Which Party would these people be for today

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Did no one read the link that Turkisblau posted? Wallace endorsed Dole in 1995, a year before the election. He also said that Alabama was turning Republican because Clinton was "so liberal" and that he voted for Bush in '92. I don't see anything to indicate he was still calling himself a Democrat in later years; his son switched parties after '94 and went on to an active, if frequently unsuccessful, career in state Republican politics. Given his populist leanings, Wallace today would almost certainly be a Tea Party backer.

His populist leanings - especially on fiscal issues - are a perfect example of why he WOULDN'T be in the Tea Party.

? The Tea Party are very much right-wing populists.

They oppose like every fiscal policy that could be deemed populist.

Populism is not a f#cking ideology. It is a style. Just about any ideology could be painted in a populist light with the right amount of verbal maneuvering. It is used to frame its holder's ideology's opponents as not reflecting the needs or concerns of the "common man" and such. Reagan and Nixon were both able to use such rhetoric to get voters to vote for conservative candidates.

And those claiming that John F. Kennedy would be a Republican and Nixon a Democrat are obviously unaware of the biographies of the politicians in question. They were electoral chameleons who did what they had to get elected. Kennedy had a relatively conservative record in the Senate, but as soon as the time came for him to try to win a national Democratic primary, he began making sure to appeal to northern voters--blacks, labor, liberals, Jews.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Did no one read the link that Turkisblau posted? Wallace endorsed Dole in 1995, a year before the election. He also said that Alabama was turning Republican because Clinton was "so liberal" and that he voted for Bush in '92. I don't see anything to indicate he was still calling himself a Democrat in later years; his son switched parties after '94 and went on to an active, if frequently unsuccessful, career in state Republican politics. Given his populist leanings, Wallace today would almost certainly be a Tea Party backer.

His populist leanings - especially on fiscal issues - are a perfect example of why he WOULDN'T be in the Tea Party.

? The Tea Party are very much right-wing populists.

They oppose like every fiscal policy that could be deemed populist.

Populism is not a f#cking ideology. It is a style. Just about any ideology could be painted in a populist light with the right amount of verbal maneuvering. It is used to frame its holder's ideology's opponents as not reflecting the needs or concerns of the "common man" and such. Reagan and Nixon were both able to use such rhetoric to get voters to vote for conservative candidates.

And those claiming that John F. Kennedy would be a Republican and Nixon a Democrat are obviously unaware of the biographies of the politicians in question. They were electoral chameleons who did what they had to get elected. Kennedy had a relatively conservative record in the Senate, but as soon as the time came for him to try to win a national Democratic primary, he began making sure to appeal to northern voters--blacks, labor, liberals, Jews.

Even if populism isn't an ideology technically, wouldn't you agree that society has somewhat adopted an unofficial meaning for it that often correlates with financial reform on Wall Street, increased aid to the poor and working class, making the wealthy pay their "fair share" in taxes, etc.?  Maybe that's just me, but I feel that's how the word is often used.  It seems a lot like the word "agnostic" in ways; it's defined differently than a lot of people use it, but it still has cultural (if not entirely accurate) meaning that describes a group of people.

That's a stance that's probably pretty easy to make populist. My language was gruff. I once saw someone on this forum call... I think Nelson Rockefeller "populist" because his policies were vaguely authoritarian.

One would label the "tea party" as "right-wing populist" since the focus was on the idea that increased government would harm the common man. The whole "Joe the Plumber" moment from 2008 is a good example. Lower socioeconomic statuses were portrayed as taking away from the masses, not being part of them, and so on.