Kevin Mattson argues that “the people” are no more virtuous or incorruptible than elites, and pandering to them won’t advance liberal political goals:
But liberals, like it or not, have to worry about more than just rallying the masses around their collective anger. They have to worry about governing — and nurturing the semblance of rational dialogue that governing requires. Populism is susceptible to pandering and over-promising in its rhetoric, prone to outlandish promises that generate disillusionment in the face of the reality of political compromise and the demands of governing in a complex world. Liberals can’t promise the people that translating their anger and frustration into political power will fix everything that’s wrong with America. And they have to admit the reality: Like it or not, since the 1960s populism has steadily become the property of the right, precisely because it is dramatic and simplistic in its worldview.
