"Plutocrat," a word drived from two words meaning power and money. If a former Senator and former first lady of Arkansas and of the United States, whose family is worth well over 100 million dollars is not a US plutocrat, who the hell in the US is?
"Populism" is about ordinary people, esp. as opposed to the so-called "elites."
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/populist
Yet, I don't think this author really meant to convey to us that Hillary is not about representing ordinary people.
This author seems to think that the middle class is something separate from "ordinary people." Yet, while the author, like most politicians, goes on about the middle class, the author never defines it.
As I have posted several times before, this is no accident, IMO. Most people just assume that they are middle class, even if they are near the poverty line or near the top 10%. So, a lot of votes in that group. Hence politicos love to blabber about the middle class without defining it
As for 20th century progressivism, at least half of the people who hear that term will hear something akin to "liberal." But, 19th century progressives were the left wing of the Republican Party. Obama has called himself both a New Democrat and a progressive--and has compared himself to Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican President who later ran on the Progressive ticket. And, the 20th century founder and current head of the Progressive Policy Instititute, Will Marshall, was a DLC founder who signed the 2003 PNAC letter urging Bush to invade Iraq, an invasion Hillary urged her fellow Senators to vote for. So, who the hell knows what this author means by "20th century progressivism?"
Some DUers think I make too much of formal definitions of words. And even get angry about it, for some reason. (Really? I don't write the dictionaries, folks.) "I don't apologize." (Brando, The Godfather.)
There is no communication at all if each of us uses a word to mean whatever each of us kinda sorta thinks/assumes the word means.
Too often, we have only a "truthy" idea of what words important to our lives and families and to our country mean: democracy, plutocracy, middle class, neoliberal, US liberal, etc. We need to look up definitions more. Then, if we want to get creative about a word after that, fine. But, at least start with a dictionary or a wiki or encyclopedia article.
Bottom line: I have no clue what this author is going on about and I have no clue if the author knows, either.
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