Well, it was kinda, sorta, meant to be a metaphor for the great depression. As long as some people are doing well, they will not care if others are not. If everyone is going bankrupt, losing their home, becoming unemployed, not having food or healthcare, etc., there is a greater chance that the now-impoverished electorate will see that it as “us versus the oligarchs” than white folks doing well because invisible boot straps versus “the other”.
I guess I’m saying people don’t truly ….appreciate….populist ideas when they have self identified themselves as “I’m gonna be richer than I already am!” When everyone is on the metaphorical bread line it is harder for them to identify with the elite making all the coin on the repossessed home.
(left column is political control of the House, right is Senate)
Black Tuesday was October 29, 1929. The Democrats picked up 52 seats in 1930, one short of control. Republicans passed the Smoot-Hawley tariffs in 1930, further fucking up the economy and intensifying the Great Depression.
Those rock-rib Republicans became populist Democrats when they were all starving and screwed by tariffs with massive unemployment. It may not work this time, but like Obi-Wan Kenobi, it’s my only hope.