The Rise Of Populism

The rise of populism combined with the power of the media both main stream and social have ensured that the parties have lost control of the national debate as well as the other congressional candidates and issues. In past years it has seemed like candidates are selected by the parties through a “rigged system”, meaning that the Democratic and Republican parties already have in mind those candidates who they want to endorse. This year the parties have lost control of the election process. This is due to populist candidates coming from outside the traditional party system, which is “a style of politics and rhetoric that seeks to arouse a majority or at least what their leader believes is a majority” (Crick, 77).
The media has been focusing …show more content…
Typically the parties put out a few ads about the presidential candidates that they want to endorse. However with this election there are so many political ads on the air, some of these ads are just the candidates going against or bashing each other. This is because the outsiders are putting ads on TV that are not endorsed by the parties. The parties cannot control the ads that are put out by party outsiders because the funding is on an individual basis. This is not what the parties want because when the individuals put out ads against the candidates they do not think of the outcomes, like how the opposing party will respond. Because the presidential candidates are taking up so much of the air time, it is expensive. Since the air time is so expensive only the elites can afford to run ads. This means that politicians that are running for state level positions cannot afford to have any air time. This is why it appears that all the attention is on the presidential …show more content…
Typically at debates the parties have told the candidates what type of issues they want to discuss and they do not stray far from the topics that they are assigned to discuss. But with populism in the picture the party has no control because the candidates do not need to rely on the party. The 2016 election is about the people seeking effective representation than it is about the mob who hates. According to crick, Hannah Arendt in Origins of Totalitarianism distinguished between the people and the mob. The people seek for effective representation politically, whereas the mob hates society from which it has been excluded. Typically at debates the parties have told the candidates what type of issues they want to discuss and they do not stray far from the topics that they are assigned to discuss. But with this election as the people who Crick refers to as the people have finally found a leader. Because of this they really are invested in listening and following the debates because the issues relate to what they believe in. for example Donald Trump’s supporters are very interested in bring jobs back to America. Therefore when he makes a speech people are very in tune to what he has to