Populists promised rival sectors opposing economic remedies simultaneously
Evidence
For debt-ridden agrarians they promised an increase in the money supply, a ban on alien land ownership, and a state takeover of the railroads that so often made small farmers pay whatever they could bear. For wage earners, they endorsed the ongoing push for a shorter working day, called for the abolition of the Pinkerton Agency, and declared that ‘the interests of rural and civil labor are the same’. For currency reformers and residents of Western mining states, they demanded the unlimited coinage of both silver and gold. Appended to the platform were such ‘supplementary resolutions’ as a ‘pledge’ to continue the healthy pensions already being granted to Union veterans and support for a boycott of a Rochester clothing manufacturer being struck by the Knights of Labor. — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 404
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: An entirely empty signifier yields fragile popular unity held by leader love alone — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 430; Populism can be mobilized either against or in service of the power bloc; Regressive populism and speculative finance are forming new alliances. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 57 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- Populism can be mobilized either against or in service of the power bloc
#expands(0.80) - Populist passions animate rather than oppose financial rationality
#corroborates(0.80) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 268 - The perceived war between finance and nationalist populism is a false binary
#corroborates(0.80) - Financialization and national populism form a false binary, not opposing forces
#corroborates(0.80) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 390 - Regressive populism and speculative finance are forming new alliances.
#corroborates(0.78) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 57 - The rhetorical conflict between ethno-nationalism and financial markets dissolved once populists took power
#corroborates(0.75) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 250 - Populists combine nationalism with speed rhetoric and a govern-by-chaos doctrine
#corroborates(0.72) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 251