adieu american populism

John Edwards is out and his populist message is also out of fashion. Pundits will say his demise was a result of the presence of two "historic" candidates, or that his doubtful "electability" caused likely supporters to cast their votes and opinions for Mme. Clinton. However, his message also seems out of touch with the Zeitgeist. Eight years of Reaganism and eight years of Clintonian centrism have made the classic populist message "history." The dispute between the Progressive School of historical interpretation  (e.g., Charles Beard) and the Consensus School (e.g., Hofstadter, Hartz, et al.) has been resolved by empirical, political events, which have reshaped political psychology. Big Business needs tax incentives not regulation to serve the public interest (this is the Clintonian and Democratic Leadership Council mantra). The redistribution of wealth requires personal responsibility not more government social programs (the Clintonian welfare reform). Establishment Democrats and segments of Big Labour lined up with Clintonism, not the erstwhile inheritor of William Bryan Jennings (sans the monkey business). Fighting poverty and chronic under- and unemployment are no longer salable as political needs; and trial lawyers are as despised as environmental polluters, hucksterish pharmaceuticals, mal-practicing physicians, and scamming mortgage loan officers.