supplies.

Putin has now proven to European leaders that Russia can no longer be considered even a reliable trade partner, and the EU has undertaken the enormously complex challenge of ending that dependence.

In the short term, that means an exceptionally tough couple of years for European business and citizens.

In the long run, it will strengthen European security and accelerate investment in green technologies. None of this was possible before February 24. All of it is the direct result of Putin's war.

Europe has historic challenges ahead.

Bolstering its defences, redesigning its energy architecture, managing high inflation, boosting meagre growth, continuing to support Ukraine, and managing an increasingly erratic nuclear-armed neighbour to the east will test Europe's newfound strength for years to come.

But the Union's ability not just to weather crises but to use them to strengthen European institutions is the most successful example of successful cross-border cooperation of the still-young 21st century.

Ian Bremmer is the president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media and author of The Power of Crisis. He can be followed on Facebook and Twitter.

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Ian Bremmer: How crises opened the way for some positive change in Europe - New Zealand Herald

Lukasz Lazarczyk, a 2019 Oak Park and River Forest High School graduate, is fulfilling a long-held dream of living in Poland, while pursuing a degree in European politics and economics at the University of Warsaw. For several months he has been photographing rallies for Euromaidan, a Warsaw-based initiative that has been supporting Ukraines integration with Europe since 2013.

I have always felt very Polish and very connected with my Polish family. I knew in high school that I wanted to study European politics, and I considered no country other than Poland in which I wanted to study. I applied to a couple other Polish universities and a few American universitiesbut mainly just to appeal to my parents, Lazarczyk said.

Lazarczyks father is from Poland and came to the U.S. in the 1980s, following the mass protests led by Solidarity, a trade union movement, that overthrew the Communist government. His great aunt had come to the U.S. in the 1950s to escape Communism. Lazarczyk visited Poland several times with his family and stayed with his grandmother in Poznan for three weeks when he was a teenager. The experience confirmed his desire to someday live for a more extended time in the country. He started taking Polish language lessons during his freshman year of high school, as a birthday present to himself.

According to Lazarczyk, politics in Poland are just as divisive for sociological reasons as they are in the U.S., with rural populations leaning right and the cities leaning left. He advises that while Polish society leans fairly conservative, the 2020 presidential election was very close, with the current president, Andrzej Duda, beating his challenger by only slightly more than 1% of the vote. Lazarcyzk has been studying the growth of global populism and what makes populist politicians so effective.

Russias invasion of Ukraine in February has been a great concern for Lazarcyzk and his friends, most of whom are Ukrainian. He regularly attended protests outside the Russian embassy, in solidarity with his friends and their cause, and took photos and videos of the action. Euromaidan has been sharing his work on Instagram.

In recent days, with Ukrainian forces advancing, there seems to be greater optimism about the situation in Ukraine although there is concern about Putins annexation of Ukrainian territory. A friend of mine, who lives in western Ukraine, told me that he had a backpack filled with essentials in case Russia launched a nuclear strike on his city. That is their reality, Lazarcyzk said.

Following graduation, Lazarcyzk would like to pursue a masters degree, although he doesnt have a master plan at this point. He is adamant that he doesnt want to be a politician but would enjoy being a political analyst or a professor.

He hasnt decided how long he will remain in Poland. He enjoys the lifestyle and the walkability of Warsaw and claims he hasnt driven a car in more than a year. He admits that one definite benefit of living in Poland is that everyone knows how to pronounce his name.

Its difficult for English speakers to pronounce my last name its a small thing that you really appreciate when you live somewhere where everyone can pronounce your name without any problems, he said.

To see a collection of Lazarczyks photos, including landscapes and street scenes, check out his website at Lukaszlazarczyk.myportfolio.com.

Excerpt from:

From OPRF to Poland with a focus on Ukraine - Wednesday Journal

PITTSBURGH While it is always unsettling for a political movement when its party loses power, the reality is that the movement's coalition doesnt necessarily collapse or disappear. Sometimes, it even gets stronger. Coalitions last beyond a candidate's or party's loss because the coalition is always more about the people who are in it than about any single person.

Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano and his wife, Rebbeca, speak at the Unite and Win Rally.

(Justin Merriman/for the Washington Examiner)

Coalitions are also often about a sense of place. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis understands this. His message in his visit to this Pennsylvania city, along with neighboring Youngstown, Ohio, shows he recognizes that attendees at his rallies are not just interested in him; they are interested in how well he "gets" this sense of place that is everything to conservative populists.

