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/