Economic Populism Is Powerful, but Democrats’ Brand Is Toxic

Populist economic policies grounded in the value of work and commonsense notions of fairness may be able to win over constituencies that have abandoned Democrats in recent decades. There’s a problem though: the Democratic brand is trash.

Heading into this shutdown, the Democratic Party has never been more unpopular. Republicans see Democrats as dishonest and corrupt, while their own base sees them as ineffectual and out of touch. Democratic leadership understands that it has a problem; it has picked the current shutdown fight in an attempt to show its grassroots, and the American public more broadly, that it can play political hardball on behalf of working-class Americans who will see their health care costs skyrocket in the coming months. But it’s a fight Democrats have so far avoided, g