Three strains of Republican populism

Published May 29, 2015 1:06pm ET



When Vermont’s Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders launched his presidential bid with an anti-corporate message, he was tapping into growing populist sentiment among Democrats not quite satisfied with Hillary Clinton. But there is also an emerging populist current among Republicans — only it’s manifesting itself in several different ways.

At the heart of the issue is that Republicans have tended to lose campaigns when the perception is that they’re out of touch with the concerns of working-class Americans and merely exist to help the rich. Examples of this are George H.W. Bush losing his re-election bid during a mild recession (famously looking at his watch during a town-hall-style debate and bungling a question about how the deficit affected him personally) and Mitt Romney coming across as an aloof multimillionaire (who wrote off 47 percent of the country).

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