Can the Democrats Reclaim Economic Populism? - The American Prospect

[justaprogressive]

Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, usually more of a liberal than a radical, declared last weekend that the Democratic Party is “a pretty broken brand right now,” and suggested that the only cure was full-throated economic populism as the “tentpole.” Speaking in an interview with The New Yorker’s David Remnick, Murphy added that the whole party needed to sound more like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

A majority of voters agree that the Democrats are a broken brand. Recent polling shows that just 27 percent of voters polled have a favorable view of Democrats, a record low. Murphy, like Warren, Sanders, and AOC, contends that economic populism is the one theme that can both shame Trump and his billionaire allies and also bridge over the party’s other internal differences. He is worth quoting at length on this point:

We’re a pretty judgmental party, filled with a dozen litmus tests. We don’t let you in unless you agree with us on everything—from gender rights to reproductive rights to gun control to climate. We’ve got to be a party that invites people in as long as they agree with us on the basic economic message, and build our party with a little bit more acceptance of people who have diverging views on social and cultural issues.

This is a point that the Prospect has been making literally for decades. Don’t expect a hearing on tolerance issues, especially from socially conservative white men, unless you begin by being credible on their pocketbook issues. Getting in bed with billionaires while demanding loyalty tests on the cultural issues is the worst of all worlds.

https://prospect.org/politics/2025-04-01-can-democrats-reclaim-economic-populism/

[Conjuay]

1. We're a broken brand?

What the hell do you call the clown crew that is running the country?

[ObscurePiton]

6. Perhaps you haven't been keeping up on current events...

... but we lost to a country-ruining clown crew, and it wasn't even close.

So yeah, there's something wrong with our fucking brand, bruh.

[Mysterian]

7. 1.5 percent is close, Sparky.

49.8 to 48.3

Maybe you haven't been keeping up on your math.

[ObscurePiton]

10. Just barely losing to an overt fucking fascist isn't the flex you think it is.

But that's neither here nor there, because we didn't just just-barely-lose one election in 2024. We just-barely-lost a whole fucking lot of them. Which, in the aggregate, I would argue constitutes a fucking clobbering.

Now, can we please stop with this ego shit, do some critical self-reflection, and get locked in already?

[Mysterian]

11. Merely correcting your blatant misstatement

Seems it hurt your wittle feefees.

[Keepthesoulalive]

2. We are the party of economic populism

You just want to forget all of those pesky others and embrace the Maga.

[Lovie777]

3. Never lost it..............

again and again, GQP fucks up the economy, Democrats come in and corrects it.................

rinse and repeat, over and over again.

Ya think USA citizens understand that, but no, and again history repeats.

[OrlandoDem2]

4. It's not populism to raise taxes via tariffs on the common person!

[valleyrogue]

5. Democrats have always talked about it.

They aren't catering to white male dudes who think they are entitled to everything. We have NO business catering to them.

Naturally, a pair of men wrote the article.

Racist, sexist white males don't care about "populism." They LOVE demagoguery.

[alarimer]

8. Being in bed with other billionaires and crypto bros is not populist

So, yes, Democrats need to ditch all of them and the corporate lobbyists who fund their campaigns. They cannot truly be for the people without that.

And crypto needs to die yesterday.

It is corporate fealty over working people that needs to die.

[biocube]

9. Missouri is state Trump won by 18 points

The minimum wage hike and mandatory sick leave passed by 8 points in 2024.

Not only can Dems do it, if they had done it in 2016 there never would've been a first Trump term. Democrats are still stuck in the politics of 2004 and are afraid of being called "socialist". Meanwhile Trump and Vance talk about "over-throwing the woke oligarchy" or whatever.