The era of respectability politics, long on the decline, can officially be called dead. Loud voices and aggressive messages that push for an absolute use of available powers have prevailed. America is currently ruled by right-wing populists who take accusations of power-mongering and immorality as points on their resume when polling their electorate. The Democratic Party, and America’s Left in general is in disarray, reeling from the transition from the Right hammering on the window to now clearing out the house of America’s political and cultural mainstream. Names being thrown out to combat this crisis in 2028 include career politicians such as Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer or previous Vice President and failed 2024 candidate Kamala Harris. I say it is time for something different. The left needs a populist candidate and platform, preferably from a political outsider.
Populism refers to a political agenda and attached policies that are favored by and meant to support the working class, usually setting the upper or “elite class” as the enemy. In an American context, that has previously referred to the most wealthy, such as against the Robber Barons of the Gilded Age. One of the many drivers towards Trump and Make America Great Again (MAGA)’s ascension, and then furious comeback, was the growing use of populist attitudes by the Grand Old Party (GOP), maligning the Democrats as out-of-touch coastal elites based on the party’s historical connection to old money.
Now that MAGA has won out on this platform, however, the cracks are beginning to show. Elon Musk’s journey from PayPal money to Reddit funnyman to shadow president is unprecedented. Along with J.D. Vance’s past connections, including ludicrous funding to jumpstart his political career from technology billionaire Peter Thiel, has left the current White House at the mercy of new technology money. Though pulling out the stops on culture war populism through a headstrong foreign policy and renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, Trump’s position as a successful populist politician is untenable. Currently empowered technology billionaires such as Musk and Thiel are too obsessed with maximizing the technology revolution and profits, and will eventually find themselves prioritizing their own whims over the working class to a degree that is unignorable. The “Silicon Valley Elite” have pushed their foot in through the door, but it will forever tarnish any good will towards them. The Democrats need someone who is an outsider, educated and not afraid to say nonsense to grab the attention of the American working class that is sure to be disillusioned sooner or later by this shift. The answer: someone like Stephen A. Smith.
If you are not in the know-how, Smith is an eccentric, loud sports commentator known best for his crazy takes, outbursts and unyielding philosophy that basketball legend LeBron James is not, in fact, the greatest of all time. He has appeared in dozens of viral memes and the idea of him being a political figure let alone expressing his views—if he had any strong ones at all—seemed until recently. Over the last few months, Smith began mixing his loud, aggressive takes on basketball and football with takes slamming the GOP and Trump administration whilst also calling out the ineptitudes of the Democrats. The fiery attitude Smith has brought with these segments almost immediately began discourse on him as a possible outsider candidate for the 2028 Democratic primary. This approach of holding disdain for the two-party system, whilst speaking for the “average man” is the base of modern American populism. It is what prompted Trump to run as a Republican originally, using wealth and a large public image to create a new persona as an outsider while still having the assets to comfortably find a place in the runoffs. A boisterous personality and wealth accumulated from years of sports commentating does not hurt, and even if the thought is cringe-worthy, the proliferation of memes and clips related to the man have made him a recognizable voice and face to millions of Americans. If Trump could win over young voters by nostalgia-baiting the late 2010s and middle aged voters with some far-gone “Greater America,” then a few could be swayed in 2028 just by noting “it is the guy who said James Harden is averaging 40.” Even if this populist candidate is not Smith, the points still stand. A candidate with little to no political experience, or time in office, but a desire to represent the common man and shock the system is a must.
A new kind of loyalty in the Democratic Party must surround this candidate. That being, loyalty to the beliefs of the Party, and not to the Party itself. It was the loyalty to the Party’s leadership surrounding Joe Biden that led him, a plainly obvious one-term president, to keep up the charade of running again going for far too long. This elite class of Democrats that sidelined Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020, and then stood in the way of allowing a true primary to find a fully fleshed-out candidate in 2024 has to, themselves, be sidelined. The conditions caused by our two-party system and the wealth bottleneck at the upper class following the long-term effects of Reaganomics and shorter-term effects of the 2008 Financial crisis, have made it so both parties are inevitably going to have to be funded, in some part, by the upper class. But what the Democrats have the opportunity to do—now that they are down and seemingly out—is run an aggressively populist candidate who themselves could be of great wealth, with an agenda targeting the working class and the average American at a level unheard of since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. If it must be a career politician, it could be J.B. Pritzker or even Union Leader Shawn Fain. Or, it could be a media mogul like Smith.
The last eight years of American politics have been an up and down of “how’s,” wondering how the current situation has come about through seismic changes that, in an earlier era of more stable, “respectable” politics, would have just ended in a one-week news cycle and “Saturday Night Live” skit. The left has to play this game. No more bland corporate career politicians unless they are able to surprise and impress the public. It sounds ridiculous, but a 2028 election cycle where Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker calls the Democratic candidate a broke slave to the elite or daily viral clips of Stephen A. Smith in press conferences methodically tearing apart the platform of the GOP with slogans and hyperboles leaning on mistruth would be what the left needs. If the American people yearn for a reality tv showdown of populists firing off catchphrases and disdain for the system they wish to rule, then the left and Democratic Party should provide just that.