If you think that populism is a viable tool that can be used for good and then discarded, one that won't be immediately turned on us the first chance you get, then you're just a useful idiot and I'm genuinely sorry I called you subhuman. But there is no benevolent populism, and any attempt to push democrats towards being more of a reactionary anti-trump party than they already are will severely backfire. Democrats will not wield the power of unquestioning loyalty and rabid antagonism any "better" than nazis do, because democrats aren't more virtuous than republicans, they just play a more helpful, less harmful angle. That changes the moment they realize their base is apathetic towards/actively craving genocide

[–] ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 6 days ago

What your argument is describing isn't populism in general. Trump's populism is christian nationalism which seems to be what your argument is referring to. Bernie's platform in 2016 and 2020 was a populist platform that was intended to forward a progressive agenda.

https://www.wordnik.com/words/populism

A political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their struggle against the privileged elite.

Why would we discard it later? Populism isn't inherently radical or reactionary as Bernie and Trump have demonstrated. It provides a narrative to contextualize what the campaign is for to the people. Which Democrats definitely needed in this election. It's highly unlikely Democrats will make their own populist campaign. We need to hijack the Democratic Party the way Bernie tried to do and Trump did to the Republican Party.

The strategy is to use the Democratic Party so we don't have to build our own party from scratch. It's not because we like or think highly of Democrats. Because of our first-past-the-post voting system we end up in a two-party system. The Democrats are the tool we have to use when the Republicans are fascists that want to kill us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo