Time Essay: The New Populism: Radicalizing the Middle

(5 of 5)

The crucial question is whether in the long run populism can reconcile blacks and whites; the evidence so far is mixed. In parts of the South, many poor whites, who were once called rednecks, have started to work with blacks in politics. Says Atlanta's vice mayor, Maynard Jackson, a black: "The poor white is beginning to tell himself that it is not enough just to be white. He sees, through television and other media, an America more affluent than ever before. And between that affluence and his own miserable life lies a chasm of despair." At the same time, many unions remain unyielding in opening their ranks to blacks, while white-black clashes in mixed schools and neighborhoods appear to be on the increase throughout the country. Especially in times of recession, fear for one's job outweighs possible common economic interests with the other fellow, and visceral prejudice all too often overpowers economic rationality.

But in its very ambivalence—in its confusion of labels and its crossing of ideological lines—populism, or what now passes for it, offers some hope of fresh starts in the U.S. In its appeal to both left and right, it can provide a common denominator for those who feel ignored and bypassed, and voice their imperative demand for new solutions, bolder ideas—and bolder men. Besides, it was not spun out of some overratiocinative brain; it has roots. James Clotfelter, professor of political science at Emory University and a close student of populism, says that it "has the potential of moving people into the future in the name of ideals of the past." It is a future, in other words, that might possibly work.