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A Dose of Old-Time Populism

3 minute read
Richard Stengel

Populism is the last refuge of a declining Democrat. As poll numbers decrease, populist rhetoric increases. After months of touting such eye- glazing proposals as the Pan American summit on drug trafficking, Michael Dukakis has finally, and reluctantly, decided to tap into the roiling pool of American class resentment. Presto — Dukakis the class warrior, the suburban populist.

The appeal is simple, direct, visceral. Us vs. Them. The Haves vs. the Have-Nots. The cry has a long and honorable history among Democratic presidential candidates. Dukakis’ populist pitch began as far back as Labor Day, when he delivered a speech shaped by Bob Shrum, the veteran Democratic wordsmith who had designed Dick Gephardt’s populist incarnation. Lee Atwater, George Bush’s pugnacious campaign manager, admits, “I got a little worried after the Labor Day speech that they were going to catch on to the populist approach.” But only last week did the Dukakis campaign go ballistic. “George Bush wants to help people on Easy Street,” Dukakis said with all the indignation he could muster. “I want to help the people on Main Street.” By week’s end even G.O.P. polling showed a slight shift in the Democrats’ direction.

Dukakis’ populist appeal is an elite-seeking missile homing in on the pocketbook. He suggested that Bush’s proposed capital-gains tax break would help the privileged few “hire a second butler.” He derided it by using the example of a taxpayer who reported capital gains of $515,132 between 1985 and 1987. Such a taxpayer would save $22,000 a year. His name: “George Herbert Walker Bush.”

The aristocratic Vice President would seem like an ideal target. Son of a Wall Street banker and U.S. Senator. Andover. Yale. Kennebunkport. What could be easier? But Bush reversed the normal equation. The man with four names jettisoned his g’s, touted his taste for pork rinds and successfully put himself across as a regular guy. Bush persuaded voters to forget his background by pushing to the foreground the themes of cultural, not economic, populism: patriotism (the flag and the Pledge) and toughness on crime. His campaign has cynically mined the white fears and racism that feed this form of cultural populism. At the same time, the Bush campaign depicted Dukakis as a “Harvard elitist.” Dukakis’ initial lawyerly defense of the flag issue played right into that perception.

Effective populism requires tapping a wellspring of popular resentment. For Dukakis this is a problem. As a Governor and a politician, he embodies the search for consensus, for mediation. He stands for “partnerships,” an idea that is as far from traditional populism as Brookline is from Kansas. During the primaries, he scorned Dick Gephardt’s populist campaign theme of “It’s your fight too.” Gephardt’s specter of $48,000 Hyundais, Dukakis suggested, pandered to an American xenophobic streak by railing against foreign companies. Now, however, Dukakis is showing a commercial featuring a Japanese flag. His slogan “I’m on your side” is Gephardt Lite.

Polls show that populism is a message with punch. For many traditional Democrats, the politics of economic populism goes to the heart of the way they define themselves. It speaks to the very reason that they are Democrats, something that until recently Dukakis has found difficult to do.

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