America’s Forgotten Populist History

January 3, 2021 Hunter Wallace Alt-Center, American History Series, Capitalism, History, Politics, Populists 47

Economic fairness has been the core of American populism since the 1890s. It was precisely this element of Trump’s MAGA agenda that conservatives like Mitch McConnell refused to tolerate. They were happy to give him wins on pro-business judges and the corporate tax cut. They even embraced LGBTQ rights. $2,000 dollars for working class families though is where Mitch fought to the last ditch.

Note: In lieu of a modern candidate, we have launched a campaign to educate the public about Huey Long’s agenda, particularly his idea of a wealth cap to abolish the power of billionaires. We’re waiting for a candidate who isn’t going to take crazy stands on polarizing culture wars issues like “Defund the Police” and “Abolish ICE,” but who supports a modest redistribution of wealth. We want to support a candidate who is socially conservative and economically moderate like William Jennings Bryan or Huey Long.

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47 Comments

  2. Populism was largely agricultural. The video mentions the Farmers Alliance, which is known today as the Farmers Union, the smallest, weakest, and supposedly the least conservative of the four major farmers group lobbies. NFU is the one that supports Democrat over Republican candidates, and has fallen down almost to the level of AFB, which is connected with (and all about) funneling members into a large for-profit insurance corporation. But there are very few farmers left in the U.S., and the young ones, especially the avant gardener “niche market” micro-farmers, are even more “into” money making than previous generations of farmers were. The Extension Service concentrates on, constantly educates farmers on, the skill of marketing, not just to make a profit but to maximize profit by grabbing, holding and increasing a share of “the market.” Motto: “The problem of production has been solved, the problem now is marketing.” Agrarian populists hardly exist in the U.S. in the twenty-first century – not like India that still has millions and millions of small traditional farmers firmly rooted to the land.

    U.S.-allied India is replacing its small traditional farmers with corporate ag industry but there are still millions, and millions, of farmers standing in the way of “progress.” Huge protests against the U.S.-supported Modi regime’s new farm laws have been going on for more than a month: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Farmers+Protest+in+India+News&&view=detail&mid=09CBADEB3752A1EA346409CBADEB3752A1EA3464&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3DFarmers%2BProtest%2Bin%2BIndia%2BNews%26Form%3DVDRSCL%26%3D0 These protests are downplayed and censored in mainstream media.

    • The massive farm protests in India are also massive Covid super-spreading events. But in the long run, the capitalist destruction of traditional agriculture will destroy more human life than Covid.

    • U.S.-supported Modi regime? The same Modi who had been banned from entering the U.S. for nearly a decade until he became the PM of India?

    • @anonymous

      The rural agricultural Populists immediately made a deal with the urban proletariat and adopted the Knights of Labor’s urban policies. The Populists were pragmatic realists and had no problem with working with people who were not in their own faction.

      Coughlin was not a “fascist” and Trotsky was wrong about Fascism.

      Coughlin was only called a “fascist” because they didn’t want to harp on the “anti-semite” nonsense too much. Anyone who didn’t want to go to war to save Jewish bankers from Hitler was called a “fascist.” Just like anyone who was against Bush’s war was called an “Islamofascist.”

      Basically anyone who even uses the term “fascism” after, say, 2001, is either a Jew, or a Useful Idiot.

      Which are you?

      • “anyone who even uses the term ‘fascism’ after, say, 2001, is either a Jew, or a Useful Idiot”:

        Coughlin lived LONG before 2001, when it cannot be denied that real fascists really did exist. If approving of and recommending the fascist politics of the fascists Mussolini, Franco and Hitler (all Roman Catholics) and even repeating the speeches of Joseph Goebbels’ (also Catholic) word for word, in his writings and speeches doesn’t make Coughlin a fascist as such, then he was at least a fascist sympathizer and promoter. I suppose you would say “Papist” is also an out-dated term, but it applies perfectly to Coughlin, through and through. Of course he was never defrocked. Off topic but very notable: the U.K. extradition order for Julian Assange coming down tomorrow is mentioned here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsAKHA1vS68

        • “It is fascism or communism. We are at a crossroads.” “What road do you take, Father Coughlin?” the reporter asked. “I take the road of fascism,” the priest replied.

