Clive Crook has a column in the Financial Times about the growing importance of economic populism (read: protectionism), among both Democrats and Republicans, in the presidential race.
Huckabee's rise in the Republican race, in particular,
underlines ... the growing appeal of economic populism among supporters of both parties.Democrats, and paleo-conservatives like Pat Buchanan, have regularly adopted populist positions on trade, taxes, and corporate regulation. The difference in this election cycle is to hear the same tune sung by leading GOP contenders.
Mr Huckabee is an evangelical – his faith leads him to reject the theory of evolution and to favour constitutional amendments to ban abortion and gay marriage – but he is an economic populist as well. On trade, on the tyrannical power of Wall Street and sometimes even on public spending, he sounds more like John Edwards than Mr Romney.Baptist preacher from Arkansas. Socially conservative. Economic protectionist. Sounds like a Southern Democrat to us.
Perhaps the Republican Party is finally reaping the rotten fruits of their Southern strategy.
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