This explains why so many at his speech welcomed his message, even while many reporters, as usual, misunderstood it.

Tickets to DeSantis's Rust Belt events all coordinated by Turning Point USA and all free were gobbled up within moments of their release. His visit here was for the Republican nominee for governor, Doug Mastriano. In Youngstown, he appeared on behalf of Senate candidate J.D. Vance.

DeSantis has lived in Florida for most of his life outside of his time spent in the military and college, but he has roots in both of these areas. His father is from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, and his mother is from Youngstown. The pair met while attending Youngstown State University. At the beginning of his 40-minute speech, he showed a photo of him as a toddler dressed from head to toe in black and gold Pittsburgh Steelers gear.

Not a lot of people know I was born in the late '70s to a Steeler fan, he said as the crowd went wild.

I think they had just won the Super Bowl probably then, he said, laughing at the image on the screen.

What he didnt do during the entire speech was refer to anything about his victories using I. Thats important: Nearly every mention of his administration's accomplishments began with the word we, as was every mention of Republicans in general winning races and coming together.

It is also clear that some of the press do not understand him or the people who support the movement or even would consider him for the Republican nominee. The coverage was as expected: The attendees were mocked, and his speech was called barely hidden fascism, with barely any intellectual curiosity to understand either.

Its like clockwork. Few reporters have learned a thing from not just 2016 but also the down-ballot races in 2020 in this state and states across the country where Democrats and the press mistakenly assumed there would be a blue wave. They also haven't learned anything from the governors elections in Virginia, where Republican Glenn Youngkin won, or New Jersey, where the Democrats barely won a race they expected to win much more easily.

The establishment media are giving DeSantis, along with everyone else with an "R" after their names, treatment similar to what they gave President Donald Trump meaning it was never really about Trump; it was always about the establishment losing power and stature. And they plan on playing whack-a-mole to try to destroy or undermine every Republican candidate who rises from now until the cows come home and to belittle Republican supporters, too.

Already, we are to the point where former Republican governor of Florida Charlie Crist, who is now the Democratic nominee for governor against DeSantis, opened his pitch to voters by saying: Those who supported the governor should stay with him and vote for him, and I dont want your vote. If you have that hate in your heart, keep it there.

If you have any hesitation in believing the Democrats or some of the press still do not hold contempt for conservatives or have learned their lessons for calling them deplorable, Crist has proved that sentiment is still prevailing.

People listen as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Unite and Win Rally.

(Justin Merriman/for the Washington Examiner)

Youngstown State University political science professor Paul Sracic says DeSantis's trip here and to Youngstown shows his message is emerging in prominence in the Republican Party and that he has his eyes on the presidency in 2024.

Assuming Vance wins, he will likely remember who was there to help him in 2022, Sracic said.

More importantly, Sracic said it shows the interesting place that DeSantis now occupies in the GOP.

Former Democrats in northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania were a big part of the conservative base that launched Trump into the White House in 2016, he explained.

Sracic said that while voters in these regions still like Trump for his policies, they are not all that enthused yet with Vance but he said they are indeed excited about DeSantis.

He possesses those same qualities on policies, as well as attitude, that Trump did, said Sracic, an expert in the Rust Belt and conservative populism.

DeSantis being able to rally Trump voters to Vance is further evidence that he is the heir apparent to Trump," Sracic continued. "Of course, if Trump runs in 2024, and DeSantis wants to challenge him, voters like those in Youngstown and around Pittsburgh will become crucial swing votes in a GOP primary. DeSantis is smart to travel up here to remind these voters of the common roots he shares with them.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis waves to the crowd at the Unite and Win Rally on Aug. 19.

(Justin Merriman/for the Washington Examiner)

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Florida's DeSantis takes conservative populism to the Rust Belt

The first live debate ahead of presidential elections in Brazil saw the candidates indulging in extremely heated and offensive oratory, but at one point the populist President Jair Bolsonaro crossed all possible redlines while answering a question from one journalist. I think you go to sleep thinking about me. You have a crush on me, Bolsonaro told Vera Magalhes after she asked him about Brazils COVID-19 vaccination rate. You are a disgrace to journalism in Brazil, he continued acidly.

Magalhes, a columnist working for Jornal O Globo, in contrast, reacted in a rather somber and professional tone, stating that Bolsonaros attitude was absolutely out of control, unnecessary, and harmful to himself. She said she believed Bolsonaro doesnt like to be questioned by women. Bolsonaros insulting comments to Magalhes come after he has faced ample criticism over his attitude toward women in general. The far-right populist disagrees of course, pointing to his governments support for laws in favor of womens rights and claiming that a large part of women in Brazil love me because he opposes legalizing drugs.

The episode outlined above sounds quite familiar, echoing a similar incident on August 27 when, addressing a gathering in Jhelum, former prime minister Imran Khan also snobbishly lashed out at all journalists who dared criticize him or ask difficult questions. He referred to all those journalists as lifafay and zameer farosh (corrupt and conscious sellers) who were advising him to temporarily pause his protest campaign because of the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe caused by devastating floods in Pakistan. Even further back, it resembles the notorious incident of Donald Trump raging against CNNs Jim Acosta, when Trumps morning post-midterms presser devolved into an historic White House fracas when Acosta poked the presidential bear with his line of questioning about Trumps caravan invasion rally rhetoric. Thats enough! Put down the mic! Trump shouted. CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You should not be working for CNN. The way you treat Sarah Huckabee is horrible. The way you treat other people is horrible! Trump hissed at Acosta.

In recent years, a long line of populist leaders has suddenly popped up on the global political radar Donald Trump, Imran Khan, Boris Johnson, Narendra Modi, Emmanuel Macron, and Viktor Orban to name a few. All of them share a lot in common, particularly their theatrical demeanor and extreme disdain for the legacy media and professional journalists. This wave of radicalized populism has produced numerous such episodes where the populist politicians have directly and aggressively bullied and slighted journalists and particularly female journalists who happen to ask them any pricking questions or challenge their preferred narratives. This aggressive anti-journalist trend, arising out of their intrinsic fear of being exposed and challenged publicly, is a relatively new phenomenon that traces its roots to the introduction of social media as an overwhelmingly powerful propaganda tool in this new era of emerging technologies.

The level to which journalism is being challenged and threatened is certainly unprecedented throughout the history of the profession. The content and authority of traditional news outlets are both being questioned, and their former monopoly on peoples attention is being increasingly diluted due to social media platforms.

The emergence of populist politics is yet another momentous challenge, manifested in some cases by players openly hostile to journalists and even to the idea of press freedom in general.

By exploiting the electoral mandate to undermine core institutions like the courts or news media, populism creates a political tribalism and cultism that inflames divisions, blunts civil discourse, and eschews political compromise. Populism mostly mobilizes people who have not been politically involved. At the same time, the relationship between populist communicators and the media has typically been thorny and strained. Populist leaders mostly receive massive coverage in the mainstream press, and the news media outlets are typically portrayed by populist actors as part of a corrupt elite; yet ironically, on the other hand, these populist actors are also addicted to the steroids of publicity that these outlets can provide

The populist impulse affects a big chunk of the public, which makes it quite difficult for the legacy media to provide balanced coverage amid mounting pressure from populist leaders. Yet some populist actors have systematically targeted the media as fake, lying, or unfair. Thats a challenge for journalists. Theres reason to think that journalist-bashing by politicians has very negative effects on the followers of these populist leaders, who have at times resorted to using violence against dissenting journalists.

Populist politicians dont trust the media. They believe that the press is prejudiced and not a true representation of society. What populist leaders like Donald Trump, Bolsonaro, and Imran Khan either dont comprehend, or dont care about, is that their own offensive actions against a journalist directly encourages their fanatic devotees to take it a step further. One day a political leader attacks the media, and the next day journalists are not merely the target of critiques, but death threats. A disproportionate number of those threats are aimed at female journalists, who experience sexualized abuse, gender-related threats, and gutter-talk behavior. The general public appears to have little understanding of populism, and might see it as a fresh development or something that is entirely benign. But make no mistake: the rise of populist politics poses very serious challenges to journalists, legacy media, and democracy in general.

The views expressed in this article belong to the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect those of Geopoliticalmonitor.com

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Journalism and the Threat of Neo-Populism - Geopoliticalmonitor.com

Sen. Marco Rubio says President Biden has more important matters to tend to than sitting down with a small group of historians to discuss the fate of democracy at home and abroad. In an interview on Fox News, the Florida Republican referred to the historians as out-of-touch elitists who gave the president bad advice even though, it should be noted, Mr. Rubio was not present at the early August meeting.

