Anger Could Make Us Stronger

摘要

The notion of a populist outburst raises an archaic vision of soot-covered industrial workers wav-ing placards. Yet populism is far from dead, and repre-sents a force that could shape our political future inunpredictable ways.People have reasons to be mad, from declining real incomes to mythic levels of greed and excess among the financial elite. Confidence in political and economic institutions remains at low levels, as does belief in the future.The critical issue facing the new administration is finding useful ways to channel this disenchantment. We know popular anger can also be channeled in unproductive ways. It can serve to further a narrow political agenda-for example, Karl Rove's cynical exploitation of the "culture wars"-or stir up a witch hunt against both real and perceived "threats," as occurred during the McCarthy era. If this were Russia, there would be show trials and executions. We do not and should not do that-but we can still use populist anger to reshape our nation and make it stronger.