          In addition to Mussolini with whom he tried to make a formal alliance, Coughlin fixated on the fascist counter-revolution in Spain led by the traitor Francisco Franco, who he portrayed as a hero “defending Christian civilization.” He published false stories of “Christians being massacred by Republican forces.” He organized a nationwide militia movement called the Christian Front modeled on Franco’s fascist Popular Front that, he said, “will fight in Franco’s way” (using violence) – “If every reader of Social Justice formed at once a platoon of 25 or more persons dedicated to opposing Communism in all its forms, a Christian Front of 25,000,000 Americans would already be in action,” he said. Many were indeed preparing for “action.” In New York City alone, his Christian Front movement held thirty rallies a week attended by tens of thousands in all the boroughs, and they actively harassed and threatened known or suspected communist party members, striking trade union members and other “enemies of America” throughout the city. Coughlin’s “platoons” were fully protected by the mostly Irish Roman Catholic New York Police Department. The police cracked down hard on the few anti-fascists who dared to resist or protest against Coughlin’s “Christian” Front bullies. The most violent members of the Christian Front members formed a splinter group called Christian Mobilizers that held over fifty meetings a week in the City with over 20,000 in attendance. The Front and Mobilizers held a massive march on the headquarters of the Communist Party and trade unions in Union Square in 1939, and there was a call raised for an invasion of Mexico, which recently had become democratic, limited the power of Roman Catholicism, redistributed large tracts of land to the landless poor, supported the Spanish Republic against fascism. Mexico was said to be hosting a secret Russian communist army preparing to invade the United States, just as today right-wing conspiracy theorists are claiming that “China has assembled a secret army in Mexico to invade the U.S. and impose communism.” But then, Hitler’s nonaggression pact with Stalin came unexpectedly, a huge embarrassment for Coughlin, and then U.S. involvement in the war, and his united-fascists-against-communism “save America” shtick began to become unglued.

          • The Hitler Stalin, or Molotov Ribbentrop pact threw off Churchill, Chamberlain and everyone else. It even confused the hell out of the writers of Superman.

            The Pope was probably annoyed about Poland going under too.

          • @Captain John,

            The Ribbentrop-Molotov Agreement was just to push back the timeframe of the enviable war between the USSR and NS Germany. It made sense to both leaders.

            Hitler and Stalin never gave a crap what chamberlain, churchill, or pope pius xii thought.

            The hypocrisy of the British and French in September of 1939 in declaring war on Germany and not on the Soviet Union that invaded Poland on the seventeenth of that month should be considered a conspiracy against the German nation.

            If you believe that the pope might have been irritated when Germany got fed up and put an end to the mistreatment of ethnic Germans left behind in former parts of Germany given to Poland in the Treaty of Versailles. How do you think pope pius xii felt when the British bombed the vatican?

        • This clown is part of a long term trolling of this blog by a person who injects bizarre anti-Catholic/anti-Irish rants into the most irrelevant contexts imaginable. This trolling effort has been going on for many years, with different handles, similar to the Andrea/Jawbone Critic/asdf gay interracial cuckhold troll that haunts every alt-right site that allows comments. Both of these trolls have been attacking Hunter’s output since at least the Tea Party era, if not before that.

          The “Krafty Wurker” handle is part of this gay op too. Originally, the troll called itself “Tom Watson.” It’s obviously all the same person, he references a “Thomas Watson” in one of his posts bellow. It’s all the same deranged individual.

          Don’t not engage this troll, simply point out that it’s the same gay old troll when you see it happening.

          It’s possible that this troll has some connection to Alex Linder of VNN or his tiny group of faggot readers, as he was the first person to push anti-Irish/anti-Catholic sentiment in modern white nationalism and he always hated Hunter.

          • Atbol,

            Well said. I assume you are referring to comrade anonymous.Though Krafty Wurker is almost as bad—just briefer in his comments.It is possible that Krafty is pro-white but anonymous obviously is not.

            The Pope did say in 1929 that Fascism is Catholicism and whoever is against Fascism is a Bolshevik. This I believe was at the signing of the Vatican Treaty with Mussolini.

            One can/could be a Fascist and NS and be in good standing with the Church but traditionally a Catholic would be ex-communicated for voting for/supporting/or fighting for Communism. Only sickos support Boshevism.

