You might not be disagreeing. tytso appears to be using populist in the European sense of "demagogue" or "pandering to the uninformed masses," not the neutral or positive sense of "for the people" that it has in American English.
Oh, that is an interesting distinction. In the American newsmedia, "Populist" is definitely used to describe wealth-redistribution / pro-nationalization of resources, a la Evo Morales.
See: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4133970