Populism Killed the Republican Party

Anti-elite attitude personified by Palin drove away base

By Gabriel Winant, Newser User

Posted Oct 10, 2008 10:55 AM CDT

(Newser) – Anti-intellectual populism has reduced the Republicans to a resentful rump party, writes David Brooks in the New York Times. A movement that once prized good ideas began to rely on bashing the educated as a political tactic. “What had been a disdain for liberal intellectuals slipped into a disdain for the educated class as a whole.” In the process, the party drove away much of the country.

Whole professions have jumped ship on the GOP. “It took talent for Republicans to lose the banking community,” Brooks writes. Sarah Palin captures the essence of this populism, leading a party “squeezed at both ends,” unable to create policy to address working class anxieties, and unable to win the educated elites it demonizes.

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (3)]

President Bush tries on a cowboy hat given to him by members of the Naval Academy football team, Monday, April 14, 2008 in the Rose Garden as he presented them with the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

Republican vice presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, speaks to supporters at a rally near Wilmington, Ohio Thursday Oct. 9, 2008. (AP Photo/Tom Uhlman)

William F. Buckley Jr. Ronald Reagan at the South Carolina Governor's Mansion in Columbia SC, on Jan. 13,1978, after the two debated the Panama Canal Treaty. (AP Photo/Lou Krasky)

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The liberals had coastal condescension, so the conservatives developed their own anti-elitism, with mirror-image categories and mirror-image resentments, but with the same corrosive effect. - David Brooks

Republicans developed their own leadership style. If Democratic leaders prized deliberation and self-examination, then Republicans would govern from the gut. - David Brooks

Conservatives are as rare in elite universities and the mainstream media as they were 30 years ago. The smartest young Americans are now educated in an overwhelmingly liberal environment. - David Brooks

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Populism Killed the Republican Party