(HorizonPost.com) – Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi got schooled in populism last month by the unlikeliest of opponents, former Mumford and Sons musician Winston Marshall.
Pelosi appeared with Marshall in a debate at the Oxford Union in the UK where she argued against the rising spread of populism, asserting that the populist movement in the US was a threat to democracy.
The former speaker claimed that some Americans “who are looking for some answers” have been unwilling to accept the Democrat Party’s answers on some issues because of their positions on “guns,” “gays,” and “God.”
Challenging Pelosi in the Oxford debate was Winston Marshall, now the host of the podcast “Marshall Matters” who spoke out against the Oxford Union’s motion declaring that populism is a threat to democracy.
Marshall said the word “populist” has been redefined by the “elites” to mean “racist.” He said the elites have changed the narrative to make it appear that only hillbilly bigots and rednecks support populism as a way “to show their contempt for ordinary people.”
According to Marshall, the change in meaning was a recent one. He noted that in 2016 then-President Obama said he “took umbrage” with the idea that Donald Trump was a populist. Marshall explained that Obama was suggesting that he, along with Bernie Sanders, was a true populist. However, in recent years, Marshall added, Obama has used the word as a pejorative or slur, using it “interchangeably” with words like “authoritarian” or “strong man.”
Marshall argued that rather than being a threat to democracy, “populism is democracy.” He added that the purpose of universal suffrage is to ensure that the elites are kept in check.
Marshall said it surprised him that Nancy Pelosi would argue in favor of the Oxford Union motion since the left was supposed to be anti-establishment and anti-elite. He suggested that one possible reason Pelosi has taken that side of the debate was that if she argued against it, she might argue herself “out of a job.”
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