populism

What does it take for people to get mobilized for the common good?

How on earth did this happen?

The pope doesn't always show off his theological talents. Does that matter?

Populism is a predictable recurring feature of any society that is unwilling or unable to be as democratic as it claims to be.

Ezra Klein’s work at the Washington Post is indispensable; he brings much insight to the task of making domestic policy accessible to those of us who only follow it part time. But I’m not buying this one:

There’s a tendency among some on the left and, with the “libertarian populists,” some on the right, to portray the interests of corporate American and the interests of low-income Americans as directly opposed to each other. That’s not true. They can conflict, of course — it’s easy enough to imagine a proposal to raise taxes on corporations in order to fund a low-income tax cut — but they’re not always in tension. Sometimes they’re even in concert.

Sometimes, sure.

Whatever its explicit message, Occupy Wall Street has made a powerful statement with its very mode of existence.

Drew Westen is right: Obama would do well to name the villains in the economic story he tells the American people. But the villains aren't individuals; they're powers and principalities.