What is Populism?

Isaac Werner's Journal

 Many of you who follow my blog know that the discovery of Isaac Werner's Journal was what inspired my decade long research and writing of Prairie Bachelor, The story of a Kansas Homesteader and the Populist Movement.  Because Kansas played such an important role in that movement, and because the community in which I grew up was among those active in the movement, I have a deep sense of what populism meant at the time Isaac Werner and many in his community were part of that movement.  

Therefore, I am often perplexed by what is being called Populism today.  While I was doing research for my book, I found present day politicians described as populists who were unlike the people I came to know in my research for Prairie Bachelor.  It did not seem to make sense that very different politicians today are being called Populists.

Watching news during the recent 2024 primary election in New Hampshire, I heard someone say, "You know there is both  Negative Populism and Positive Populism." I decided it was time for me to do some research to explore how the term Populism had evolved since Isaac Werner's time.  In the era of my book, during the late 1800s, Populism began with the common people, such as farmers, ranchers, miners, and small business owners.  They believed the two major political parties, Republican and Democrat, had become overly influenced by wealthy men, to the extent that they were ignoring the intensions of the founding fathers.  Although the wealthy had more money with which to influence government, the common people had greater numbers of voters.  They formed a party of their own--The People's Party, and although their party was short-lived, it remains the most successful third party in our nation's history.  Many of their ideas were implemented by the two old parties.

My current research found that the term Populism had practically disappeared in common use by the 1950s; however, historians began to apply the word to those who were Anti-Elites.  With the rejuvenation of the word Populism, it's original meaning expanded, becoming so broad that the meaning from the late 1800s, as well as the achievements of the people of the Populist movement, were nearly forgotten.

One political scientist noted the modern ambiguity of the term by describing the range of meanings for the word.  It was used for farmers' radicalism, peasant movements, and intellectual agrarian socialism, as well as populist dictatorships, populist democracy, reactionary populist, and politicisms' populism.  If you followed all of those adaptations of the meaning of Populism, your head must be spinning.  Some have observed the contradictory meanings of these uses and have suggested that the word should be abandoned entirely.  (Wikipedia, Populism)

What would Isaac Werner and other Populists of the late 1800s think of the use of the word they created as it is being used today.  If there is the word Populism in today's politics, who defines what is Negative Populism and what is Positive Populism?  I am inclined to agree that the journalists, news commentators, and politicians of today return the word to the Populists of the late 1800s and come up with new words for the political turmoil of today!