Democrat

is (since the 1930s) commonly engaged in economic populism by accusing republicans of enacting tax-and spending policies that favored the wealthiest Americans.

The near-total focus on the economy in the last seven weeks of the campaign made it more difficult for Republicans to gain traction with a campaign of cultural populism that they had employed successfully against Democrats in many prior presidential elections. Since the 1930s, Democrats have engaged in economic populism by accusing Republicans of enacting tax-and spending policies that favored the wealthiest Americans. Beginning in the 1960s Republicans have practiced cultural populism as they argued that Democrats are opponents of mainstream moral values, are not genuinely patriotic, are allied with the Hollywood elites, and hold average Americans in contempt. In the 2008 Democratic primaries, Barack Obama was accused of elitism by the Clinton campaign after he was recorded at a fund-raiser in San Francisco (a center of cultural elitism according to conservatives) as saying that working-class whites in industrial areas and rural parts of the country cling to their guns and religion out of bitterness at their economic plight.

is (since the 1960s) commonly branded by republicans under a kind of cultural populism, as an opponent to mainstream moral values, not genuinely patriotic, allied with the hollywood elites, and one who holds average Americans in contempt.

K. McMahonThinkers

K. McMahon