Friends,
Demonstrations against Trump are getting larger and louder. Fabulous. This is absolutely essential.
But at some point we’ll need to demonstrate not just against Trump but also for the America we want.
Trump’s regressive populism — cruel, tyrannical, bigoted, authoritarian — must be met by a bold progressive populism that strengthens democracy and shares the wealth.
We can’t simply return to the path we were on before Trump. Even then, big money was taking over our democracy and siphoning off most of the economy’s gains.
Two of America’s most respected political scientists — Professors Martin Gilens of Princeton and Benjamin Page of Northwestern University — analyzed 1,799 policy issues decided between 1981 and 2002. They found that “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”
Instead, lawmakers responded to the demands of wealthy individuals (typically corporate executives and Wall Street moguls) and big corporations — those with the most lobbying prowess and deepest pockets to bankroll campaigns. And “when a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites or with organized interests, they generally lose.”
Notably, Gilens and Page’s research data was gathered before the Supreme Court opened the floodgates to big money in Citizens United. After that, the voices of typical Americans were entirely drowned.
In the election cycle of 2016, which first delivered the White House to Trump, the richest one hundredth of one percent of Americans accounted for a record-breaking 40 percent of all campaign donations. (By contrast, in 1980, the top 0.01 percent accounted for only 15 percent of all contributions.)
The direction we were heading was unsustainable. Even before Trump’s first regime, trust in every major institution of society was plummeting — including Congress, the courts, corporations, Wall Street, universities, the legal establishment, and the media.
The entire system seemed rigged for the benefit of the establishment — and in many ways, it was.
The typical family’s inflation-adjusted income had barely risen for decades. Most of the economy’s gains had gone to the top.
Wall Street got bailed out when its gambling addiction caused it enormous losses, but homeowners who were underwater did not. Nor did people who lost their jobs and savings. Not a single top Wall Street executive went to jail.
A populist — antiestablishment — revolution was inevitable. But it didn’t have to be a tyrannical one. It didn’t have to be regressive populism.
Instead of putting the blame where it belonged — on big corporations, Wall Street, and the billionaire class — Trump has blamed immigrants, the “deep state,” socialists, “coastal elites,” transgender people, “DEI,” and “woke.”
How has Trump gotten away with this while giving the super-rich large tax benefits and regulatory relief and surrounding himself (especially in his second term) with a record number of billionaires, including the richest person in the world?
Largely because Democrats — with the notable exceptions of Bernie Sanders (who isn’t even a Democrat), AOC, and a handful of others — could not, and still cannot, bring themselves to enunciate a progressive version of populism that puts the blame squarely where it belongs.
Too many have been eating from the same campaign buffet as the Republicans and dare not criticize the hands that feed them.
This has left Trump’s regressive populism the only version of antiestablishment politics available to Americans. It’s a tragedy. Antiestablishment fury remains at the heart of our politics, and for good reason.
What would progressive populism entail?
Strengthening democracy by busting up big corporations. Stopping Wall Street’s gambling (e.g., replicating the Glass-Steagall Act). Getting big money out of politics, even if this requires amending the Constitution. Requiring big corporations to share their profits with their average workers. Strengthening unions. And raising taxes on the super-wealthy to finance a universal basic income, Medicare for all, and paid family leave.
Hopefully, demonstrations against Trump’s regressive, tyrannical populism will continue to grow.
But we must also be demonstrating for a better future beyond Trump — one that strengthens democracy and works on behalf of all Americans rather than a privileged few.
Robert Bernard Reich is an American professor, author, lawyer, and political commentator. He worked in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and served as Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997 in the cabinet of President Bill Clinton. He was also a member of President Barack Obama's economic transition advisory board. Reich has been the Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley since January 2006. He was formerly a lecturer at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a professor of social and economic policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management of Brandeis University.
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