Writer sees growing populism, often rural, ousting politicians who have lost touch with common people

One of the definitions of populism, according to Merriam-Webster, is "a believer in the rights, wisdom, or virtues of the common people." For several years, some voters and politicians have said that U.S. politicians have lost touch with common people. Enter the populist movement, which has been around for more than a century but has varied from person to person and place to place, and has often seemed to be mostly rural, often in poorer areas.

Salena Zito

Salena Zito of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review writes for Real Clear Politics that the populist movement cost House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) his primary election last week and could cost Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) a runoff election next week. "It is a cautionary thread—yet most people in Washington do not understand this moderate-in-tone populist wave. First, the wave is not going to take out every incumbent, so no 'secret sauce' can 'fix' it; second, it will have broad impact on both parties; third, it is relatively invisible because it has no name, no brand or party allegiance," Zito writes. Populism is much more complicated than most people realize; it cannot be manufactured, cannot be forced, and no one person or handful of people can claim to inspire it. Populism, at its core, is driven by personal economics, disconnection from representative government and frustration with the lack of power to change either."

Republican strategist Bruce Haynes told Zito that Cantor "lost touch with his constituency; he became too Washington, too associated with the D.C.-bubble brand; he forgot how to relate and to be that guy from his district. Cochran is a creature of Washington, too, and is poised to lose to a mild-mannered state senator in his runoff.”

Zito writes, "What Cantor's loss should tell Washington is that local politics matter—but Washington tends to listen only to what the pundits, strategists, reporters and experts in Washington say. Many of those Washingtonians have never stepped into 'flyover country' unless they are in a bubble-wrapped press bus that feeds them their talking points and keeps them from listening to the locals in a meaningful way. A judgment call is being made across the country, and it is this: 'Are you one of us, or have you left us for Washington?' The elected incumbents who get caught on the wrong side of that question will be upended in this year's elections. They should serve as a warning to those running for office in 2016, to shed the Washington bubble." (Read more)

Rural voters in Midwest, South and Plains fear way of life is ending, say politicians ignore them

Rural and small-town Americans in the South, Midwest and Great Plains support a pro-active agenda of investment in job training, education, renewable energy and infrastructure, a new poll shows, but they feel even more strongly about cutting taxes and regulations, and want government to be more efficient and effective.

“They don’t feel that it’s contradictory, nor do I,” said Republican pollster Ed Goeas, who did the survey with Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. “It is too simplistic to believe that rural America is anti-government, . . . They do believe they are not receiving fair treatment that other areas of America are receiving. . . . They think they are being ignored in favor of the people on the cities.”

"Neither the conservative nor progressive ideological perspective has it right,” Lake told the 2013 gathering of the National Rural Assembly, where the results were presented for the first time.  She and Goeas said rural Americans also think they are ignored by politicians.

The pollsters found that rural America retains a strong streak of populism driven by distrust of anything big: government, cities, bank and other businesses, labor and news media, Goeas said. And that even applies to big agriculture; asked to rate their agreement with that statement "Too much of federal farm subsidies go to the largest farms, hurting small family farms," on a 1-10 scale, 36 percent replied "10" and 57 percent replied 8, 9 or 10.

Lake said rural Americans also show an entrepreneurial streak, and want government to help small businesses and first-time farmers. They do not want farm subsidies cut, and strongly reject diverting subsidies to other rural spending. "The strongest message highlights smaller government but the next strongest is 'investing more' to bring technology to rural America and betting business started," the pollsters said in a written summary.

"Rural America is an important value and lifestyle, and they want it to survive," Goeas said. "This ran all through the data. … They think it may be coming to an end, and they want to reverse it and revitalize rural America." One of the strongest endorsements in the poll was for the statement “The rural and small-town way of life is worth fighting for and protecting.”

Lake and Goeas conducted the poll for the Nebraska-based Center for Rural Affairs of 804 registered voters living in rural communities and small towns in the South, Great Plains and Midwest from May 28 through June 3. Chuck Hassebrook, director of the center, said the West and Northeast were not polled because they wanted to break out the results by region and doing the whole country would have been too expensive. Each region constituted one-third of the sample. Those surveyed categorized themselves as living in a rural area or small-town as opposed to a city or suburb.

Hassebrook said the results show strong support in rural America for economic-development programs, contrary to what most elected officials representing rural areas think. "When you think about the Farm Bill debate, rural America and rural communities are really an afterthought," he said.

Other findings in the poll: 66 percent of voters said they support the National Rifle Association, while 25 percent said they do not; 42 percent said they were born again 42, and 45 percent said they were not; 11 percent said they rely mainly on farming, ranching or agriculture for their income; 7 percent said they rely only on those pursuits. For a PowerPoint presentation giving details of the poll, click here.

