Tuesday, January 8, 2008

On Huckabee and Economic Populism

If Rod Dreher is right, Huckabee's success so far among Republicans (as well as Ron Paul's I'd add) does not bode well for Wall Street. Each spouts a brand of economic populism not favored by the country club set.

For many years commentators have wondered why some lower class and middle class people voted Republican despite the fact that their economic platform (low taxes, low services, cuts in social programs, anti labor union, anti minimum wage) worked against their interests. The answer was that their commitment to the Republican social agenda outweighed these material concerns.

Turns out that economic interests were not being forgotten, just placed on the back burner.

Dreher points to this Pew Research Center poll from a few years back which spotted this rise in populism. The question now is how Wall Street will respond (a Michael Bloomberg candidacy most likely) and if this faction within the party might bolt to the Democrats if the Republicans do not respond to their needs.