The word populism is derived from the Latin word populous, which means people, in our case "we the people". Populism espouses government by the people as a whole, in contrast to government by a small privileged group that hold themselves above the masses. It has taken over countries and has fueled more than one war.
It is an ideology that can be used to dupe those who don't pay attention or have had enough of dictates from elites, but also one that can restore rights that have been trampled on and used to remove those from power who would abuse it. A great example is the American Revolution where the citizens of this continent broke away from the dictates of King George
Hesiod was a storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 750 and 650 BC. He told a number of stories that were directly or indirectly attributed to him. Among these was the story of Pandora who was given a box which contained all the evils of the world. Pandora was curious and opened the box to look and all the evils flew out, leaving only Hope inside once she had closed it again.
To "open Pandora's box" means to perform an action that may seem small and innocent, but turns out to have severely detrimental and far-reaching negative consequences. It has been used in the past and today as a metaphor for the trying’s of people and government to bring about change.
The preliminaries are over. The two main candidates have been chosen. Donald Trump and Mike Pence on the Republican ticket, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine for the Democrats. The Republicans have just finished their convention where the party platform was laid out, candidate was nominated, speeches were given, and most declared it a success with Trump declaring himself the law and order candidate.
The populist takeover of the Republican Party isn't complete but the flag has been captured. The bluster of those claiming to "shut down the convention" disappeared like the morning mist because of the large law enforcement presence. The #neverTrump crowd basically had their bluff called and folded their tent. I'm enjoyed most of the speechifying and am pretty happy with the outcome.
The Democratic convention will have started this past Monday in Philadelphia. In choosing a progressive insider for her running mate, it seems Hillary has looked over the inroads that Bernie Sanders made in this year’s preliminaries. His populist candidacy ended with his endorsement of Hillary and looks like the bitterness is just window dressing.
WikiLeaks just published 19,000 hacked emails that suggest the DNC was for Hillary all the way and giving substance to Mr. Sander’s statements that "it was rigged". Mrs. Shultz just stepped down as the head of the DNC and Sanders supporters talk about walking out because "Mr. Kaine isn't liberal enough". It will be interesting to say the least.
It will be interesting to see which branch of "we the people" find themselves on the outside of this year’s DNC. Last year it was those who believe in God and all He represents. The contrast between Liberal and Conservative doesn't seem to have been further apart and it rings of Big Business against a truly populist candidate. The things let out of the box upon the way the US of my youth may not be ever be put back in but unlike the fable, Hope is alive here and elsewhere that things will once again turn back to "that shining light upon a hill" that we once stood for.
Until next week. ags
