High Energy Populist Personalities

[Jazman]

We had a few in our church circles in the 1950s; the young people used to say, “The world has Elvis Presley but we have Elmer Sommers Sr. and [some name I forget]”. They have very fiery tent revival sermons and attracted many followers.

Our church took a turn away from this kind of personality and preaching after the 1950s and hasn’t really returned to it since, as it didn’t seem to produce good quality fruit in the long term.

Wise move imo...
Since I'm around / closely adjacent to a few people (church) who are attracted to / gravitate towards hyper charismatic religiosity, and from observing revivalism now for a number of decades... It seems to me that part of this populist thing always seems to also entail big public gatherings with hoopla of some sort or another... most often led by a figure on a stage...
And it also seems that christians attracted to this kind of thing must believe that the best way to be discipled or to encounter God or hear from Him or grow more in faith or more like Jesus is to through a big public group (therapy?) session that also must be intense / dramatic in some way. And for a few highly emotive, social (extrovert?) types maybe this works well for them. But for the rest of us? Hmmm. These kinds of things, especially if we're being pressured to do something, may be traumatic if not abusive.

But other than maybe Acts 2 (but only if you read it as prescriptive), there doesn't seem to be much Biblical support for this kind of "discipleship" method. (I'm pretty convinced that most charismatics, from mild to hyper/faith healer/prosperity types believe it's the ONLY method of ministry/discipleship...)

[PetrChelcicky]

If Huey Long was a populist, why not F.D.Roosevelt? Long was the most important competitor to Roosevelt (until they killed him). So the two may share personal character treats.
But of course "populist" was invented as an invectice against the political losers.

[barnhart]

One difference between Long and FDR would be their relationship with existing parties. FDR had some populist tendencies but he genuinely worked with the party structure rather than against it.

[Ken]

One difference between Long and FDR would be their relationship with existing parties. FDR had some populist tendencies but he genuinely worked with the party structure rather than against it.

I think that is the difference. I think of populists in a political sense as those who build their power and appeal from outside the traditional political structure. Reagan, Clinton, and Obama were all very popular in their time, but were all very traditional politicians, working their way up through the political system from Governorships and Senate seats to the White House. Trump is somewhat different as he came from completely outside and rode a wave of popular appeal to the White House.