Populism is about building a mass movement. And mass movements win. Mass movements deliver results. Mass movements are how progressive change happens in our society. It doesn't happen by letting the president of Harvard University dictate your economic policy - we've now tried that experiment and can attest that is the case. Change comes through mass movements of ordinary people.
Writer Thomas Frank explores populism - as an American left-wing tradition, a perpetual target of the political elite and the media class, and the only way left to accomplish progressive change for the people in a society ruled by capital for capital.
Thomas is author of the new book The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism from Metropolitan Books.