            The Vatican had Concordants with Germany in 1933 and Spain in 1953. This means that our official policy recognizes those regimes as legitimate. The Pope stood by his Concordant with Germany after the war.

            In contrast the United States had no official relations with the Vatican from 1867-1984 I believe. The US recognized sick countries like Communist China, the Soviet Union, and Israel before they resumed relations with the Catholic Church.

            The USA has always been anti-Catholic in concept and politically/socially until recently when Catholics are no longer really Catholic.

            19th Century Popes Leo Xiii and Pope St. Pius X reiterated that Americanism, individualism, and State indifferentism to religion are incompatible with Catholicism and are mortal sins.

    • Coughlin’s fake “populism”-cloaked elitist and rabidly anti-Russian (anti-Orthodox) Papism was a dark stain on America through the first half of the twentieth century. He quietly played the stock market while telling his listeners not to, and amassed an immense personal fortune in silver, while lobbying for silver-based monetary policy. He formed (inspired) the Coughlin-ite private militias that harassed striking labor unions, and even plotted an armed counter-revolutionary invasion of Mexico to restore Roman Catholic hegemony, and probably, return land to the rich that had been distributed to landless peasants. At his peak of popularity, up to ninety million people listened to (“hung on every word of”) his weekly anti-socialist propaganda broadcasts. He kept it up, in print, until the 1970’s and of course he was never defrocked.

      • @anonymous (CCP/USSR),

        Mussolini’s didn’t practice Catholicism, neither did Hitler or Goebbels. Only Coughlin and Franco were practicing Catholics. As a matter of fact, the Vatican along with the king of Italy attempted to undermine Mussolini’s government out of jealousy due to his popularity. If you overlap the Catholic and Protestant areas of Germany with election results for Hitler, Hitler won a large plurality in the Protestant regions of the nation and did not do as well in the Catholic areas of Deutschland.

        Without Mussolini there would have been no Hitler, or at least, the one that became Chancellor of Germany in 1933. Without Hitler and Mussolini, Franco may not have prevailed over your communist republicans. Without Dr. Goebbels, Berlin would have remained a filthy and degenerate metropolis with marxist jews and useful idiot communist adjacent anarchy-trade unionists calling the shots in the nation’s capital. Your hooked nose jews of the Frankfurt School were expelled along with their anti-Western civilization toxins.

        You resent Father Coughlin because he and Charles Lindbergh were in the forefront of the anti-interventionalist movement America First. They had the support of the majority of the American public that wanted nothing to do with any war in Europe, especially any war that would maintain the Soviet Union.

        I am sure most of OD’s readership and yourself are keenly aware of the disproportionate amount of Ashkenazi jewish advisers that surrounded Churchill, FDR, Stalin, and Mao.

        You fear and loathe fascism because you know it is the antidote to your marxist-Leninist poison.

        • “You resent Father Coughlin because he and Charles Lindbergh were in the forefront of the anti-interventionalist movement America First”:

          No I AGREE with his anti-interventionism, being opposed to U.S. entry to the war, although not with his main reason for it. Of course he wasn’t wrong about everything. But being an influential Papist was the ultimate danger. Papism gaining a loyal following of tens of millions of the then-majority-Protestant U.S. population was most dangerous. A genuine populist, Thomas E. Watson, clearly recognized the peril of the influence of Rome. Huey Long, a baptized, tithing southern Baptist who had considered the ministry, represented an approximately 50% Catholic state (Louisiana). I say Coughlin was bad influence. FDR kept Coughlin at an arms length when he supported him enthusiastically.

          • Caught in was a Based Canuck, although his Irishness makes him a Camick.

            It’s funny how Irish defer to priests though. I’d guess that Caughlin’s base was plastic paddy anglophobes for the most part.

          • anonymous,

            I have to admit you wrote me a sweet goodbye. I appreciate that and I give you respect. I wish you the best. We do share the same enemies so I blow you my kisses and I hope you do not bear any grudge against me. I part with love and kindness.

        • November,

          Once again I commend you for your efforts in even addressing the monster called anonymous. But even Scripture says not to throw your pearls before swine. Arguing with him is like arguing with a Moslem who uses the Koran as his base of belief. You will get nowhere.