Democratic convention hears a rural voice

A surprise hit last night at the Democratic National Convention was Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer. "A cattle rancher who strode into office wearing cowboy boots," writes Paul Wallsten of the Los Angles Times, "Schweitzer has succeeded by connecting with the values of Western voters. Yet he also embraces key Democratic policies, supporting abortion rights, energy conservation and environmental regulation. ... He raised the roof at the Pepsi Center by exhorting thousands of party activists to 'get off your hind end' and cheer for the demise of GOP rule." (Photo from The Associated Press)

Schweitzer's speech focused on energy policy. "It was purely partisan red meat on a pocketbook issue -- exactly what some Democratic strategists have said was lacking from the convention when the sagging economy is at the forefront of voters' minds," Wallsten writes. "His appearance in a coveted time slot during network television coverage easily overshadowed a staid keynote address delivered earlier by former Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner, a Senate candidate who was expected to play a starring role here.And it couldn't have come at a better time for the Democrats -- just when Barack Obama needs to start connecting with the kind of white, rural and working-class voters that might be inclined to listen to Schweitzer." (Read more)

Schweitzer became governor in 2004 while George W. Bush was carrying the state by 20 percentage points. Mark Sundeen of The New York Times writes, "Schweitzer’s 'Montana miracle,' in which Democrats took back the governor’s seat after 16 years and ended 12 years of Republican majorities in both state chambers, has been cited as evidence that the Republican bastions in the Western states are losing ground to a new, Democratic brand of libertarian-tinged prairie populism." (Read more)

Schweitzer said after the speech that it was the first he had ever given from a prepared text; he added much material to the text. For Mike Dennison's story from the Billings Gazette, with Schweitzer's prepared remarks, click here. UPDATE, Aug. 29: One Democrat called Schweitzer "our side's Huckabee," according to the Evans-Novak Political Report's convention wrapup.

Rural Democrats give party fresh hope in South

"Spurred by the souring economy and a newfound willingness to embrace conservative candidates, the Democratic Party is running its most competitive campaign across the South in 40 years," Greg Hitt reports for The Wall Street Journal.

"The party's rising prospects point toward a once unthinkable goal: a reversal of the 'Great Reversal,' the switch in political loyalties in the 1960s that made the South a Republican stronghold for a generation," Hitt writes. "If the current picture holds, Democrats could use the Southern strength to help craft a workable Senate majority and expand their majority in the House of Representatives. At the very least, it widens the field of competitive seats, forcing Republicans to fight fires in once-reliably solid areas. ... Half a dozen Republican-held House seats across the South, including rural districts in Virginia, North Carolina, Louisiana and South Carolina, are growing more competitive." More may be added to the list.

Hitt's object example is Montgomery Mayor Billy Bright, who "stands a good chance" of winning an open seat in a mostly rural district that has been held by Republicans since 1964. Bright considered running as a Republican, "but he decided that he felt more at home with the Democrats, whom he describes as the party of working people and the party of diversity." Bright says, "The Republican Party has done a wonderful job of making it appear that you don't have a choice, but that's changing. That's changing with me."

Hitt says Sen. Barack Obama's candidacy will drive up black turnout, but he doesn't mention that it might also drive up white Republican turnout, and make some swing white voters less likely to vote Democratic. But the article is a pretty good snapshot of the changing political landscape in the South, especially its rural areas, and is accompanied by good maps.

Sen. Jim Webb: Trying to remake American politics through populism

Jim Webb, left, the Democrat elected U.S. senator from Virginia in a big upset last year, is "trying to remake the American electoral landscape from the ground up," beginning in Appalachia, Rolling Stone says in its June 14 edition, introduciing a good profile of Webb by Jeff Sharlet, who sets the scene with Webb's visit with coal miners and families in Lebanon, Va., after touring the Laurel Mountain Mine (photo from Webb's Web site).

"After 9/11, the old labels don't apply," Webb told Sharlet. "The country is just a different place. And now we can remake the party system in the United States if we can get Reagan Democrats -- or whatever you want to call 'em." Politics tends to be defined by presidents; Tom Wolfe, a friend and fellow author, "insists Webb will be president one day" and sees him "as a revolutionary -- a conservative who could succeed where the left failed," Sharlet reports.

Webb, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran who was Navy secretary under Ronald Reagan, "loves war so much he can't stand to see one bungled as badly as Bush has the one in Iraq," Sharlet writes. "There's only the cause driving this stupidity into the sand, not the needs of a nation. It's the work of the elites Webb has always hated." He quotes Webb: "America's top tier . . . are literally living in a different country. Few among them send their children to public schools. Fewer still send their loved ones to war."

The elites of his ire were once liberals; now they are conservatives and businesses that profit from war. Webb was once a Republican; now he is a Democrat who models himself after Andrew Jackson, "another man of war who went to Washington on a populist crusade." (Read more) Webb wrote about Jackson in Born Fighting, a history of the Scots-Irish in America, which begins with Webb's roots in southwest Virginia.