Populist Fervor Is Sweeping America

• The Republican Party is shifting in a worker-oriented direction and embracing pro-union and anti-big business rhetoric

• Populism in America was first associated with Andrew Jackson and, now, with contemporary figures like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders

• Populists take on the establishment and appeal to working people

The story

The Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee galvanized the public’s imagination about what it means for the party to be populist in America today. Donald Trump has been called populist since entering politics, and his party’s rhetoric now reflects that influence.

The right-left divide that defines politics persists, but the elite-populist divide is shaping U.S. politics more significantly than at any other time in over a century.

Populism is one of the most talked about, poorly understood political terms today. Like the term “socialism,” its meaning is broader now than at its inception, especially because populism is no longer solely leftist.

Essentially, populists challenge “the elite” and claim to speak for “the people.” They contest and reign in powerful forces like corporations and bureaucrats. The term populist is often applied as a pejorative and compared to demagoguery. The instinct now to challenge powerful forces is perhaps stronger than at any time in modern American history, heralding a new chapter in national politics.

The politics

In May, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) debated at the Oxford Union in the U.K. on whether populism threatens democracy. As a leader firmly embedded in the “establishment,” Pelosi says today’s populism is “ethno-nationalist” and plays on fears “of people who have legitimate economic concerns.”

Pelosi argued that Trump — heralded as the right’s populist champion — gave billionaire donors a “2 trillion dollar tax cut.” Her opponent pushed back, asserting that “populism is democracy” in its purest form.

Populist leader, former Trump advisor, and War Room host Steve Bannon recently shared his perspective on populism. He derided civil discourse, describing his show as a “military headquarters for a populist revolt … If you watch this show, you’re a foot soldier. We call it the Army of the Awakened.” He celebrates the declining “nation-state” and the removal of perceived enemies of populism — former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY).

J.D. Vance’s pro-union speech at the RNC spoke to the human need for work that provides meaning and agency. However, a flurry of left-leaning news outlets denounced Vance, the new heir to right-populism. The Nation called Vance a “troll” whose speech was “a guided missile aimed at working-class voters.” The Atlantic called Vance a “fake populist” in bed with Big Tech interests that endorsed Trump only after Vance’s nomination.

In defending Vance against left-wing attacks, journalist Zaid Jilani said, “He is concerned with concentrated power and a lack of opportunity among those at the bottom.” And Jilani evidences Vance’s populist credentials: “The Club for Growth … spent millions against Vance during his Senate primary, and party bigwigs like Rupert Murdoch and Ken Griffin tried to block his selection as Trump’s running mate.”

Populism in America

The Founding Fathers feared demagogic figures like “the People’s President,” Andrew Jackson. During the “Age of the Common Man,” Jackson took on powerful institutions, and property ownership was eliminated as a requisite for voting. The term “populist” was retroactively applied to Jackson after emerging in the late 19th century with the leftist agrarian Populist Party. “Populism” has since broadened to include any anti-establishment figure claiming to speak for the people.

Precursors to today’s populist age included Sarah Palin’s popularity, Elizabeth Warren’s election, and in 2008, the seemingly populist Barack Obama’s election. The new populist age exploded with the 2016 presidential run.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Donald Trump spoke to the pain that followed the 2008 economic crisis, two catastrophic wars, the impact of globalization on the economy, and in Trump’s case, an elite culture that does not reflect that of ordinary people.

A remarkable quality of populism is how it attaches to other political movements and crosses party lines. Senators J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) both worked with Democrats to take on giant corporations and regulate Wall Street.

In Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy, he blamed his impoverished people’s broken culture for their poor health and work ethic. At the RNC, Vance slightly adjusted the knobs on his political philosophy to manifest a more populist tone. He now focuses on giant corporations, the 2008 financial crisis, an out-of-touch political class, and Democrats who “flooded this country with millions of illegal aliens.”

Surprisingly similar to Vance’s are Sanders’s political roots. His “radical activist style descends from the 1930s unionization movement when New York Jewish radicals went to help the mine workers of Appalachia resist company thugs.”

These instincts influenced Biden’s presidency. After Sanders and Warren lost the nomination, they and their ally, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), pushed for massive stimuli, environmental programs, manufacturing protectionism, and tariffs via “centrist” Biden, helping shape his perceived self-image as akin to another American populist hero, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Why it matters

Populist political ideology is accelerating in American life. Voters should understand populism and be capable of differentiating politicians who genuinely want to help the disaffected from the handshakers who speak to people’s pain, only to attain power at a cost of further polarizing society.

Beyond the traditional Republicans versus Democrats divide, American politics is shifting toward a new dynamic: the "Ins" versus the "Outs." This divide pits those who trust the established political order against those who are skeptical and believe it works against the interests of average people.

The battles between figures like Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, or Donald Trump and Nikki Haley, starkly illustrate this divide. The public chooses which vision resonates.