January 9, 2007 · 11:29 a.m.
Populism: As Old as the Whigs?
Mark Thoma linked to my discussion with Lawyer Guy about presidential candidates and class politics. In comments, Bruce Webb points out the long pedigree of the everyman appeal:
The Whigs, seizing on this political misstep, in 1840 presented their candidate William Henry Harrison as a simple frontier Indian fighter, living in a log cabin and drinking cider, in sharp contrast to an aristocratic champagne-sipping Van Buren.Harrison was in fact a scion of the Virginia planter aristocracy. He was born at Berkeley in 1773. He studied classics and history at Hampden-Sydney College, then began the study of medicine in Richmond.
Subscribe