The Point of Democracy is Populism
Democracy is dependent upon populism. The more of the population who casts a vote in one direction or the other determines who wins power. It's not a complicated idea. Part of the bargain requires that win your side loses, you accept the loss. We're not quite so good at that part lately.
By morning, he had decided he needed somewhere nobody cared about theater, someplace where the name Chekhov was more likely to be mistaken for a rifle than a playwright.