One of the historians invited to the White House was Princetons Sean Wilentz, a preeminent scholar of American democracy specializing in the antebellum era. In a sharp response to Mr. Rubios criticism, Mr. Wilentz wrote in the Washington Post that the senators made-up version of the historians meeting stands in the sorry tradition of the great propagandists who are guilty of the deliberate manipulation and falsification of events for political purposes. In other words, Mr. Rubio engaged in fake populism, purporting to defend the interests and common sense of ordinary citizens against an assault by elites.

In this episode of History As It Happens, Mr. Wilentz discusses his spat with Mr. Rubio in the context of the resurgence of populist politics in America. To be sure, todays populists on the left and right may have little in common with the first populist movement in the United States.

The Populist Party, or Peoples Party, was founded in 1892. It was a social movement of small farmers and other Americans of modest means who supported a ban on foreign land ownership, the break-up of railroad monopolies and shorter work days. Later populist politicians, such as William Jennings Bryan, supported ending the gold standard and the return of silver coinage.

Nowadays, however, the definition of populism has been stretched to include an array of ideas divorced from the old movements fundamental aim of defending everyday workers from the exploitation of powerful interests, Mr. Wilentz said.

SEE ALSO: History As It Happens: George Wallace populism

There was a point in the 1950s, and a historian I admire, Richard Hofstadter, probably had more to do with this than anyone else, that populism was transformed from a political movement into a state of mind almost, into a style, the paranoid style in American politics, said Mr. Wilentz, referring to the title of Mr. Hofstadters famous work.

That was a frame of mind that was hyper-conspiratorial. There were interests out there, some of them phantom interests, that were oppressing the people at large, and the populists were going to get rid of those conspiracies in the name of the people.

Listen to the full interview with Mr. Wilentz about populism and how it endangers American democracy by downloading this episode of History As It Happens.

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History As It Happens: The 'fake' populists - Washington Times

People look over a list of legislative candidates at a polling station in Rome on Sept. 25, 2022. (Andreas Solaro/AFP via Getty Images)

Recent elections in Italy and Sweden have been resounding successes for right-wing populist parties, underscoring the growing electoral strength that such parties have displayed in Europe in recent years.

In Italy, the right-wing populist Brothers of Italy party secured the highest vote share of any single party in the nations recent election, making its leader, Giorgia Meloni, the likely prime minister. In Sweden, the Sweden Democrats emerged as the second-most popular party in the countrys recent election. Their strong performance is the culmination of steady growth over the last six parliamentary elections and the near doubling of their vote share since the 2014 election.

Across Europe, populists especially those on the ideological right have been winning larger shares of the vote in recent legislative elections, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data drawn primarily from Parlgov, a clearinghouse for cross-national political information. The Center defines populists on the basis of three academic measures and classifies them as right- or left-leaning based on expert evaluations of their ideology. (For more on these definitions, see How we did this or the appendix.)

This Pew Research Center analysis examines the growing electoral strength of populist political parties in 11 European countries. Vote share data is drawn from Parlgov for all elections except the most recent Swedish and Italian elections, where we consulted country-specific vote returns.

We use three measures to classify populist parties: anti-elite ratings from the 2019 Chapel Hill Expert Survey (CHES), Norris Global Party Survey (GPS) and The PopuList. We define a party as populist when at least two of these three measures classify it as such. For more information on how we classify European populist parties, read the appendix. Not all populist parties were asked about on the 2022 Global Attitudes survey, so results in the second table about favorability only include the parties that respondents were asked about.

Because the 2011 and 2014 CHES surveys do not include all relevant variables for our definition of populism, we focus our analysis on the 2019 CHES and 2019 GPS. As a result, the parties included in this analysis may be biased in favor of those that remain electorally significant. Similarly, The PopuList specifically looks at parties that obtained at least 2% of the vote in at least one national parliamentary election since 1998 and thus parties that were a larger share of the vote prior to 1998 may not be included. Additionally, parties may exist that are considered far-right or far-left but not populist, according to our working definition; those are not included here. The ideology of parties may also have shifted over time; we classify parties as left, right or center on the basis of CHES experts in 2019.

All European countries are not included in this analysis because we focus only on the 11 countries in Europe that were surveyed in 2022. Surveys were all conducted with nationally representative populations and were fielded from Feb. 14 to June 3, 2022, over the phone with adults in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Surveys were conducted face to face in Hungary and Poland.

Here are the questions used for this report, along with responses, and its methodology.

In Italy this year, for example, around four-in-ten voters cast their ballots for one of the three major right-wing populist parties: Brothers of Italy, Forza Italia and Lega, up from around a third who did the same in 2018 and around three-in-ten in 2013. On the other hand, Five Star, a centrist populist party, saw its vote share fall by roughly half since 2018, when it governed as part of a populist coalition with Lega.

