Opinion | Democrats Must Embrace a ‘Populist Future’

Basically, populism is a politics that points. And what we have rising in the Republican Party is populism that points the finger down or to the side, targeting trans communities, targeting immigrant communities. And what we are advocating for is a populism that points the finger up. It drives me insane that you have these — even all the people who’ve kind of taken on affordability — you hear these politicians talk about it, and they’re like: We have an affordability crisis, which is why I’m here talking about affordability, because what Democrats need to do is we need to talk about affordability. It’s like: You’re not saying anything. The villains of it are specific and specific places. In some places it’s broken right-to-repair laws. In some places it’s bad landlords. In some places it’s electric monopolies. In other places it’s specific billionaires or corporations. And I think the friction and the fight right now with a lot of the Democratic establishment is there is a belief that we are not in this populist moment or that we can just get through this moment and things will collapse. The reason that frustrates me so intensely is I don’t think there is any electoral indication that that is true. And I think there is going to be a populist future in this country. It is a question of who’s going to control it, and if it is not the Democratic Party, then it is only going to get worse, on the other side. And so we need to start pointing up before there’s no one left around.