On trying to shoehorn populism into the modern Left. Somehow. Somewhere.

I’m gonna push back a little on Salena Zito’s argument here on populism, although I certainly agree with her assessment of  Elizabeth Warren:

We are in the midst of a record wealth gap between America’s rich and middle class, according to the Pew Research Centers. That has fueled the populist opposition to Washington among Main Street Americans on both sides of the political line — and [Senator Elizabeth] Warren is trying to cash in on it.

That’s fine; that’s what we do in America. But it isn’t populism, as will be seen when people do not rise up. Populism is an ideology extolling the virtues of the people against the depravities of elites — such as Harvard Law professors like Warren, according to Baylor University political science professor Curt Nichols.

Continue reading On trying to shoehorn populism into the modern Left. Somehow. Somewhere.

Heh. @DavidOAtkins crawls on his belly like a miserable little worm to apologize to Republicans.

Oh, I’d keep quiet about that, if I were him. He’s done quite enough damage to his local party structure as it is.

The chair of the Ventura County [California] Democratic Party has apologized for a series of tweets he sent out over the Fourth of July weekend that infuriated local Republicans and brought calls for his resignation.

Ventura resident David Atkins, who has served as party chair since 2012, found himself the target of the National Republican Congressional Committee after posting several messages on Independence Day implying the GOP sided with the Nazis prior to the outset of World War II and wanted women to go back to the days of “coathanger induced sepsis” with regard to abortions.

Atkins also expressed the opinion that most Republican voters are old white men and that he was waiting for them to die.

Continue reading Heh. @DavidOAtkins crawls on his belly like a miserable little worm to apologize to Republicans.

Nick Rahall (D, West Virginia) and the carbon tax.

This ad from the American Energy Alliance against Congressman Nick Rahall is not precisely subtle:

…which does not mean that it’s incorrect. Basically: in 2013 Rahall voted for the Progressive Caucus’s budget amendment.  Said amendment relied on a carbon tax; carbon taxes are bad news to West Virginia coal miners, given that you tax things when you don’t want more of it; and Nick Rahall is apparently an idiot for thinking that this wouldn’t show up in an attack ad against him.  It was certainly more or less predicted, back in 2013: Continue reading Nick Rahall (D, West Virginia) and the carbon tax.