Drawing upon anti-intellectualism and a sense of urgency, often largely created by the populist themselves, he will argue that the situation (“crisis”) requires “bold action” and “common sense solutions.”

, the elite are defined on the basis of power, i.e., they include most people who hold leading positions within politics, the economy, the media, and the arts. However, this obviously excludes the populists themselves, as well as those within these sectors that are sympathetic to the populists.

This means that the thin-centered nature of populism allows it to be malleable enough to adopt distinctive shapes at different times and places

Democratic Promise: The Populist Moment in America,