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who listened to way too much right-wing talk radio in the 80s. This is all opinion with no evidence at hand to back it up. That said, these are my sincere, heartfelt beliefs on the matter.
I think populism became associated (ohhhh, we're talkin', say, late 80s/early 90s) with the shortwave/libertarian/coin-hoarding/tricorn-and-knicker branch of the right wing. They tolerated Reagan because he seemed to have good intentions about championing free enterprise and capitalism. But when it looked like Bush I was set to take over, the handwringing begun. You heard lotsa worry and whining about "NEW WORLD ORDER"; much protest about the impending one world government. There were many basement gatherings trading stories/rumors about secret camps being set up out west, black unmarked helicopter sightings, United Nations blue-helmet military forces, etc. Speculation abounded about a cashless America, not to mention the states being consolidated into the regions that would correspond with the branches of the Federal Reserve. And for good measure, all the talks was sprinkled with healthy doses of David Rockefeller, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and the Bilderburgers.
The big split finally came down in the early 90s as the proto-Freepers, stung by Father George going back on "Read my lips," turned to H. Ross Perot (hey, remember him???) who was probably just as much a corporate elitist bigwig as his rival Bush Sr, but he wore his man-of-the-people drag a lot more convincingly. Not only did he sound like a loudmouth mechanic out of Tulsa but he spoke of shaking up the political system (returning its country to the "owners," television voting, etc.). Whereas Herbert Walker's disguise consisted of pork rinds and shouting down Dan Rather, Perot hobnobbed with Bo Gritz and threw some cash at the POW-MIA movement.
So one could argue that all this backbiting allowed Bill & Hillary to slip in. One COULD argue that... whether one chooses to is another story. Once they emerged triumphant, the lightbulb shined for the wound-licking GOP (particularly the mainstream neocon faction). Instead of continuing to try and isolate the disgruntled, they embraced them. They pretended to join them in the fight against the elite establishment, and they skillfully used Bill/Hill to their ends. The Clintons, already pegged as commie libs (a popular epithet was "Clintonistas"), became a ready-made symbol of know-it-all, big-government snobs who were ready to host bonfires fueled by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Their villainy (as fictional as it turned out to be) seemed to reunite and re-ignite the Right.
Meanwhile, the faux populism show continued as talk radio, previously dismissed as a haven for conspiracy nuts, was now seen as a powerful weapon as GOP insiders used it to network the message of "government in the hands of liberals is worse than Nazism, Stalinism, and slavery combined." It was pretty effective as there was no counterbalance to these viewpoints in the era of call screeners. Then, of course, two key events occurred that added grist to the mill; the sieges at Waco and Ruby Ridge. This dual right-wing cause celebre helped establish the Clintons, along with henchperson Janet "Butch" Reno (this is the unfair sobriquet she was saddled with by her detractors) as eternal enemies of the people (some).
So, it was a nice little arrangement for a while, the populists (qua "angry white man") and the more mainstream conservatives; both seemed to channel all their energies against Clinton and the Democrats with such fervor that it even showed results in the so-called Republican Revolution and the now-laughable Contract With America. The historical Repub majority in Congress was viewed as the first step in TAKING BACK AMERICA, though we'd see much later how much of a sick ironic joke that would be.
Then, a huge event took place that worked well in the long run for the neocons: Oklahoma. The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building put the populists out front and center as it was soon learned that fellow militia-types Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh were behind it.
You could say the populist movement was damaged beyond repair with this as the adherents scrambled to and fro to shake off any whiff of allegiance with McVeigh. And it was a big prize for the neocons as, FINALLY, this faction was out of their hair as group to be mollycoddled. They could continue their fascist march towards power with none of these curmudgeons questioning them along the way; aka a unified Republican party. And, of course, the rest is history.
Just my two cents.
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