It occurs that we see a strong tidal surge toward populism in Europe, a so-called populism of the right of the kind Bannon has been crusading for and a populism of the left perhaps represented by the surging greens. In any event it seems there is a disintegration in the center with this support leaching out to either side, but both of the recipient sides being populist. Both are populist at least in the sense that they are anti-elite, at least as elitism is identified with Brussels.
My view of populism is guarded but if I had to choose between them I would much prefer the population of the right articulated by Steve Bannon. I can understand the popularity in Germany of the greens, they are simply living in a media universe in which there is no opposition. I further note that in places like Hungary and Italy the green element is not quite so pronounced. Further, in Great Britain one must be cautious about identifying these election results as populist because the entanglement with the European Union was the overriding issue and it is not clear the support for Brexit was essentially populist at core.
Certainly populism is perhaps the vital antitoxin which must be administered to the body politic if we are to restore a semblance of constitutional conservatism to the Republic and if we are to restore a purer kind of capitalism for the benefit of all. Crony capitalism, get along quasi-socialism, and feckless leadership are leading the establishment Republican party in America toward the same fate that has befallen the Tories.
Meanwhile in the US and in Europe, the left often masquerading as greens, make the same appeal from a different direction and they can offer far more goodies from the public trough than can populist nationalists. Bannon style national populism offers more jobs through nationalist mercantilism, more tax of the rich, and less power to the elites. Greens promise more goodies through higher taxes and more government, all dressed up as democracy which legitimatizes itself as the rule of law, a concept which we conservatives regard as the rule of the mob.
We shall see.
