A response to David Brooks' NYTimes Podcast: "Maybe Bernie Sanders is Right"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh1mh6ppAdc

I gather that Brooks, as a college-educated intellectual, hates populism, (if populism is taken to be a political strategy of appealing to “the people” by pitting them against “elites” who are blamed for disregarding the will or concerns of the people. ) However, given the depth of economic and social inequality in the US, it may be that populism is the only way to restore balance. But then the question becomes, whose populism? authoritarian populism (MAGA) , or progressive populism ("FDR's New Deal")?

The former identifies scapegoats in order to consolidate power, with the goal of deconstructing the institutions of democracy. Heather Cox Richardson describes it this way: "If you have ten people in a room, eight of them just want to get by. They just want to put food on the table and have a good time and have their friends and have a nice life. But there are two people who want to control everybody else, and the way that they get that power is to get six people to turn against the two at the bottom."

The latter avoids scapegoating and deconstructs powers that limit economic and social inequality--political, corporate and media elites-- thus strengthening the institutions that further democracy. Think FDR's "New Deal" or Bernie Sanders.

It's harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a conservative intellectual to affirm progressive intellectuals' ideas. I hope Brooks will be able to move from "maybe" to a full validation of progressive populism.