The big problem with “no tax on tips” 

The Democratic Party’s problems have a two-word solution: “economic populism.”

Or so suggests much recent commentary (including, to an extent, my own). Yet, the merits of “populist” economic policies depend a lot on how that term is defined.

“Populism” is best understood as a rhetorical mode that portrays political life as a conflict between the many and the few — the righteous people and the extractive elite. This narrative frame has been a staple of Democratic politics since the days of FDR (if not Andrew Jackson) — and for good reason. Many economic issues genuinely pit the interests of the rich against those of ordinary people. And the Republican Party often takes the minority’s side of those fights.

Politically, Democrats have an interest in increasing the salience of the GOP’s plu