Populism vs. Identity Politics: Can Democrats Do Both Amid Economic Collapse?

While culture war issues and crime are blowing up the news cycle, average Americans are facing a reckoning in their lives. The economy is swiftly moving into to two-tiers. One for the rich and one for everyone else. Multiple stories have been coming out in the last week about the plunge of consumer confidence and shocking indicators of an economic collapse coming. Fred speaks with Michael A. McCarthy about a piece he had published this week in the new magazing, Hope and Hammer, arguing that Democrats can pursue populist policies without giving up their loyalty to the key factions of their coalition. That you can be populist and fight identitity politics at the same time. McCarthy is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Community Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His research is on class, capitalism, and democracy. His first book, Dismantling Solidarity: Capitalist Politics and American Pensions, was published with Cornell University Press in 2017 and was awarded the Paul Sweezy Book Award as well as an honorable mention for the Labor and Labor Movements Book Award. His most recent book is The Master’s Tools: How Finance Wrecked Democracy (and a Radical Plan to Rebuild It). His work has been featured in Hammer & Hope, Boston Review, The Guardian, Jacobin, The New York Times, The New Left Review, and The Washington Post.

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