NYT Article on UF Expulsion of Jewish Student

'Populism' is antithetical to actual left politics (because its essentially nationalist in character), though no doubt anyone that does some kind of popular redistributive anti-elite politics will be branded "left" by some. I suppose an American Peronism is possible, but like actual Peronism, it wouldnt be all that left-wing in character, because populism is typically anti-communist/socialist and sometimes looks more fascist than anything. Its an alternative to Marxist socialism, which is why we never couped Argentina. Also why Huey Long isn't some kind of left-wing icon in America. Or why the American Populist Party didnt team up with the IWW.

 

I haven’t been connecting populism to nationalism as such, but perhaps I am not thinking well enough. It seems to me that the left was the more populist party before Trump. As in “for the working man” kind of vibes. I am pretty sure this was behind the left being against immigration, as the immigrants were competing for jobs with working class Americans. Regardless I can imagine another form of populism that isn’t necessarily nationalist, as the “them” could be corporation or government elites (both actually targets of the MAGA movement).

 

Many of the protesters themselves conflate "Palestinian" with Hamas. I'm fact, they celebrated in the wake of 10/7. That was literally the impetus for the nation wide Stateside protests.

Who did Oct 7--Hamas, or Palestine?

Or Palestine via Hamas?

Both?

It's pretty ridiculous to pretend to separate one from the other, when the association is pretty transparent, and they scarcely even bother to try to hide it.

(...all the while, they refuse to distinguish bt Israel and Jewish, and often time conflate US with Israel, as they toss around "Zionisn" and their conspiracies...).

 

WWI was a pretty decisive moment, as most left-parties were internationalist in character until the war tested the idea of international revolution vs. nationalism. And of course the Bolsheviks being stopped in Poland was another decisive moment as the USSR turned to "socialism in one country" and abandoned world-wide revolution as a formal goal. In America, Debs went to jail for telling workers not to avoid the military in WWI while other labor leaders thought supporting the war was a better course. The Red Scare also scared the big labor confederations into a more nationalistic outlook (while the Palmer Raids removed a lot of radical internationalists).

I suppose there could be less nationalistic populism, but I tend to think it usually promotes "the people" (who are supposedly the true representation of the national character) vs an elite, which tend to be portrayed as more cosmopolitan and international in outlook. You could easily apply that to workers vs corporations (who move capital around the world).