Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks today said it well in, “The Populist Addiction.”
“In fact, this country was built by anti-populists. It was built by people like Alexander Hamilton and Abraham Lincoln who rejected the idea that the national economy is fundamentally divided along class lines. They rejected the zero-sum mentality that is at the heart of populism, the belief that economics is a struggle over finite spoils. Instead, they believed in a united national economy — one interlocking system of labor, trade and investment.”
Remember this truck the next time you think about the battle brewing between American populism and “elitism.”
(photo credit and h/t to reader usorthem3.)