Time Essay: The New Populism: Radicalizing the Middle

The nicest thing anyone can say about a Democratic presidential candidate this year is to call him a populist. Not all the candidates like the appellation. George McGovern—as populist a candidate as there is, left of George Wallace—and Scoop Jackson shun the label. But the rest boast of their populist credentials whenever they can. Wallace plays up his poor-country-boy origins in the Deep South; Humphrey points to his populist record over the years. While he was still in the race, John Lindsay tried to project himself as an "urban populist." Ed Muskie held...