In Spain, the share of the vote going to populist parties roughly doubled between 2015 and 2019 when the countrys most recent legislative election took place rising from around 13% to around 25%. This was especially the case among populists on the right, with the Vox party seeing its vote share grow from around 10% to around 15% during that span.

In the Netherlands, right-leaning populist parties garnered around 16% of the vote in 2021 a high not seen in nearly a decade of parliamentary elections.

In both Hungary and Poland, right-wing populist parties have surged to power, making enormous gains in the last two decades. In Hungary, President Viktor Orbans Fidesz party, which has been in power since 2010, secured a supermajority in this years legislative elections though the total share voting for populist parties in the country fell slightly as Jobbik, another right-wing populist group, joined an anti-Fidesz coalition. In Poland, the ruling Law and Justice Party (Pis) roughly quadrupled their vote share between 2001 and 2019, from around one-in-ten votes to around four-in-ten.

In Belgium and France, while the overall share of voters supporting populist parties has grown substantially in recent years, there have been gains for both right- and left-leaning populist parties. The right-leaning Flemish Interest party won around 12% of Belgiums vote in 2019, marking one of its most successful elections since 2007. But the left-leaning Workers Party of Belgium has also been ascendent, winning around 9% of the vote in 2019, up from less than 1% in 2007.

In France, the share of voters casting first-round ballots for a populist party has risen from around 10% in the 1980s to around 44% as of the 2022 election. On the right, the National Rally party previously called National Front has steadily increased its vote share in parliamentary elections since 2007 and, under Marine LePens leadership, became one of two parties in the second round of the last two presidential elections. La France Insoumise, a populist party on the left, garnered around a quarter of the first-round parliamentary bloc in 2022 though it did so as part of a far-left bloc alongside the Socialist Party, the Greens and the French Communist Party (these four parties running separately in the previous election also garnered around a quarter of the vote).

Germany and Greece somewhat buck the trend. In Germany, support for the right-leaning Alternative for Germany (AfD) fell nationally in the countrys most recent election in 2021, knocking it from its claim as the largest opposition party and the third-biggest party overall, though it remains a force in eastern Germany.

And in Greece, while populist parties still garner a large share of the vote, their popularity has been falling slightly in recent years. Left-leaning Syriza is significantly more popular there than right-leaning parties, including Greek Solution and Golden Dawn.

Despite their electoral gains in many countries, most populist political parties in Europe on the right and left are broadly unpopular, according to Pew Research Center surveys. In fact, outside of Hungary, where the ruling right-populist party Fidesz is seen favorably by 55% of the public, no party receives favorable ratings from a majority of the public.

Still, being seen in a positive light is not a prerequisite for electoral success, as Italy shows. There, only around a third of Italians saw Brothers of Italy (32%), Forza Italia (30%) or Five Star (29%) favorably when the Center surveyed the country this past spring and even fewer said the same of Lega (23%). The share of Italians with a positive view of some of these parties had even fallen since 2020. Nonetheless, record low turnout in Italy and the limited popularity of other parties, including the Democratic Party (38% in 2022, down from 42% in 2021), was enough to catapult the populist coalition to victory.

Note: Here are the questions used for this report, along with responses, its methodology and an appendix detailing how populist parties are defined.

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European populist parties vote share on the rise, especially on right - Pew Research Center

The reports about Luiz Incio Lula da Silvas impending comeback as Brazilian president verged on the ecstatic in the week before last Sundays vote. He was after all, fourteen points ahead of his populist rival, incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro, in the last opinion poll before the vote.

But the polls were wrong. Lula got a respectable 48% of the vote, but he was only five points ahead of Bolsonaro at 43%, and in Brazilian politics the candidates in the lead often fall behind in the second round. The long anticipated global decline and fall of the hard-right populist movement has been at least postponed.

This is particularly relevant to the United States, where Donald Trump constantly praises Bolsonaro as Tropical Trump. Lula is to the left of Joe Biden, but both men are ageing stalwarts of the centre-left who have made political comebacks but already feel a little bit like yesterdays news.

What has already happened in this first-round presidential election in Brazil is a triumph of the hard right in the simultaneous Congressional elections that would make another Lula presidency very difficult. Joe Biden may face similar difficulties after next months US mid-term Congressional elections, if polling predictions are right..

