Unconventional candidates who promise to shake up the system are nothing new in American politics. They regularly attract voters regardless of party affiliation. Consider the people who backed former President Barack Obama but switched over to cast ballots for President Donald Trump.
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Party ideology may matter less than ever when Americans of all political stripes report low confidence in the country’s institutions and mistrust in the so-called “elites,” feeling – not without some justification – that traditional politics regularly fails the country.
If you grew up during the Cold War, you remember the simple duality of Us vs. Them, of free markets vs. a centrally planned economy. At home, you saw the two major parties duel over what role government should play. Today, Trump can rail against “communist” Democrats while also dictating what Americans can and cannot buy and giving the federal government a stake – sometimes a controlling one – in private-sector companies.
Democrats, in turn, can rail against Trump’s policies, notably his arbitrary tariffs on all American trading partners – while also keeping the most significant import taxes in place.
Three years ago, I argued that “What’s going on with our politics?” was best answered by a poll that found the price of goods and services was the best measure of how the economy is doing – not, say, the stock market. That went a long way toward explaining former President Joe Biden’s political struggles.
The New Populism
That survey still matters today, and for the same reasons: It helps explain why Americans are sour on Republicans despite economic growth and the generally strong stock market.
But now we have another poll that gets at the nature of the national political atmosphere – and the bipartisan rejection of what might be called traditional economics. It’s from The Wall Street Journal and it’s fascinating.
Consider: When asked about a government-imposed cap on childcare costs for working families, “an idea backed by liberal Democrats, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren,” 74% support the idea. It’s far from the only concept with bipartisan appeal:
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“We love to think about the world as conservative and liberal,” Democratic pollster John Anzalone, who conducted the survey with Republican Adam Geller, told the Journal. “Maybe we should start thinking about the world as: Populism is a dominant ideology in both the Democratic and Republican parties.”
The New ‘Us vs. Them’
“Every popular item that we tested in the poll has someone standing between you and a fair price,” Geller said. “These aren’t conservative or progressive issues. These are big institutions standing in the way of what voters perceive as fairness.”
It’s not that populism is new. It’s not. The first presidential campaign I covered was Vice President Al Gore’s 2000 run, when his main slogan was “For the people, not the powerful.”
What’s new here is that the GOP, which long had free markets and getting government out of the way in its DNA, is embracing a very different brand of politics in 2026.
This comes with one important caveat: Trump’s signal successes – mass deportations, securing the border, extending the massive tax cuts of his first term and seating conservative judges – match very traditional GOP priorities.
But if Republicans lose badly in November, it may be because the public now sees them as controlling – in Geller’s words – the “big institutions standing in the way of what voters perceive as fairness.”
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It’s not Right vs. Left. It’s Up vs. Down.
