President Donald Trump is not
sui generis. Populist impulses and political actors have been pulsating in the American soul since the nation’s founding.
Timothy J. Lombardo’s excellent book,
Blue-Collar Conservatism: Frank Rizzo’s Philadelphia and Populist Politics (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) recounts one such example. Starting in the mid-1960s, Rizzo dominated Philadelphia’s political landscape for a generation. His brand of bare-knuckled “law and order” conservatism augured the coming Reagan revolution. Lombardo recounts the roots Rizzo’s rise and blue-collar conservatism that he embodied that remains a powerful political force.
Jeff Bloodworth is an associate professor of history at Gannon University.