Both men have essentially promised a return to the sensible, moderate centre-left politics of yore, and that doesnt seem to be setting hearts aflame in either country. To be fair, however, Lula bears an additional handicap: a criminal conviction.

I spent a whole day with Lula long ago in So Paulos car-making suburb of So Bernardo do Campo, when he was genuinely a horny-handed son of toil and a trade union organiser. He certainly seemed to be an honest man then, even a poor man, but he was freed from jail only last year after serving part of a twelve-year sentence for corruption in office.

It wasnt a lot of money and the charges may have been trumped up: the judge who brought them and sent Lula to jail, Sergio Moro, was later given a post in Bolsonaros government as justice minister. On the other hand, Lula was not exonerated last year; he was released because of procedural irregularities in the case. He could even face trial again.

So there is no clear evidence that the populist wave is subsiding. Bolsonaro could get a second term, Trump could come back in the United States, Modi is not losing his grip in India. Orbn won a landslide re-election victory in Hungary last month, a hard-right coalition won last months election in Italy, Boris Johnson might even make a comeback in the UK.

The driving force in this populist wave is a thinly disguised alliance between a very rich elite and the resentful, downwardly-mobile parts of the old middle and working classes. The emotional cement that holds it together involves a strong dose of extreme religion, deep social conservatism (e.g. homophobia), ultra-nationalism, and anti-immigrant sentiment.

Populism will be with us for some time yet, and it may even spread a bit. Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdoan may cover the rest of the distance to full populism as the countrys economic problems worsen, and France might have gone full populist last year if the French hard-right parties had managed to cooperate. But thats only half the story.

The other side is parties of the democratic left that are winning power in almost all the rest of Latin America Alberto Fernndez in Argentina (2019), Luis Arce in Bolivia (2020), Pedro Castillo in Peru and Gabriel Boric in Chile (2021), Xiomara Castro in Honduras (2022), and most recently Gustavo Petro in Columbia.

Its also noteworthy that only three of the European Unions 27 members currently have populist governments: Italy, Poland and Hungary. Moreover, the new Italian coalition may not last long, and Polands populism is for domestic affairs only: Polish populists are not admirers of Vladimir Putin.

In Asia and Africa, the populist formula has not been deployed in politics at all except in India. As a recently refurbished political technique it is having some successes, but every new political technique loses its freshness after a while.

And neither Lula nor Biden has lost their next elections yet.

Gwynne Dyers new book is The Shortest History of War.

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DYER: Progress and decline of populism Red Deer Advocate - Red Deer Advocate

PENN HILLS, PENNSYLVANIA The race for retiring Rep. Conor Lambs seat in Western Pennsylvania is being fought in starkly populist terms, as Democratic nominee Chris Deluzio pushes a pro-labor, anticorporate greed campaign against his opponent, self-funding millionaire businessman Jeremy Shaffer.

Like Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fettermans run for Senate, Deluzios bid is something of a test case for Democrats who believe economic populism is the key to preserving their edge in former labor strongholds where Republicans have gained ground in recent elections. Early indications are that the strategy is working. Two recent polls commissioned by the campaign and the DCCC indicate that the race is currently tilting in Deluzios favor. While internal polls should be taken with a grain of salt, its notable that Shaffer and the NRCC have not responded with numbers of their own.

Pennsylvanias 17th Congressional District stretches north and west of Pittsburgh, grabbing the parts of Allegheny County not included in neighboring Democratic nominee Summer Lees 12th District, as well as the entirety of exurban Beaver County. While Pittsburgh and its suburbs have mostly trended blue in recent years, Beaver County has trended right. Lamb held the seat for a couple of cycles, but his ill-fated bid for U.S. Senate has left it open.

With an R+3 lean after redistricting, it is daunting territory for Democrats, especially in a midterm year, though the area has had Democratic representation since 2018. Most forecasters have kept the race in the toss-up column, an outlook that appears to be shared by national party committees, which are investing heavily in the race.

More from Austin Ahlman

Groups affiliated with House Democrats and House Republicans have spent over $4 million so far, and that number is expected to balloon in the closing weeks. Shaffer has also boosted his personal campaign coffers with a million-dollar personal loan, and he has benefited from nearly $300,000 in spending by the Koch-affiliated Americans for Prosperity. While Shaffers loan and outside spending advantage have left him with a financial edge overall, Deluzio has handily out-fundraised Shaffer, and the two appear poised for an exceptionally tightand brutalclosing stretch.