          I do not understand why Mr. Wallace allows a communist on here yet got rid of El Chapo and T’challa who were mild in comparison. In fact El Chapo was amusing. I really really really do not understand the Anglo. One should destroy your enemies not give them a platform. No wonder the Left keep winning.

          I now believe in ignoring him. He lives in his own warped world. As a general rule one can only get dirty dealing with dirt.

          • You are evidently a good writer with a brilliant mind, and if sincere (that is, if you’re not a paid handler) I respect your convictions. I am neither anti-White nor anti-Christian. Quite the opposite. Narrowly ethno-Socialist? Yes. Trotskyist? Not at all. And I have NO connection to the alleged troll commenter Krafty Wurker, who seems to be very anti-socialist. Comment threads are most interesting (to me) when they contain only real information and no personal attacks. I appreciate differing views, some of which I shared in the past.

          • Christina,

            I recall the Mexican and Puerto Ricans in my elementary school speaking about Three Kings Day, which I believe is Pentecost, and orthodox Christmas.

            Living in a neighborhood that had several different non-white gangs including the latin kings, us White kids really hated their “Three Kings Day” celebration.

            Dr. Edward Dutton probably isn’t your cup of tea, but he has spoken about the data that proves that women are more religious than men. He uses the example of these feral female extreme leftist “social justice warriors” as an example of young women using that as a substitute for traditional religion. They have become in the words of Jim Goad, “The New Church Ladies” scolding others on their blasphemy.

            The 12 day of Christmas is a very night Christmas carol. As it is sung now, it doesn’t have any religious connotations. It is about the items the paramour of a materialistic female receives over twelve days.

        • Coughlin’s problem was that he was catholic. Catholicism has always been enthusiastically supportive of every form of globalism. The pope himself was responsible for getting Coughlin taken off the air, because Coughlin was damaging the catholic globalist agenda.

          Mussolini should have marched on the vatican and put the pope and all of his underlings against the wall, then smashed the entire place into rubble. Failure to eliminate catholicism was a mistake.

        • November,

          This is a goodbye. I am tired of the anti-catholic freaks on this website. They even have a communist on here. So I say to Hell with this website. I will comment here and there on Political Cesspool and Bitshute Blackpilled but that is about all.

          I know I quit in March 2020 for a couple of months and then returned. When I return to school I will give my classmates an up to date report on this. So my word of honor I am finished here.

          By the way my people are taking the southwest. For awhile I will look at the comments. All my family and friends except my oldest brother loathe this website anyway.

          So I give Mr. Ryan and yourself my sweetness and my kisses.

          • I noticed this just after commenting above. This is the clearest evidence you are a real person with real convictions. I agree that your people are taking back northern Mexico. The U.S. overreached. Farewell.

          • Christina,

            If you ever download the Telegram app, let me know. I’ll tell you what chat that would best fit you that I participate in. There are a few Catholic German women with children that you would like, and they can speak German, Spanish, and English.

            Sorry to see you leave OD. I hope you have a change of heart, and not let the S.O.B.s win.

            Until then, I’ll look for your comments on Blackpilled videos, which by the way, he sometimes posts videos only on Bitchute due to jewtube censorship, but still does post some on jewtube. So I’ll check for you on Bitchute.

            I do not listen to The Political Cesspool, unless he has a guest such as Mark Weber on the show. TPC is too milquetoast for my taste.

          • Christina,

            Tell your family that the late great Tom Metzger of White Aryan Resistance thought the Spanish-American War was unnecessary and Anglo malfeasance.

        • November,

          I am having trouble registering at Bitchute for some reason. I will keep trying. It also says you have to be 18 years old. I think I can lie and it is not against the law. After all, I have watched rougher content in movies.

          Until then I will make a bland comment on Blackpilled latest You Tube video just to be in the game.

          It really is surprising after all that I lasted for a year and a half on this website.

        • November,

          No, I am not making extended curtain calls. I did finally register as Cristina Alvarez on Bitchute which might actually be a little closer to my real name as compared to here. Though my name here is fairly close as well. Spahnranch1970 once guessed my last name.

