The Art of Populism in US Politics

Book excerpt: The Art of Populism in US Politics investigates connections between populist politics and artistic expressions in the United States in the Trump era. Beginning with comparisons between frontier populism and millennial-era populism, the author examines how citizens imitate and improvise on political sentiments, global histories, images, and discourses to create their own senses of community, identity, belonging, and exclusion. Political art, narratives, opinions, polemics, and abstract artistic expressions are shared instantly, creating new political and affective communities that challenge the power and stability of previous institutions and ideologies. These modes of digital sharing create communities of practice, groups who come together through shared creation and consumption, whether it be memes and vlogs, homemade signs and T-shirts, music videos, or political dialogues. The book analyzes the physical and digital art practices that support the growth and proliferation of populist politics and the fractious communities in America that support it. With modular chapters providing in-depth case studies within the larger context of populism, this book provides alternate methodologies for working through key issues of politics, production, distribution, globalization, and political economy, particularly because of the ways in which different forms of media—art, video, text, music—are brought into productive dialogue with each other. This book is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students of political science, cultural studies, music studies, American studies, and art and media studies.