Federico Finchelstein Ph.D. ’06, a professor at the Eugene Lang College, will be leading a lecture titled “From Populism to Fascism?” on Wednesday to discuss the difference between fascism and populism and their relation to democratic procedures.
Though populist politics are by no means a novel concept, populist movements and leaders have grown immensely since social networks took off in the late 90s.
Prof. Barry Strauss’74, an author of eight books and a historian of war, leadership and democracy, detailed the historical roots of populism dating back to ancient Athens and the Roman Republic.
Even if Catalonia achieved independence after its referendum, experts on the issue said at a lecture Wednesday that corruption would be difficult to stamp out, making a stable democracy unlikely in the autonomous region.
So genuine was elite surprise in the fall of 2015 that responses were at first preoccupied with the choice of words to describe the Democratic challenger and the ascendant Republican candidate. Sanders was an old fashioned socialist who’d sneaked into the Senate Democratic caucus, somewhat reminiscent of Huey Long or Eugene Debs. Trump was harder to label, but the favorites were (and still are) demagogue, racist, fascist. Party elites and intellectuals were determined to delegitimate both outsiders. Despite their best efforts, Trump is now the Republican candidate for president and though Sanders was crushed by the Democratic machine, his devoted and angry followers are essential to Hillary Clinton’s victory.
On Sunday Jan. 1991, 10 days before the commencement of Desert Storm — which kicked off with our noble nation dropping 88,500 tons worth of bombs onto the nation of Iraq — Whitney Houston stepped out to the microphone in a red, white and blue tracksuit. With a powerful voice trained in nightclubs and gospel choirs and accompanied by the Florida Orchestra, she then performed one of the best and most popular renditions of the Star Spangled Banner in U.S. history. It became a hit, actually charting at 20 on the Billboard Top 100. After Sept.