Beginning in the late 1960s, U.S. politics centered on two fields: cultural populism vs. cultural elitism and economic populism vs. economic elitism. During the liberal heyday powered by FDR’s New Deal coalition, the Democrats were seen as economic populists, the party of the people. Conservatives were tarred as plutocrats and hostage to Big Business. So great was this divide that President Roosevelt, speaking of his corporate critics, said proudly, “I welcome their hatred.”
This liberal coalition held together for decades, but the upheavals of the 1960s caused political play to shift fields, from economic to cultural populism and elitism. President Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” appealed to working class whites unsettled by rapid social changes surrounding civil rights and feminism. Increasingly, these voters turned to conservatism.
Globalization compounded this effect. Factories moved overseas, mills closed, and jobs dried up, devastating communities. This economic dispossession turned many people to social conservatism for familiarity and security. The only institutions that survived were churches and hunting groups. These voters became Republicans and an important part of the modern conservative coalition.
However, social conservatism was only the starting point. These blue-collar voters were soon convinced that fiscal conservatism was also the answer to their prayers. Republican think tanks, activists, commentators and politicians stridently equated liberal fiscal policy with communism and “redistributionism.” The Republican establishment railed against welfare, taxes, public education, social programs and spending of most kinds.
Their genius was whom they blamed. Conservatives credited these evils to “liberal elites” who were foolish, effete social engineers. These elites were not real Americans. In this way, American conservatism linked cultural populism to economic populism and made itself the defender of “ordinary people.”
It was a brilliant trick of the eye, since economic conservatism is economic elitism. Republican policymakers have used every opportunity to promote policies that hurt middle and low-income Americans. They claim to represent ordinary people. How populist are they? Conservatives are so populist they tried to dismantle the minimum wage, opposed efforts to curb textbook price-gouging, battled against student loan interest rate caps, cut funding for early childhood special education and cut the estate tax, a duty affecting the richest of the rich. They’re that populist.
This troubling and destructive faux-populism has intensified since President Obama took office. The “Tea Party” movement has portrayed itself as the champions of the forgotten man, striving to return control of the country’s direction to its allegedly individualist, capitalist roots. TV host Glenn Beck, a man easily mistaken for a TV demagogue/mouthpiece in a dystopian future movie, has started the “9/12 Project.” Glenn’s project links traditional moral values (most of which are unobjectionable) to a fight against socialist elitism. High profile Republicans have been eager to amplify these messages and continue the faux-populism.
The recent right-wing criticism has centered on unlikely targets. The Recovery Act, or stimulus package, was confused with the Fall 2008 bailout and was denigrated for allegedly favoring big Wall Street over Main Street. In reality, the stimulus is 1/3 tax cuts, has put people to work building infrastructure like highways and kept police officers and firefighters on the job and on duty.
Curiously, Cash For Clunkers also drew the ire of conservatives. This wildly successful program provided families with vouchers to trade in old cars and buy more fuel-efficient ones. Republicans howled about taxpayer money giveaways to the big auto giants. But thanks to Cash For Clunkers, over 1.3 million cars were sold in a single month, emptying lots, and the average family that used the program will save over a thousand dollars. Average people judged it a pretty good deal.
Joe the Plumber was exemplary of the faux-populism arrayed against measures like these. He was the culmination of decades of efforts by the conservative establishment to convince voters that conservatism helped regular people. He defined his moment — a moment when the governor of a state where residents get free checks called Barack Obama a “socialist.” He defines our moment as well. It’s a time when Mitt Romney, a man with four mansions and half a billion dollars, calls a president who grew up on food stamps an “elitist.” This era must end. Joe the Plumber must be flushed.
The power to do that lies, truly, with ordinary people. Their constituents must remind Democratic politicians that the country’s future depends on their resolve. The left wing must evoke memories of who truly represents regular people’s interests. The Democratic Party does, as its fiscal accomplishments show.
The nation’s right wing has systematically made the case for the opposite conclusion. They adhere to a tired ultra-free market ideology that precipitated a recession, impedes recovery and has for years pulled away the hand that helped ordinary people pull themselves up. The country’s social health and economic well-being demand a bold reassertion of liberal socioeconomic values. Let’s make this anniversary Joe the Plumber’s last.