'It's Not an End to Itself': Daniel Horowitz Makes a Point

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“Populism is a rhetorical tool and a double-edged sword,” Daniel Horowitz tweets. “It’s not an end to itself. Beware of landing in a place where you are incurring all the progressive aspects of populism but not the right-leaning ones.”

Populism is a rhetorical tool and a double-edge sword. It’s not an end to itself. Beware of landing in a place where you are incurring all the progressive aspects of populism but not the right-leaning ones.

— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) November 24, 2024

One thought of how to describe populism is sticking a political finger in the political wind and going where it is blowing. A populist is a standard-bearer of the populous, presumably catering to the highest and most concentrated constituent demands.

While some politicians may find populist tendencies to be convenient, populist governance can be dangerous, reckless, and irresponsible. The holdings of a minority can be politically gored to impotence by an out-of-control populist movement. There must be an adherence to lawful standards by elected officeholders, for they are guardrails against tyranny. There must be defined policy positioning by candidates for office, for the measuring of elected officials against their pledges is a way to determine office integrity and competence for possible further officeholding. If a politician is not checked by legal standards and makes no definable policy declarations, that leaves few speedbumps or stop signs between him or her and nearly unlimited power. Governing by whatever polls well on Friday afternoon, or more dangerously, by whatever charms the whim of the one in power, replaces representative republic with unaccountable autocracy. Of such a danger to freedom, there is no mitigation.