Populism, which wallows in nostalgia for an imaginary past, takes those aspirations and turns them into anxieties. Stoking those anxieties—as populist politicians do—may serve a political purpose, but it does nothing productive to address the problems that do exist. A better response would be to channel the concern many people have for their future into the hard work of crafting legislation that can command enough bipartisan support to become law.
But that would require compromise—something else sadly absent from the current political moment.
This article was provided Bloomberg News.