In recent weeks, Deluzio and Shaffers campaigns have gone distinctly negative. Deluzios team and national Democrats have lambasted Shaffer for self-funding his campaign, and relentlessly tried to tie his personal wealth and corporate executive title (for a company that creates jobs in China) to the economic pain Western Pennsylvanians have endured in recent decades. Most recently, national Democrats have tried to tie Shaffer to Doug Mastriano, the unpopular Republican gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania.

But Democrats have struggled to puncture Shaffers image as an outsider and moderate consensus-seeker, which he has rooted in his success as a businessman. Like some of the corporate interests that have supported his campaign, Shaffer has managed to maintain his bipartisan veneer by painstakingly avoiding taking any clear stances on conservative social causes.

His campaign website includes various stock diatribes against cancel culture and critical race theory, but so far that rhetoric has been paired with few policy specifics. He has avoided questions about the legitimacy of the 2020 election, as well as LGBTQ rights, where Shaffer has consistently refused to reveal whether he supports basic constitutional protections, such as the right to same-sex marriage, before this year.

Deluzios bid is something of a test case for Democrats who believe economic populism is the key to preserving their edge in former labor strongholds.

In a particularly telling example of Shaffers approach, he once skipped a vote on an LGBTQ nondiscrimination ordinance by the Ross Township Board of Commissioners when he was an elected member. At the time, Shaffer was in the midst of a tough state Senate campaign. (He went on to lose that campaign narrowly, but the measure ultimately passed on a 5-2 vote.)

Prior to Roes reversal, the distinct exception to Shaffers avoidance of hot-button issues was on abortion rights. During previous runs for office, Shaffer indicated that he strongly agreed with the statement that human life begins at conception and deserves legal protection at every stage until natural death. Earlier this cycle, he endorsed further federal actions to restrict access to abortions. The DCCC has highlighted both of these stances in its ad messaging.

But since the emergence of abortion as the defining issue of the cycle, Shaffer has backtracked from those positions on his campaign website, where he now conveniently refers to abortion rights as an issue for state governments to address. Representatives for Shaffers campaign did not respond to the Prospects request for an interview, nor did they respond to a list of questions about Shaffers stances on the aforementioned issues.

For their part, Shaffer and national Republicans have engaged in their own brand of quasi-populism, by seeking to define Deluzio as a radical socialist professor with deep ties to the Sanders-AOC wing of the Democratic Party. As is typical in politics, each of those accusations holds a kernel of truth.

Deluzio, an attorney and Iraq War veteran, is not a full professorhe is the policy director at Pitt Cyber, an institute within the University of Pittsburghs School of Lawbut he has taught a few courses as an adjunct professor, and he proudly touts the way his work at places like the Brennan Center has intersected with voting rights and election security.

While most of Deluzios issue positions are within the mainstream of the party, his unapologetically anti-corporate rhetoric would sound radical to just about any business roundtable (the business lobbies, like the Chamber of Commerce, have lined up behind Shaffers bid.) Deluzios politics have a distinct look and flavor from those of national progressives, but his decision to attend the Democratic National Convention as a Bernie Sanders delegate in 2020 continues to be the subject of frequent attacks.

At first glance, it isnt hard to see why Republicans might think their message would land. While Fettermans populism is bolstered by his gruff aesthetic and mannerisms, Deluzio hardly looks the part of the working-class champion. Compared to Fetterman (who has been subject to similar conservative attacks), Deluzios demeanor is humorously chipper and disarmingly earnest. The button-down shirt and jeans he is commonly spotted in at campaign events hardly exudes the same man-of-the-people energy as Fettermans famed shorts and hoodie sweatshirt. In passing, one of Deluzios staffers joked about the differences between the two candidates. [Fetterman] has the look; Chris doesnt. Chris looks like he could be pulled out of a Brooks Brothers catalog, or something.

Democrats in the 17th Districts harshest terrain, exurban Beaver County, say Republicans line of attack has been particularly potent in recent years, as local residents search for a political explanation for the steep decline of local industry. Marion Tavernaris, another gruff, old-school Pennsylvania Democrat, gave me the context for the showdown between Deluzio and Shaffer. She described several of the districts residents, and its men especially, as former mill workers-in-waiting, who struggled to square Democrats previous chokehold on local politics with the areas rapid economic decline.

In particular, she told me that the closure of the J&L steel mill, a massive operation that once spanned seven miles of the Ohio River, is the most pivotal event in understanding the districts politics, despite it occurring decades ago. I think its just shifted more and more from there, because faith left that, you know, Democrats were for the working people and could provide jobs, she said. Now everything has become a big culture war.

