Populism Versus Elitism

The Never Ending Battle

If you hear someone in authority talk about populists, it is often done with a sneer and in a condescending way. The basic impression given by these people is that populists are unrefined. There is no order to them, they are not intelligent, they have no sense of true purpose as compared to those who either have trained to be in power or have always been there based on having the proper family ties.

The people saying these things are what popularists term elitists. Interestingly, popularists embrace their label and elitists, for the most part, do not. Elitists today try to appear as one of the people in order to garner popular support, but they are as real as 1988 Democrat Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis riding in a tank trying to look tough.

Elitists are not elite like star athletes or musical virtuosos. Rather, they are part of the aristocracy (whether with title or just attitude), part of the “Good Ol’ Boys” network or part of the “in crowd”. What they have in common is that membership in these groups is by birth, who you know/who you can make rich and not by any positive merit.

One of the biggest myths about these elitists is they are better than the rabble of society. They are supposedly refined, sophisticated and understand far more about life and its true meaning. You can see this in their constant refrain about people in government taking care of all the issues that trouble the world. All that is needed is one more government program, one more government agency, one more set of governmental regulations and we will solve climate change, racism and any healthcare issue out there.

In reality, these elitists are no different than any other person who has ever been born throughout the course of human existence. They are as illogical, irrational, emotional, depraved, conniving, mean, nasty and corrupt as the rest of us. The difference is they tend to have their hands on the levers of society where their bad traits can cause so much harm for the rest of humanity.

An excellent example of this myth is what happened to Europe before, during and after World War l. In the years leading up to the way, Europe was ruled by the elite of the elite. It was not just the royal families, it was the entire aristocracy and bureaucracy of the major powers (England, France, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, and Russia) who thought they could manipulate geo-politics in Europe with precision and corruption because they thought of themselves so highly.

Not only did this fantasy crash against the rocks with the onset of war, but the sheer magnitude of the bloodshed and the absolutely idiotic military decisions made by these supposedly smarter people is astonishing when reviewed over a hundred years later. In the end, every one of the major powers either disintegrated (Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire), went through revolutionary change to fascism/communism (Germany, Italy and Russia) or started a two generation decline from worldwide colonial powers to mere shells of their former selves (England and France).

Populism, on the other hand, is harder to define as it does not have the orderliness of elitism. Populists tend to be more open to different ideas and are more willing to work with different kinds of people with respect rather than being snobbish towards them. Of course, since populists are human, they are just as susceptible to the same foibles as elitists. The difference tends to be populists have more humility about themselves and realize their faults more regularly.

The American Revolution offers us the clearest picture of populism in action. The elites of England in the 1760s and 1770s looked down their noses at the American colonists. In a series of tone-deaf actions, they moved a critical mass of Americans from loyal British subjects to people willing to throw out the most powerful country in the world.

Additionally, the Americans had the audacity to say in their Declaration of Independence that the people were more important than the government.

“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

On top of this, they invoked divine authority to the people and not to the elite.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

To top it all off, the first three words of the Constitution start out “We The People”.

It is enough to give any elitist a heart attack!

What is not appreciated by many today is how the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are set up. These mostly populist Americans included safeguards to the people by restricting the government they were setting up. They purposefully made the American government inefficient in order for it to not to become the tyrannical, elite master they had just thrown out.

What this allowed was for invention, innovation and freedom to flourish in the United States as compared to anywhere else in the world — the sin of slavery notwithstanding as slavery was accepted worldwide at the time. The elites did not bring this about, the everyday people of America did. Read Alexis de Tocqueville’s book “Democracy in America” to see how egalitarian America was in the 1830s.

Populism celebrates the individual over the collective. This means populism can look different in different areas because people are different. Elitists rankle at disorder and will try to cancel those things which they disagree with and cannot control. We saw this with the reactions to anyone who questioned the official narrative during the Covid pandemic. Elitists particularly hate when someone who is supposed to be one of them has a true connection to the people. That person is feared in such a way that he must be destroyed by any means possible. We are seeing that today with Donald Trump.

It is difficult for populism to maintain prominence as it is so diffused. Freedom is messy and populism is no exception. Elitists often stoke the fear of this messiness to gain the support necessary to be in power. However, in the age of the internet, the ability to maintain that power may be more difficult than ever. It only takes a few sheep to wake up, realize they have a lot in common with each other and see there is only one dog keeping them in line — then the real battle begins.