The Politics of Patent Medicine

Populists thrive when the establishment has let people down. The doctors of the 19th century talked confidently, but looked down on their clients and offered their own ineffective remedies. Are political centrists so different today? Populists, like patent medicine cellars, rely on marketing, huge adverts, bold claims, attention-grabbing stunts. Modern populists try to generate a circus all of their own. If people like what's on offer, whether it's tough talk about immigration or a vegetable compound, isn't that all the proof of effectiveness that anyone would need?