Waitstaff at Barbacana, a Houston restaurant, on August 21, 2025. | Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images 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 p...

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