A Populist Moment?

David Brat's primary victory over Eric Cantor has everybody talking about a populist surge in America. Here is Andrew Sullivan:

We live in a potentially powerfully populist moment. The economy is failing to help middle- and working-class people make headway, while the wealthiest are living higher on the hog than since the days of robber barons. Wall Street’s masters of the universe nearly wiped out the US and global economy – and there has been scarcely any accountability for their recklessness and greed and hubris. Big business favors mass, cheap immigration – which adds marginally to the woes of the working poor. All of this is grist to someone like Elizabeth Warren, but also to someone like Dave Brat or Ted Cruz.

Ron Fournier:

Americans see a grim future for themselves, their children, and their country. They believe their political leaders are selfish, greedy, and short-sighted—unable and/or unwilling to shield most people from wrenching economic and social change. For many, the Republican Party is becoming too extreme, while the Democratic Party—specifically, President Obama—raised and dashed their hopes for true reform. . . .

"America is for the greedy, for those who've made their buck or grabbed their power. It's not for us," said Helen Conover of Oxford, Pa. She was eating with two other Chester County employees, Jennifer Guy and Kim Kercher, at the Penn's Table diner. Conover was the table's optimist.

"This country's doomed," Guy said. Kercher nodded her head and told me that she's close to losing her house to a mortgage company and can't get help from Washington. For years, their county salaries haven't kept pace with the cost of living. "The rich get richer. The poor get benefits. The middle class pays for it all," Kercher said.

And political strategist Doug Sosnik, back in November:

At the core of Americans' anger and alienation is the belief that the American Dream is no longer attainable. Previous generations held fast to the promise that anyone who worked hard and played by the rules could get ahead, regardless of their circumstances. But increasingly, Americans have concluded that the rules aren't fair and that the system has been rigged to concentrate power and wealth in the hands of a privileged few at the expense of the many. And now the government is simply not working for anyone.

Americans' long-brewing discontent shows clear signs of reaching a boiling point. And when it happens, the country will judge its politicians through a new filter—one that asks, "Which side of the barricade are you on? Is it the side of the out-of-touch political class that clings to the status quo by protecting those at the top and their own political agendas, or is it the side that is fighting for the kind of change that will make the government work for the people—all the people?"

Sosnik cites polling data showing that people don't trust any American institution except the military; I was interested to see that big business, banks, and the criminal justice system all scored pretty low. But then so do labor unions and public schools.

Where do I think this will lead? Nowhere. This anger will achieve nothing important because it is directed everywhere, and that is the same as being directed nowhere. Americans are disgusted by both the government and big business, by both the rich and the poor, by both capitalism and bureaucracy. Even if there were a majority for radical change in the  country -- which I doubt -- it wouldn't matter because the disgruntled faction cannot agree on what should be changed. Many right-wing populists have been captured by the Randian fantasy that all our problems, even those on the business side, have their source in the government, viz. the notion that the collapse of 2008 was caused by government meddling in the mortgage market. But the problem with capitalism is not government meddling, it is capitalism; a glance at the world of the late 1800s will show you that cronyism, galling inequality, and wild market swings can happen without any government help. Sure, let's end corporate welfare and simplify the tax code, but don't think it will help workers or bring down CEO salaries. On the left we have a different problem -- rather than dumb ideas, leftists suffer a complete absence of ideas. Well, that's not fair; leftists do have a few practical ideas, like single-payer health insurance, negotiating prices with pharmaceutical companies, and a higher minimum wage. But nothing that remotely qualifies as reversing the direction of the country.

On the left, Occupy Everything pushing such a vague program that not even its self-proclaimed spokesmen can say what it was for; on the right, the Tea Party pushing hard for changes that would only make their problems worse. The result, I predict, will be the status quo enduring for decades more.