As a flurry of questions continues to swirl in the wake of Trump’s second victory, one topic that has been the subject of much debate, once again, is populism. Google searches for the term roughly quadrupled in the days following the election.
Ever since Trump’s first victory in 2016, commentators, politicians, and activists of all stripes have been fiercely debating the p-word. But now it’s reached fever pitch, especially as it relates to the Democratic Party itself. How populist was the Kamala Harris 2024 campaign, and how populist should it have been? And more broadly, how populist has the Democratic Party as a whole been, and how populist should it even be, if at all?
Having conducted four years of research on just these questions, the Center for Working-Class Politics (CWCP) is uniquely positioned to weigh in. Here’s what the data can tell us about how we got here, and where we ought to go next.
What is economic populism? It is rhetoric consisting of two elements. First, it is a vocal recognition of the working class, its contributions to the economy, and its entitlement to a comfortable standard of living. On the flip side, an economic populist also points out villains — namely, the economic elites that prevent workers from attaining what they deserve.
To be clear, this is not an arbitrary set of criteria, but contains real substance. Raising up the working class is important but is ultimately just talk: We live in a world where politicians of all persuasions name-check the working class at every turn. (Perhaps twenty years ago this…
Auteur: Isaac Rabbani
