The General Populist

Throughout the 1880s and 1890s America was going through many changes and many of these were fought by the Populists. Silver being demonetized was another major problem for the Populists and they fought it along with asking for a national government regulated currency as well. The Populist Party also fought against the harsh taxes that were in place at the time in the United States. The biggest concern for many of the Populists was how to handle crop failures and how prices were to be controlled. All in all, the Populist movement was centered on helping out the farmers and improving the ever changing economy.

After the civil war, especially during the late 1800s, the US industrial economy has been thriving and booming which reflected on the numerous improvements that occurred in transportation through new railroad, in new markets for new invented goods and in the increased farm yield. However, most of this wealth has been captured by the capitalists, they looked down on the working poor class and expected them to submit to them. Also, they had control over the government seeking to maintain a system of monopoly to allow them to grow richer from others. Thus, they were controlling both political and economic conditions of the country.

Populists believed that the GOVERNMENT should own railroads and telegraph lines, instead of private businesses. They also wanted a free silver currency, instead of the gold based currency that was used then. They wanted the unlimited production of silver coins so that farmers would have more money to pay the bills. The Populist Party's main goal was to appeal to the common people.

7. The Populist Party was created in 1892 in a convention in Omaha by white farmers. This party's main goals was to have representations and equality, but a specific goal was to have silver coinage thus encouraging the mass printing of paper money and circulating currency, this would benefit all Americans because the poor would now have some money and the wealthy who had gold had more money because gold is more valuable. The second goal of the populist party was to settle a graduated income tax which was first placed on the rich. This income tax would go to lower the McKinley tariff which taxed farmers for their equipment, another benefit was that it would act as a balance between the rich and poor where they world both pay the same rate of tax.

After the Grant Administration Scandal and the intimidation of Political Machines like Tammany Hall, Americans in the 1890s were fed up with the traditional Republican and Democratic parties. The people were ready for change, and from this dissatisfaction, the Populist Party was born. The Populist Party, also call the “People’s Party,” sought to transform the federal government in favor of public interest. The Populist Party helped to bring about change that Americans wanted, and the efforts of this party are still noticeable in today’s government.

The Populist party was a third party of the 1890s formed to fight for the rights of working people. This party was largely made up of farmers. There were several reasons why this party was formed. By the beginning of the 1880s, millions of farmers had found themselves trapped under the mountains of debt that they couldn’t get out of. There were various causes of why this happened with these farmers.

The Populist Program called for public ownership of railroads and telegrams, the party believed that the government should own and run the railroads in the best interest of the people because if they did not it was either “the people own the railroads or the railroads own the people.” They also called for protection from land monopolies, They believed that land, should not be monopolized for speculative purposes, and alien ownership of land should be prohibited. They state that all lands owned by aliens should be reclaimed by the government and held for actual settlers only. Also, they want income tax on the rich, which would lower the level of the McKinley tariff, while making the wealthy pay more income tax than the poor, and would decrease

The Populist Party wanted to improve in banking. The economic and political changes the party advocated for better roads and to trade their agricultural products, and to also increasing economic insecurity. The Populist Party support less debt and wanted to give the lenders a hard time because they put them in debt. The Populist Party also wanted to promote income tax and to rebuild election. Besides economic issues which led to whites and blacks alike in endless

The farmers during this time are going to have struggles and they sought to limit the effects of mechanized farming or machine farming which displaced a lot of famers and dependence on railroads so they form organizations such as The Grange Movement an association for the American farmers, they sought to regulate railroads and grain warehouses where their goods would be stored. Concerning one of the main grievances the agriculturists had were about the railroads and other rich offices. During this time we have the emergence of the populist party and they wanted to increase government control of railroads, telegraphs and much more. These organizations were possessed by well known names, for example, Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, James

While the Populists failed to win national office or displace either or both of the major parties, they significantly affected the American political and administrative systems. A large number of the Populist requests, which came across as radical and compelling in the 1890s, shortly afterwards. By 1920 we elected U. S. senators directly, a federal income tax was in operation, railroad regullations significantly, protective tariffs had been lowered, short-term credit had been made available in rural areas, etc. While the Populists were unable to enact their platform during their existence, they prepared the way for these adjustments to an advanced, more complicated American society.

From 1880 to 1925, opinions on whether or not immigrants should be allowed in the United States of America shifted majorly. As time progressed, the American people became disillusioned with the idea of immigrants in America. Different specific time periods showed the majority opinion, and how it changed United States citizens’ reactions to immigrants from a smile of acceptance to a scowl of distrust.

Politics in The United States has been reinforced with the usage of Mass Media since the 1780s. Mass media became one of the most reliable news sources in the world because it gives people the ability to communicate each other and be knowledgeable of the latest news worldwide. Indeed, mass media has changed how the world communicate through written, visual and audible tools that are known as, newspapers, television, radio and social media. Nowadays, the Internet has become one of the most important mass media influence because of the impact it has on persuading and transmitting fast information to people around the world. Younger people not only are dependent of the internet but, politicians, businesses, adults and kids are influenced by this

Innis favours the internet’s orality due to the fact that individuals with very similar interests are now presented with the opportunity to create and express their beliefs, and establish new relationships and networks that disseminate the electronic mass media and its one- directedness. (Innis, 2008). The use of these social media sites such as Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter have further led to the re- injection of their personal experiences, feelings, their individual worldviews, and their creative thoughts (Innis, 2008) into what was formally ‘mechanized’. Though the internet promotes personal relationships, it has provided an avenue for people to assume false identities on social networks such as

Contemporary Western populism stands in a bilateral relation to digital communication: as a necessary underside of democracy, it amplifies and, at the same time, is amplified by the imbalances between the micropolitical logic of presentation and the macropolitical logic of representation, which are being constantly produced and reproduced within the digital networks. Populism points to the inevitability of macropolitics, but the current modes of governance of the digital networks tend to reinforce the micropolitical forms of practice. As this project maintains, these imbalances belong to a specific affective regime on which populism can effectively feed and where, from a theoretical point of view, the political and technological paradigms collide.

The Internet not only provided a platform of new media through website access, but it confirmed ta much faster response between individuals communicating through website interaction. The increased speed of email communications and chat room access provided a more democratic response to current issues in the modern mass media. In this manner, individuals using chat rooms or email could send information much quicker, which outmoded the need for “snail mail” correspondences and the need for reading newspapers. This form of Internet interaction could vastly increase the availability of