Populism Is Destroying America—And Conservatives Should Be the First to Admit It
For decades now, populism has been presented as a solution to many of America’s problems. Populist politicians promise to fight “the elites” and stand up for “the forgotten American.” It preys upon the frustrations of the disenfranchised and promises to tear down the establishment that has ignored their concerns. It is easy to understand why many Americans would be drawn to this kind of politics. Millions of ordinary Americans have seen their communities decay and their voices grow faint in the face of a powerful Washington establishment.
The frustrations that fuel populism are real.
The same cannot be said of the movement itself, which represents a distinctly anti-American philosophy. The rise of populism within both major political parties is a threat to conservatism, and to the foundations of the American Republic itself. Populism appeals to emotions and frustrations, not to reason or to the higher ideals of the American founding. It prioritizes political theater over practical solutions and promotes “a politics of immediacy, of permanent revolution, of unbridled self-expression, of raw emotion.” As a conservative, I believe that this is a dangerous philosophy that has led to many of the failures of modern American politics.
Conservatives should be concerned, not only with leftist populism but also with the populism coming from the right. At its best, conservatism is committed to core conservative values: limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility, the rule of law, the sanctity of the family and private property, and free markets. These are important ideals that ground our republic in stability and rationality. They form an objective standard by which to judge politicians and policies, and they have served our country well for over two centuries. They are based in human nature and natural law, and they are not subject to the fickle whims of the masses.
Populism has none of these virtues. It is not concerned with principles, only with the shifting political winds. Populist politicians are not bound by any objective standard other than their desire to advance their careers by pushing a popular message. As such, they are far more interested in pandering to voters rather than presenting objective solutions to America’s problems.
History shows that populist movements are born out of a combination of factors, but they almost always begin with the perception that the people’s voices are not being heard. This is understandable; in many ways, the people are right to feel this way. Government officials and the media have grown increasingly distant and out-of-touch with average Americans. Political and economic elites have accumulated far too much power and wealth compared to everyone else – and this is happening at a time when our institutions and culture are becoming increasingly liberal and radical. These are all valid points that populists exploit to stoke the frustrations of the masses.
However, the populist moment represents a turning point. Once the people are convinced that every establishment politician is corrupt and only cares about enriching himself at the expense of the people, it becomes much harder to govern this country. Populism promotes a “politics of antagonism” in which society is permanently divided into winners and losers.
Social media has accelerated this trend to an absurd degree. Politicians and celebrities alike engage in outrage-fueled “wars” in which both sides shout each other down in an attempt to gain popularity by appealing to the lowest instincts of the public. Unfortunately, this kind of behavior has become normal in American politics. Politicians engage in this kind of theater because it wins them votes. At the end of the day, populism is much more about showmanship than substance. It prioritizes style over substance and caters to the worst impulses of the public.
Conservatives should recognize this and expose it for what it is – an anti-intellectual philosophy that is much more interested in self-promotion than in really governing this country or solving its problems.
The founding generation of conservatives did not come to office simply to enable popular opinion. They made hard decisions that millions of Americans did not want to hear, but they knew that those decisions were necessary if our young republic was to survive. They were committed to defending the Constitution and securing our institutions from the whims of the people. That is what conservatism is all about.
It is about promoting a stable system of limited government that protects individual liberty, and makes this country great. Whenever the popularity of the American system is threatened by “radicals” of the left or the right, conservatives have an obligation to defend it. Conservatism and populism are fundamentally opposed to each other. One is grounded in higher ideals and committed to a stable system of government, while the other is all style and no substance.
Another weakness of populist rhetoric lies in its tendency to promote broad, unrealistic promises. A proper understanding of fiscal responsibility dictates that a responsible government will always seek to reduce expenditures and adopt smarter spending policies whenever possible. There are times when taxes must be raised or defense and intelligence spending must be increased – but it is always important to keep a balanced perspective.
Unfortunately, populism always promotes easy answers. It promises to increase defense spending while cutting taxes at the same time, but it does not explain how that will be achieved. It speaks of “balanced budgets” and “cutting waste” without actually explaining what it intends to do about the trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities that will cripple our economy in future decades. Every single issue in modern politics is far more nuanced than it is made out to be in campaign speeches. That is the nature of populism – it sacrifices nuance in favor of oversimplification in order to appeal to the most popular ideas among the masses.
Real leadership is about making hard choices in order to promote America’s long-term strategic interests. It means saying no when it is necessary to do so, even if that makes you unpopular. It means admitting when markets are wrong and when compromise is inappropriate within the constitutional framework of our republic. That is what conservatism is really about.
Perhaps the biggest threat posed by populism is its nihilistic view of America’s political system. It treats everything as a contest between “the people” and “the elites.” Once that kind of narrative begins, it becomes much harder to reach consensus on any given issue. Everything becomes a fight between “friends” and “foes” – when in reality most issues should be approached with a spirit of compromise.
Populist politics creates an extremely polarized environment in which it becomes much harder to govern this country. It creates an “us vs. them” attitude in which everyone has taken a side and no one is open to hearing the other one out. It treats election wins as victories and election losses as defeats, as though nothing really changes when the president changes. This is an incredibly corrosive outlook that ultimately undercuts the entire purpose of our political system and makes our institutions weaker with every election cycle. This kind of thinking is completely contrary to the American founding – the whole point of the American experiment was to create a system in which everyone was guaranteed a voice, even if those voices had to be balanced in order to form a more perfect union.
Constitutional republics were designed to promote political disagreements and prevent either party from having total control of the federal government at any given time. That is the most basic conservative thought, and it is why populism is such a threat to our system of government. It does not recognize the need for checks and balances or for restricting the ambitions of the “winners.” If everyone is always “us” and no one is “them,” then there is no need for compromise, because everything has already been decided.
In many ways, conservatism is the philosophy of compromise. It embodies the principle that government is about balancing competing interests and preventing either side from gaining too much power at the expense of the other. That is how our republic was designed to function, and that is what populism fundamentally opposes.
Conservatives should be wary of populism for a number of different reasons, but it does not mean we should blindly support everything the establishment tells us. Elected officials are not always right, and they do make mistakes. It is important to remain skeptical of their intentions in order to ensure that they actually promote America’s interests.
However, it is far more important to ensure that America’s institutions remain strong. That means challenging populist politicians whenever they attempt to loosen institutional constraints to consolidate their power. That means standing by our founding principles even when they are inconvenient or unpopular. It means promoting fiscal discipline and a balanced budget, even when it means fewer government programs. It means supporting the rule of law even when it imposes unpopular limits on personal liberty. It means making sure that our republic is strong enough to withstand the populist wave that is currently threatening to engulf it.
America has always been strong when its citizens and elected officials have promoted a more perfect union, rather than the least imperfect union. It has always been great when politicians placed the needs of the country above their own ambitions and competed with each other not for the approval of the masses but for the chance to serve them. Populism threatens to undermine that time-honored tradition by prioritizing popularity over principles and emotional reactions over objective analysis. It is a threat to our institutions and to our founding philosophy.
It is not as exciting as it may sound, but the future of America really does depend on people like you and me making sure that the ideals of our founding fathers live on.