What is a populist?

[Hortensis]

18. Problem is, they almost never redeem. Populist leaders

almost always turn out to be -- at best -- incompetent leaders or they wouldn't have NEEDED to adopt populist tactics in an end run to get power. It's a natural sifting.

Those capable of redeeming a nation seek power forthrightly by honest persuasion of majorities to vote for them. You know, campaign like Biden, and Obama. And they work hard to build confidence in their nation's future, as they are as always doing, instead of inflaming dissatisfaction and resentment at "the establishment" that must always be destroyed rather than fixed.

Maybe examine the METHODS populist leaders typically use and ask what kind of government those methods would be continued in. Leaders who, for instance, seek power through election tampering are incredibly more likely to use their power to expand their tampering to keep power than they are to fix the system they helped break. We SEE this.

Same for leaders who routinely deceive people in pursuit of power (which populist leaders always do, usually styling their power seeking as a reform movement). They're not going to institute ethical, transparent government. They're going to co-opt what they've taken over and continue the deceit that worked so well as they build on it. We SEE this.

Part of the problem is the word "populist." It sounds like it's of and for "the people." But it's not. It's an alternative means of getting power when "the people" approached honestly won't give it to them.