I'm going to quote directly from a dictionary definition of "Populist." "Any person, politician or political leader, who claims to represent the interests, views, or tastes of the common people, particularly as distinct from those of the rich and powerful." Right now, in Britain, the 'rich and powerful' are flabbergasted that the commoners voted to take the UK out of the European Union (EU). I can hear it now. 'Those ignoramuses haven't any idea of what this means to us.' I can tell you what it means, and that the EU can no longer force its members to take hundreds of thousands of unwashed, non-English speaking, untalented, Muslim refugees into their midst. The so-called commoners listened to a populist upstart who told it as it is, and voted to make Britain whole again.
There can be no question but that Donald Trump is a populist who tells us commoners about the 'rich and powerful' in that enclave of corruption, Washington D.C. He tells us about the NAFTA and other deals made behind our backs which have taken our jobs and security. Here's a quote from "Consequences," which I wrote 15 years ago. (I have submitted it to Regnery Publishing, and if they refuse, I'll print it myself, because I think its even better than "I Hold These Truths."). Here's the quote from a chapter titled "Free Trade." It's a long chapter, but here's a small part of it. "Free trade simply means that there are to be no tariffs or restrictions of any kind on merchandise coming into the United States and hopefully nations we sell to will reciprocate. Unfortunately, they don't. The hypothesis is that this freeing of foreign goods from tariffs and duties will benefit the American consumer by giving them the lowest prices and largest variety of goods. Sounds great, except eventually we may not have any money left with which too purchase these goods. When that happens, and it will unless the laws of economics are false, we will have lowered ourselves to their level, rather than raising or maintaining our own." A page later, I quote a Wall Street Journal article from August 9, 1998, which says, "Three years ago, Huffy corp. laid off more than 1,000 employees at its huge bicycle factory in Celina Ohio, a town of 10,000 people. The unemployment rate was then nearly 10% and many laid off workers had trouble finding new jobs. And last Friday, Huffy shut down the factory completely. The remaining nearly 1,000 jobs were eliminated as Huffy switched to importing low-end bikes from China."
How can we afford to buy all these cheap, large variety goods from China, Mexico or Japan, when in order to survive, both members of a family have to work and Dad may have two or even three low wage jobs to equal his salary when he got laid off from a factory which made bicycles, car parts, furniture, or other consumables. There are so many lies coming out of the D.C. cesspool, that it is impossible to comprehend them. The 4% unemployment rate as an example. This fictitious figure does not include the fact that those who have given up are not counted and today, only about 62% of available workers are doing so. Millions have given up. If a man has to hold two or three jobs to equal the one good one he got laid off from, that pads the figure of course. Torrents of lies and misrepresentations spew out of the corrupt mouth of Washington D.C. and Donald Trump, a non-politician-populist, is going to do something to correct it.
The 'rich and powerful,' are even more outraged than the same class in the U.K. when their EU membership was voted down. After all, Washington D.C. is wealth and corruption personified, represented by the 'rich and powerful' Democrats, Republicans, ABC, CBS, and NBC. In the Journal last week, it told of a couple of Republican CEO's who are so down on Trump that they will vote for Hillary! I'll bet they won't, but the fact that such a move is even considered by a man who runs a large corporation with stockholders and thousands of employees is revolting. Why does populism outrage so many of the 'rich and powerful?' It is because their swank, rich, powerful perch on the D.C. ladder of fame and fortune, is threatened and its that simple. It begs the question of whether the 'rich and powerful' Republicans are merely RINOS (Republicans in name only), or true Republicans, which are actually Tea Party, or libertarian types. If you have ever visited D.C., it's strange but when you cross the Beltway and enter that glossy city, there is an aroma of mendacity which is undeniable.