          For some reason when I commented on Blackpilled’s latest Bitchute video it came out saying YOU rather than my userid.
          I am weak at math, gadgets, and computers. My older sister is useless in this regard as well. I will try to figure it out. My oldest brother would know but he is prone to more speech giving even more than myself.

          By the way it is CCCP rather than CCP and yes I can say it in Russian.

          Ivan, Juri and JR Chloupek wrote me nicely and I will thank them here rather than separately otherwise it would just seem like I am delaying my exit.

          I am only tying up last strings.

          • November,

            And yes I take back my comment on this website going to Hell. I was mad and have a quick temper. That is no excuse only a reason.

      • Most interesting. I’d like to do sone further study of him, can you post a few links about his stock trading?

        People forget that Ireland was a theocracy under the Preisthood.

    • @ Anonymous (red),

      My guess is that the kind of Americans that you admire are the two communists John Silas “Jack” Reed and his lover Louise Bryant who were both members of the international workers of the world, and were loyal bolsheviks. Reed was such a loyal card carrying bolshevik that he was buried under the kremlin wall.

      http://www.marxisthistory.org/history/usa/parties/cpusa/1927/1100-gold-johnreed.pdf

      Please take notice that an American communist jew eulogizes this dead POS.

    • Surprisingly even handed essay on CaughlinCoughlin here.

      https://spartacus-educational.com/USAcoughlinE.htm

      Couglin was a sort of populist who eventually saw the list of people running capitalism. He should have avoided dabbling in foreign policy though. Some things were out of his depth. It’s a pity he didn’t concentrate on domestic policy exclusively.

  4. There’s a lot of upset bernie supporters who share these financial views just as there are plenty of former Trump supporters who want something similar. It would be interesting what would happen if a candidate ran on financial caps but didn’t push any far left social values. Also I think in the past Bernie didn’t support high immigration because it hurt working class wages as we don’t want high immigration because we lose our culture. Maybe there could be a synthesis somewhere in the middle.

    • @timeless

      There are a group around the “What’s Left” podcasts that are exactly that – interested in populist economics while NOT attacking regular people as “racist/sexist/antisemite/homophobic/etc.”

      They routinely make the point that the Bernie crowd, the Democratic Socialists of America, are not at all representative of the working class, but instead are a socially liberal faction of the Professional Managerial Class. Which is why DSA’s only “socialist” policy is Medicare For All (which isn’t socialist) and the DSA are obsessed with “fighting transphobia” and other “SJW” fluff. The stats show that DSA is one of the wealthiest political groups in America, the majority making over six figures and easily in the top 10% of income earners.

      There are absolutely people who liked the Bernie “message,” but don’t know anything about Sanders other than “Medicare For All” and would probably be outraged if they knew what a fraud Bernie Sanders actually is.

      We saw this dynamic play out in the last month with the attacks on the “Progressive” podcaster Jimmy Dore.

      That crowd is far more valuable than whatever Ayn Rand cranks are still left over from the 90’s – at least for the kind of coalition I want to build.

    • A candidate who ran on such economic redistribution and didnt support 8 year old transgenderism would be called a Fascist.

  5. Tom Watson is another estimable Southern Populist who had a national audience. More so than Long, in that Watson published countless books and magazines that were read all over the United States.

  6. Hey Hunter since Long was a populist and the alt-right prefer something more extreme and authoritarian, why do people keep describing you as alt-right and why do you not rebut their characterization of you?

  7. Yes and I think it’s really great that people talk about various Political Ideologies. It seems like so many people are stuck on Conservative vs Liberal which is only 2 political ideologies and those can be split many different ways on the left and the right. I think it was Democratic Socialism that sparked people’s interest on the right wing about other Political Ideologies like Nationalism. We already know about Communism, Socialism, Anarchy, Libertarians, and others. However it’s Moderates, Populists, and Nationalist who best government the country because it’s ideologies are based on Nation and We the People. Deo Vindice !

  8. Populism predates America. Remember Nathaniel Bacon of Bacon’s rebellion? The governor of Virginia had a lucrative deal with Indians as regards fur trapping. The same Indians that made the governor rich be selling him furs which he would resale to others at exorbitant prices were the same Indians that were killing some of Bacon’s labor and the governor would do nothing lest it disturb his fur trade. So Bacon gathered farmers and workers and started a revolution and the governor fled to England.

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