A new kind of economic populism is surging in both parties this year as voters search for a political party that can solve growing concerns about financial stability.
Transcript
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Right-wing populism in the U.S. once meant being against the socially liberal elites on the East Coast and in California. On the left, populism used to mean being against billionaires and big corporations. But in this midterm election, those definitions are getting scrambled and a new kind of economic populism may be converging from the left and the right. NPR’s senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson has this report.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: You’d be forgiven if you thought the following ads were run by Democrats.
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FRENCH HILL: Keep Wall Street from buying up our neighborhoods.
MIKE ROGERS: The pharmaceutical companies are ripping American families off.
JOE MITCHELL: Because politicians shouldn’t get rich while Iowa families struggle to afford groceries, housing and childcare.
LIASSON: They sound like they were written by Bernie Sanders’ media consultant, but French Hill, Mike Rogers and Joe Mitchell are all Republicans. Historians of populism, like Georgetown professor Michael Kazin, say Americans are more open to economic populism when they’re feeling squeezed or worse.
MICHAEL KAZIN: Economic populism emerges when ordinary people believe that they’re getting screwed, betrayed by economic elites.
LIASSON: This year’s populism is bipartisan. It’s why you see Steve Bannon and Bernie Sanders appear back-to-back at the same anti-AI conference, and it’s reflected in poll after poll. Democratic pollster Celinda Lake surveyed 500 working-class Americans without college degrees and with incomes under $150,000. The poll was commissioned by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which is affiliated with the German Social Democratic Party.
CELINDA LAKE: What really surprises us is the number of people – about 40% – who are cynical about the American dream don’t think it’s possible anymore and are sarcastic about it, that it’s gone. It’s a lie. It’s a false promise.
LIASSON: A false promise that if you worked hard and got an education, you could do as well or better than your parents. What also surprised Lake was that big majorities, 70%, blame extreme wealth inequality for ending the American dream. And the same big majorities, 69%, say the government has an obligation to address it. NPR’s swing voter focus groups found the same thing. All our voters backed Biden in 2020, and then they all voted for Trump in 2024. They agreed to be part of the focus group on the condition that they would be identified by first name only. So here’s Jennifer (ph), Tony (ph) and Jeff (ph).
JENNIFER: It seems like the most wealth in this country is held by such a small percentage of people. And then we have people, you know, really struggling, and I think it’s getting harder and harder to reach that American dream and get where you need to be.
TONY: I have nothing against billionaires or people who are making money. But I think that a lot of our problems, economic problems, are stemming from those who can’t get enough who don’t want to pay taxes.
JEFF: There’s a handful of people, maybe 10 people, that hold 50% of the wealth in the country. And if you do have that much money, you should be taxed heavily, and that should trickle down to everyday citizens.
LIASSON: Our focus groups reflect what national polls have shown. A recent Wall Street Journal survey showed majority support for a lot of economic populist proposals previously identified with Democrats, including capping the cost of prescription drugs, childcare and credit card interest, higher taxes on the rich and Medicare for All. The big political question is which party can take advantage of this new openness to government action to address the cost of living, especially at a time, says Michael Kazin, when people are afraid.
KAZIN: It’s not just discontent about the president. I think the fear of the future. That’s part of the fear about AI. It’s part of the fear about China becoming the dominant economic power. So whichever party is able to say, look, we have an idea of how the government can help you have a better life and help your children have a better life. I think that party has a chance of becoming the dominant party.
LIASSON: Celinda Lake thinks this is an opportunity for Democrats, since they’re still seen as the party that protects working people, not corporations. But republicans see opportunities, too. Oren Cass is the chief economist at American Compass.
OREN CASS: American Compass is a think tank founded to work on the direction of the right of center after the Trump presidency.
LIASSON: Cass points to Republicans like Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who all talk about a new kind of economics. They call it covenant economics or common good capitalism.
CASS: What you’ve had really going on more than a decade now is on the right of center, a shift away from the kind of libertarian fundamentalism that people have come to think of as conservative. You know, smaller government is always better.
LIASSON: Donald Trump made it safe for Republicans to reconsider conservative economic policy, replacing his party’s orthodoxy on free trade and immigration with tariffs and deportations. He promised to protect Social Security and Medicare. His government has intervened directly in the economy, taking an ownership stake in more than 30 private companies. Although at the same time, Trump also cut taxes for the wealthy, enriched himself and his family and shrunk the social safety net.
Celinda Lake and Oren Cass each think their party has the best chance to find the new sweet spot in American politics. More liberal on economics than Republicans are now, more conservative on social issues than Democrats. And the political prize could be a very big one. Instead of one super close election after another that produces only gridlock, the party that figures out the new economic populism could create a functioning, durable majority. In the meantime, says Celinda Lake, populism will keep shaking up American politics.
LAKE: You’re going to see populist candidates emerge on the left and the right, and you’re going to also see more volatility. And you’re going to see more outsiders be elected because of the power of this message and the emotion behind it.
LIASSON: Mara Liasson, NPR News.
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