2017: The year angry populists rose to the top — and fell on their faces

[mystery-ak]

2017: The year angry populists rose to the top — and fell on their faces
by Washington Examiner | Dec 31, 2017, 12:01 AM

Among the nearly 250 years of American politics, 2017 will stand out, along with 1829 (when Andrew Jackson was sworn in), as a moment when populists didn’t merely rattle the political establishment, but actually won a national election and gained real political power.

And 2017 will also stand as a year in which the populists most proximate to political power fell flat on their faces. The problem isn’t populism per se. The problem is that much of the populism accompanying (and also powering) Donald Trump’s rise has been purely negative — vacuous populism whose beginning, middle, and end is inchoate anger at the “establishment.”

Just in the past week, some of the vacuous populists have revealed the emptiness and ultimate impotence of their anger.

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http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/2017-the-year-angry-populists-rose-to-the-top-and-fell-on-their-faces/article/2644533

[Right_in_Virginia]

Can we say overreach?  Wishful thinking?  Vacuous editorial?

Yes.      

[andy58-in-nh]

We are fortunate that Donald Trump had the capacity and vision to look beyond the angry, uninformed and destructive impulses of the populist mob, and decided to actually govern. That, more than any other reason, is why he - and we - had such a good year.