On both sides of the American political aisle, populism is beginning to establish the foundation for the 2024 presidential, other federal, and state campaigns, as well as subsequent voter choices for each.
While populism may viewed as being primarily about progressive economic policy, it can also be also a campaign platform for politicians, helping clarify those reality-based issues which voters unfailingly focus on, and ultimately vote for.
For campaign and election '24, many politicians now realize populism is the best way to connect with the average American. This is applicable to both the GOP and Democratic parties
The notion that establishment ideologies, such as neoconservatism and neoliberalism, should be the way forward for either party has, in reality, been wholly rejected.
But, it's especially true for Republicans.
The GOP is now witness to Freedom Caucus members of the U.S. House of Representatives voting against the expansion of spending, fighting back against their party leadership to accomplish conservative solutions, and even repealing past Republican legislation like the Authorization for the Use of Military Force in Iraq.
Members, like Reps. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., now seemingly advocate battling against the opposition.
That is, they're fighting fire with fire.
This scenario recently unfolded with the attempt to move toward the impeachment of President Joe Biden.
The contention on the part of some congressional Repubicans is that what Biden has purportedly done is far worse than anything former President Trump supposedly did during his one term presidency.
Additonally, two of the top candidates for the 2024 GOP Presidential primary, former-President Trump and business mogul Vivek Ramaswamy embrace the ideological approach of nationalist, populist Republicanism by identifying problems affecting the working class, denouncing interventionist foreign policy, and vowing to halt the tyrannical use of bureaucratic federal agencies.
Ramaswamy has also promised to pardon Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.
Trump has promised to deliver on issues such as a digital bill of rights and a reciprocal trade act, as well as fight back against Big Pharma and global freeloading.
These are more than salient reasons why candidates like Trump and Ramaswamy are leading the field.
Meanwhile neocons: Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, and Chris Christie consistently can't relate to the modern Republican primary voter.
The reason is simple: Pence, Haley, and Christie can't and/or won't embrace a populist mindset.
On the Democratic side, a similar movement is extant: a rejection of Establishment-Democratic politics.
While incumbent President Joe Biden continues to lead Democratic presidential primary polls significantly, legacy heir and author Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seems to be genrating appreciable, if not modest, interest.
Biden and other mainstream establishment Democrats continue to ignore the rise of RFK Jr. Yet, he continues to appear on some of the biggest shows in the world, spreading his populist message of anti-corruption, anti-war, and pro-unity in Washington.
A platform which seems to be somewhat resonating with voters.
Kennedy currently polls in the high to mid-teens with likely Democratic primary voters.
While that may read insignificantly, it's fairly impressive, when one considers that a man with no elected office experience is polling that highly against an incumbent president.
Thus far, he has only spent less than four million dollars on his campaign.
Our nation's 45th commander in chief remains the nominee for the GOP.
Ramaswamy’s rise in polling over neoconservative "shill" candidates, and Robert F. Kennedy’s rise within the Democratic field, best exemplify how populism loudly resonates with voters, doing so in a way the stodgy establishment approach never will.
Kenneth David Cody III is a conservative writer and activist from Northeast Tennessee. He also serves as the Southern Regional Director for Republicans for National Renewal, and is chairman of the Cocke County GOP. Mr. Cody is also an Economics and English Teacher at Cosby High School. He has an M.A. in Teaching 6-12th Grade English, from Tusculum University, and a B.A. in English Literature, from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Read Kenny Cody's Reports — More Here.