Thread:User talk:Armondikov/Pseudo-populism in America

The railing against "big guv" in the US has a long history, but said rhetoric really became attached to Southern politics during Reconstruction. Reconstruction was (and still is, among the neo-Confederate set) portrayed as a conspiracy of carpetbaggers and blacks to usurp the power of the white aristocracy and place the South under the rule of a federal autocracy. The trope of the alien and invasive federal government has long been useful in service of pseudo-populist political campaigns, e.g. George Wallace. This was absorbed into the rhetoric of the new religious right: "The effort to build bridges between secular and religious conservatives was spearheaded by four activists with no background in the Christian Right community: Howard Phillips of the Conservative Caucus; John "Terry" Dolan of the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC); Paul Weyrich of the National Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress; and Richard Viguerie, a major fund-raiser for conservative causes. The basis for coalition would be a frontal attack on "big government" as a threat to traditional religious and economic values." Note the alma mater of CWA founder.