Populism in American Politics: Past and Present

According to Merriam-Webster a populist is “a member of a political party claiming to represent the common people…” The populist movement has been around since the Jacksonian era and since then we have seen populist politicians rise and fall from power. One of the most notable populists in American history is William Jennings Bryan, a young Democrat from Nebraska, ran for President in 1896 against William McKinley a Gilded Age Republican. Jennings campaigned to those who thought the American economy was corrupt and pushing them out of the system. Similarly, Donald Trump told a similar narrative. Trump preached the idea to make “America Great” once again. His goal is to return America to its former glory and to make sure the common man has his

say in politics. While both Jennings and Trump are both populist candidates they ran different campaigns against two unique opponents. Throughout this paper the two candidate’s economic policy, opponents, and campaign execution will be compared to understand the appeal of the populist candidate to the American voter.
“The country is in greater danger than it has been since 1861.

This is not merely our opinion, and is not merely a party opinion. It is the profound belief of patriotic men without distinction of party and in every section of the country” (New York Daily Tribune, 1896). In 1896 American was dramatically changing. This was the start of the industrial revolution, the capitalist elites rising to power, and debatably the first modern campaign. The era of the Republicans using the Civil War to mobilize voters was slowly coming to an end, hence the change of the platform. Republicans were to party of the common folk until Mark Hanna, McKinley’s campaign manager and representative from Ohio, introduced campaign financing to American politics. They relied on the elites, like Rockefeller, to help fund their campaign and used that to their advantage. Even Hanna said himself that “There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money and I can’t remember what the second one is” (Hanna,

1859).
As the Republican party was changing due to the new economic climate as were the Democrats. The Democratic party at the time was divided between the southern Dixiecrats and Northern Democrats. Neither side could agree nor knew who they were going to nominate for President. On July 8th, 1896 at the Democratic Convention William Jennings Bryan gave his powerful and insightful “Cross of Gold” speech. He states that “…a business man as the man who goes upon the board of trade and bets upon the price of grain; the miners who go down a thousand feet into the earth, or climb two thousand feet upon the cliffs, and bring forth from their precious metals to be poured into the channels of trade are much business men as the few financial magnate who, in a back room, corner the money of the world… You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold” (Bryan, 1896). He preached how the gold standard of the time was outdated and only hurt the working man, and that America needed to base their economy off the silver standard. After that speech the Democratic party immediately nominated the populist as their champion.
Bryan went on a massive railroad campaign. He would travel by train and held multiple massive rallies preaching the silver standard and how he was a politician of the people everyday. This was an aggressive campaign that appealed to plenty of Americans. “He traveled over 18,000 miles by train, made more than 600 speeches (sometimes 10 to 20 in a day) and addressed 5 million people over the course of the campaign” (Sides et.al, 2015). This differed from McKinley’s campaign; while Bryan was traveling to the people Hanna was bringing the press to McKinley. Hanna arranged journalists and other interest groups of the McKinley campaign to travel to listen him in Canton, Ohio. McKinley would simply just give speeches on his own front porch, this was soon dubbed as the “Front-porch campaign” (Sides et.al 2015).
Even with the execution of their campaigns the two candidates had two completely different audiences. Bryan appealed to the common man, especially farmers who felt like those in large urbanized areas who felt like they were at a disadvantage. A political cartoon from the election depicted him as “The Democratic Moses and his Selfmade Commandments” (Digital Public Library of America). This cartoon shows how he was regarded as this champion of the common man and how many flocked to listen to him speak, much like Moses (Figure 1). Additionally, there are two rays of light behind him, one says “Radicalism” and the other says “Conservatisms” (Figure 1) which reflect the two ideals that many thought he was “preaching”.
Even though many American’s rallied behind Bryan, McKinley and the Republican still won the Presidency and Congress. Bryan fell short since he did not raise nearly as much money, had as much political coverage from the press, and only focused on rural areas. McKinley mobilized southern African American Republicans, those in urbanized areas, and the capitalist elite. Bryan’s narrow view of his audience ultimately cost him the election.
In the most recent election Donald Trump, an unlikely candidate much like Bryan, won the Presidency.

Both of these men both ran a populist campaign, which begs the question: what made Trump successful and not Bryan? Like Bryan Trump preached that the government needs to fix the economy to help the average American because it is “so unfair”. Additionally, Trump’s “indifference to the issues of sexual orientation that animate the declining religious right, even to the point of defending Planned Parenthood. Trump’s platform combines positions that are shared by many populists but are anathema to movement conservatives—a defense of Social Security, a guarantee of universal health care, economic nationalist trade policies” (Lind, 2016). On Trump’s website he has short clips explaining how he feels on certain issues. For his “Jobs” video he states that “…I will tell you this and I can say it with certainty, I will be the greatest jobs producing President that God ever created. I love the subject, I love doing it, and I love helping people and there’s nothing like helping people like getting them and their family great jobs” (Trump 2016). Additionally, his tax plan and trade policy appeals to both upper-class and working class Americans. Trump’s vision for his trade policy is to “negotiate fair trade deals that create American jobs, increase American wages, and reduce America’s trade deficit” (Trump 2016). His promise to cut of trades with China, the Trans-Pacific Partnership,

and Mexico’s tariff appeals to the blue collared worker (especially those in the rust belt). Because of the great recession many of the working class lost their jobs and homes and blamed it on our reliance of China. Like Bryan, Trump did appeal to the common man who felt like big business and Washington were cheating them.
Hillary Clinton, one of the most experienced politicians in American ran against Trump. Her campaign promising that she would help the lower-class and those who were struggling. The problem is that many thought that she was going to continue what Obama’s policies and nothing in Washington was going to change. She rarely campaigned in the rust belt (Wisconsin, Michigan) while Trump constantly visited and campaigned there. Like McKinley she raised more funds for her campaign, but unlikely McKinley she lost the election. The primary reason, in my opinion, was her infamous “basket of deplorables” sound bite. She lumped the blue collar workers, working class, farmers, among many of other interest groups as a group of worthlessness. With this Trump seemed like he did care about the working class and he became their champion, like Bryan.
Furthermore, Trump and Bryan really did not spend or raise that much money for their campaigns. The major difference is that this cost Bryan the campaign and this caused Trump to win. When Bryan ran campaign finance was new and no one knew the impact that it had on elections. Now the average American voter finds campaign finance as corrupt and another way that Washington distances themselves from the pubic. Trump somehow mobilized both the working and upper class to go out and vote for him. This differs from Bryan since he only focused on rural areas, especially farmers. While farmers and rural American does make up the backbone of this country it simply is not enough. Additionally, Trump used the media and social media to connect to all Americans and to tell his narrative of the biased and corrupt systems (like the Washington establishment and media outlets). Everything he promised and preached connected to the common man (heavy emphasis on man since he really did not appeal to female voters).
Overall the both populist candidates, Trump and Bryan, appealed to the common man and promised them that they would represent them in Washington. While Bryan never got the opportunity to be the champion of the working class, Trump does. While I may have plenty of concerns about Trump and how unrealistic a lot of his plans are, many hard working Americans found his rhetoric and blunt nature what Washington needed. Both preached how the economy was unfair and their goal was to fix the way the system works so that it can benefit everyone. If Trump will actually achieve this promise is unclear. His tax plan really only benefits the upper-class but many think that this is the best option. In the next four years America will see if Trump’s populist campaign promises will actually work for the common man.