Thread by @triofrancos

Since 2016, when mainstream media equated Donald Trump & Hugo Chávez as dangerous "populists," populism has been framed "threat to democracy." But now, w Warren deploying populist tropes, the establishment is confused. Maybe populism isn't Bad? Thread 1/ nytimes.com/2019/09/17/us/…

The NYT frames Warren as populist bc her rhetoric targets the power of big corporations. Tho they primarily focus on her, they also lump her with Sanders, portraying them as offering a left-populist vision that counters both Trump's right-populism & Biden's neoliberal centrism 2/

But is a single leader's rhetoric alone enough to constitute populism? I argue no, in my critical review of Chantal Mouffe's /For a Left Populism/ in @nplusonemag 3/ nplusonemag.com/online-only/on…

From 19th c. onward, populism erupts at moments of political & economic crisis & involves mass mobilization whether left, right or inchoate. These movts confront the democratic paradox: who rules? Who is the demos & their enemies? What are their powers? 4/
nplusonemag.com/online-only/on…

& this is precisely where Warren& Sanders differ. Both target how economic power distorts democracy. But as @meaganmday says Warren sees the problem as "corruption", requiring "reforms" whereas Sanders sees it as systemic, requiring "political revolution"& working class power 5/

As a theory of power& change, Warren's approach has more in common w Progressivism than populism; whereas Sanders draws on both left-populism& socialism-traditions which, as @AntonJaegermm shows, have a shared history even tho they subsequently diverged 6/ jacobinmag.com/2019/08/populi…

And this is why Warren's "populism" isn't as threatening to economic elites & even embraced by part of the political establishment. It's the apotheosis of what I call the "liberal self-help industry": how to stave of crisis w/o transformation 7/ newyorker.com/news/our-colum…

But the crisis-mass precarity,inequality,climate chaos-is deeper than corruption; the decades of post-war economic security-itself won by labor militancy-was an aberration, not norm; we need power in streets, strikes& gov to transform the system before it devours us&the planet.