Tavernaris, who volunteers with the local Democratic county party committee, declined to weigh in on how Beaver Countys growing Republican base has responded to Deluzios messaging, but she did say that the thrust of his campaign was in the right direction. She did warn that the biggest issue facing Democrats who attempt outreach in Beaver County is the view that theyve just become so elitist and inauthentic with working people.

Republicans line of attack has been particularly potent in recent years, as local residents search for a political explanation for the steep decline of local industry.

As a perpetual skeptic of candidates who claim the populist mantle, I had the opportunity to vet Deluzios authenticity for myself in late September, at a listening session and free community picnic in Penn Hills. Deluzio joined a slate of local party officials and elected officeholders to hear about the issues facing the community, the largest and most diverse in the region besides Pittsburgh itself. Deluzio spoke animatedlyBeing an Italian guy, he told the crowd apologetically, its hard for me to not move my hands when Ive got a microphoneabout the stakes in his bid against Shaffer.

He briefly recounted his service in Iraq and his work on cybersecurity and voting protections at Pitt Cyber. His mannerisms grew even more excitable when he talked about working on the effort to unionize the University of Pittsburghs staff with the United Steelworkers, which now has a large contingent of graduate students. After spending a few more minutes stressing the importance of the union way of lifea phrase Pennsylvania candidates love to brandishhe ended with some musings over what it means to be a patriotic candidate this election cycle. I dont think its patriotic, he told the crowd, to try to overthrow our democracy I dont think its patriotic to ship our jobs overseas and try to kill the union way of life in Western Pennsylvania I dont think its patriotic to attack womens reproductive freedom.

Deluzio bookended his remarks with aggressive jabs at the corporate executivea title he delivers with palpable disgusthes running against. But with the exception of abortion rights, Deluzio also had noticeably little to say about the cultural fissures arguably driving Western Pennsylvanias rightward shift.

In the Q&A that followed, residents turned little of their attention to the candidate running in a hotly contested congressional seat. Instead, the exchanges were primarily between first-term Penn Hills Mayor Pauline Calabrese and several residents who felt their local government was leaving lower-class and predominantly Black parts of the community behind. The other candidates and officeholders, including Deluzio, stood by meekly while Calabrese and a longtime resident discussed the citys approach to unlawful trash dumping, which attendees appeared to unanimously agree favored whiter, more upper-class parts of the city.

Deluzio followed the panel with a healthy dose of retail politicking, bumping elbows and taking photos with any attendees who stuck around through the speeches and questions. After shaking his last hand, Deluzio caught up with me. I decided to ask Deluzio about a critique of his politics often found on the left, rather than the right: Does messaging rooted almost exclusively in the nostalgia for bygone Midwestern labor strongholds meet the moment for people of color, LGBTQ individuals, and women whose rights in the workplace and beyond are under assault, by an archconservative Supreme Court and increasingly emboldened Republican right wing?

As if to prove the necessity of the question, Deluzio stammered for a few moments before beginning his answer. I think a labor union on the job is one of the most important things you can have to protect workers from racial discrimination, gender discrimination, whatever that may be, he said. The biggest, most powerful corporations, who are wielding all this power over our lives, want to divide us against each other But the union way of life, thats a message of solidarity.

The answer struck me as ever so slightly tone-deaf, but his ardent belief in its corein the power of labor politics to unlock equality in other facets of lifewas unmistakable. We shook hands and parted ways without further grilling on identity issues. But before leaving, I decided to ask some of the lingering attendees whether they thought Deluzios politics met the moment.

Wynona Harper, a longtime activist who founded the nonprofit organization JAMAR Place of Peace after the shooting death of her son Jamar Hawkins, assured me they did. She described Penn Hills as increasingly segregated, and lamented the way other local politicians and representatives are not willing to talk about those issues. But Deluzio, she claimed, was different. Look, Im not in a union, and Im not gonna be, she said. But I know he cares, and I know hes willing to take our issues on.

How did she know? Hes called me, before all of this, hes called me up to hear my perspective, she said, before going on at length about Deluzios commitment to showing solidarity with every part of the district he intends to represent. Catching herself mid-sentence, Harper stopped and pointed across the park at Deluzio, who had looped back to speak more with a few other volunteers.

And, well, hes here right now, isnt he? she said.

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The Populist Pugilist Vying to Replace Conor Lamb - The American Prospect