The Grievance Machine: How Welfare Populism Corrupts Conservative Ideals

"Day Took Are Jerbs" the modern populist cries out once again, playing an old and tired tune that should feel dated but, in the hands of certain political impresarios, seems to find new life with every electoral cycle. It's a rather curious act—this welfare populism. With its fiery rhetoric and half-baked economic proposals, it swears up and down that it speaks for the forgotten man. And yet, here we are again, with J.D. Vance and Donald Trump reprising roles once held by George Wallace, only this time the "forgotten man" seems more narrowly defined, and the boogeyman, for the moment, hails from Haiti.

Now, George Wallace, for all his many flaws—and there were many—had a certain unvarnished honesty about his cynicism. He didn't bother with euphemisms like "real Americans." No, he knew his audience and spoke plainly. He didn't hide the ball when he claimed that the federal government was taking from good, hardworking (read: white) citizens and giving to African Americans. His welfare populism was shameless in its appeal to racial resentment. But, like a watch that still ticks despite being covered in shit, it worked. The strategy was crude, but it was effective.

What Wallace lacked in grace, he more than made up for in gall. He openly opposed the very idea that all men, regardless of color, had equal claim to the opportunities afforded by this great country. Instead, he suggested, not so subtly, that those opportunities were being siphoned off by the federal government and handed over to people who had no rightful claim to them. Especially ironic having been the governor of one of a state that at the time was one of the top 3 greatest recipients of federal aid at the expense of other states.