Fighting Oligarchy

How Positive Populism Can Reclaim America

Charles Derber

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040615669
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Political History & Theory
• Index: Social Sciences

This book offers a new analysis of why Trump's Far Right populism helped him win the Presidency twice, and how it enshrined a corporate establishment that he claimed to run against. Charles Derber presents a counter history of positive left populism and argues that populist parties gain power in eras of hard times for working people while mainstream parties lose voter support as they defend the existing system.

Fighting Oligarchy: How Positive Populism Can Reclaim America makes the unorthodox case that only a left-leaning positive populist movement is likely to defeat Trump and his corporate regime. Derber highlights the core principles of resistance to build a new and sustainable US democracy.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Endorsements Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction: The Two Faces of Populism: Tyranny and Democracy
• 1 Hard Times: When Populism Wins
• 2 Far-Right Populism: The Appeal of the Dark Side
• 3 Trump's Trick: Populism with Billionaires
• 4 Left-Leaning Populism: Pitchforks against Oligarchy
• 5 Liberalism without Class: How the Democratic Party Handed America to Trump
• 6 Lessons from Europe and the Global South: From Fascism to Social Democracy
• 7 Young People as Populists: Education, Universities, and Democracy
• 8 Resist and Overcome: Positive Populism against Autocracy and Regime Change at Home
• Afterword: The Ten Commandments of Positive Populism
• Index