Won't someone hand these people some pitchforks?

The lack of economic-driven anger among many Americans :


In America, the language of the angriest is very similar to that of the plutocrats themselves. Indeed, the complaint that today’s elite lack the noblesse oblige of the aristocrats of old, and are therefore risking public anger, seems to badly misread American public opinion. The middle class doesn’t want hand-outs from condescending rich people. They want moralistic language and complaints about deficits.

It’s really mistaken. The only problem here is that populist rage in America doesn’t happen to line up with the policy objectives of the mainstream Democratic Party.


Every poll shows strong support for higher taxes on rich people and lower taxes on non-rich people. That’s straight-up redistributive politics relative to the status quo and it’s what the public wants. Democrats flirted with making this part of their agenda, but ultimately blinked...And it polls well. But it wasn’t on offer because leading politicians didn’t—and don’t—want to offer it.

Amazing, isn't it? After nearly destroying the world, the plutocrats just dipped into their petty cash accounts, funded a Tea Party Movement dedicated to promoting their interests, and won the next election. Problem solved! Now, where should we have dinner tonight? Paris or Rome?


What's interesting about these responses is that they assign a critical role in populist movements to organisation and direction at a high political level. That seems like the exact opposite of an expression of populist sentiment. People express support for populist policies like tax increases on the rich, but where are the angry manifestations of this desire? Shouldn't we care something about preference intensity? A populist movement that's essentially invisible in the absence of DNC leadership is no populist movement at all. And political markets aren't perfect, but it also seems that so few political actors are trying to exploit an explicitly populist message (and those that have done so on the left haven't had a great deal of success).

When I wrote about the surprising lack of rage, what I meant was just this: there does not seem to be an angry bunch of Americans holding politicians' feet to the fire over populist issues, and forcing their concerns to the centre of the political agenda. That's surprising to me given the state of the American economy. And no amount of polling is going to push Democratic leaders toward ambitious populist politics so long as the only pitchfork points against their backsides are those wielded by the Tea Partiers.