Seated In Action

In the first half of this episode, Ryan and Andrew attempt to identify the constitutive elements of political populism. Of course, one cannot define populism without first talking about the notion that both left and right populism often manifest as anti-establishment, anti-elite ideologies; however, your hosts attempt to more fully flesh out American populism. In a rare (maybe?) disagreement, Ryan claims that populism is a neutral movement whereas Andrew claims that populism is almost always charged because it is inherently divisive (and therefore moralistic). Your bois, thankfully, adhere to their own conversational advice and, in doing so, they find some common ground. As a supplement to their conversation, Andrew brings up Uri Friedman's article "What Is a Populist?" (which is well worth a read). In the second half of the episode, Ryan and Andrew drill down on left and right wing populism--they use Donald Trump as the embodiment of right wing populism and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the embodiment of left