Populist Party

As a semi tea partier, semi beer partier (look it up on facebook, it's Mike Church's group)I was a little offended by the tea party and populist party being mentioned in the same breath. The tea party has even started to irritate me, going national. I first joined the tea party for the reason most of the others did, our eyes were opened to the infringement of government to our liberty, the very freedoms we hold so dear. I'm not talking about the election of Barrack Obama, well not entirely. Prior to the election in November of 08, while researching candidates I stumbled upon all sorts of stuff about Obama's radicals ties. In pointing out those radical ties, the most common argument for Obama was really just an anti Bush argument. All those anti-Bush arguments had merit, but it wasn't merely the previous admin as much as Obama likes to blame it. There has been a constant tear on our liberty basically since the beginning of this great country, but that's for another rant.

The Populist Party began in the 1870's with a loose confederation of farmers' alliances who believed that the economic downturn was a result of the governments monetary policy. They attempted to influence the existing political parties and when their growth was so rapid, the Populist Party was born in 1892. Their platform is surprisingly similar to some other's that I recently blogged about. Graduated income tax, plenty of paper money, government ownership of transportation and communication, direct election of senators (I still say repeal the 17th Amendment), postal banks, pensions, immigration reform but their main goal was to replace the Democrat Party. The Populist Party grew very rapidly with representatives from the farmers of the west and south added to the industrial unions of the east. While the party grew, both established political parties battled for the Populist vote and the democratic party ended up with most of the populist vote, the combination of union wage earners and farmers didn't stay together as city and country couldn't stay mixed. While very short lived, much of the platform is creepily similar to progressive/communism/socialism goals. It wouldn't surprise me, that when the America rejects progressive's that they will resurface as Populist, the People's Party. It has just such a lovely ring to it.