Common ground between the Democratic and Republican parties has never seemed more distant. But across the political spectrum, one idea has become increasingly attractive: populism.
Throughout history, leaders have claimed to represent those left behind by the changing economic and social landscape of their day. The populist message is marked by fierce anti-establishment sentiments and claims to be the true voice of the people.
Opposition to the establishment is not inherently wrong if the establishment is broken. However, the brand of populism that has emerged against today's establishment is marked by divisiveness and empty promises.
Populist leaders on the left and the right offer different messages, but both have a tendency to assign blame for today's challenges on particular segments of the population. Whether it is large corporations and the wealthy or immigrants and those marked as "other," internal adversaries are created to foster the us-versus-them mentalities that are tearing apart our nation's social fabric.
Another common trait of populist messages is their promise of quick fixes for complex problems--solutions that require little sacrifice. Populists on the left claim that inequality can be curtailed through social spending programs that only require tax increases on the one percent. Right-wing populists claim that to reduce crime and save American jobs, we need to build a wall on the southern border. Though there is not a moral equivalence between left- and right-wing populism, both are fundamentally ideologies of division and easy answers.
These hallmarks make the ideology dangerous, and those dangers must be articulated clearly. Yet to ignore the appeal of today's populist messages and discount them entirely is to ignore the real anxieties that people face. We must address those anxieties in another way. We need a better alternative.
Instead of dividing, our alternative must unify. Instead of promising easy answers, our alternative must acknowledge the complexity of difficult issues. Instead of proposing quick fixes, our alternative must offer lasting solutions.
In the context of immigration, populist proposals ranging from building a wall to abolishing ICE distract us from the nuanced conversations we need to be having: How do we stay true to our history as a nation of immigrants while protecting the integrity of our borders?
It starts by honestly assessing the situation. Today, most illegal immigration in the United States comes in the form of people overstaying visas, not from sneaking across the border. Therefore a wall is not an answer; it is a distraction from a real solution.
A real solution demands justice for the 3.6 million so-called dreamers who have spent their entire lives in the United States, serving in our military, teaching in our schools, and working in our communities. A real solution demands that we address the entry of deadly fentanyl being transported through legal ports along the southwest border. A real solution demands that leaders in both parties resurrect bipartisan proposals to couple a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already living and working in the United States with thoughtful measures to promote border security. These solutions are in reach, but we won't achieve them if we are shouting at each other about building walls and abolishing ICE.
Like immigration, trade is a complex issue that comes with a set of challenging questions: How do we negotiate agreements that will benefit American consumers and businesses while compensating for those negatively affected by the disruptions of trade? More broadly, how do we support workers whose livelihoods are threatened by the changes taking place in the global economy?
Quick fixes that populists have embraced, from exiting the Trans-Pacific Partnership to imposing tariffs on allies and adversaries alike, will not protect workers from the unstoppable forces of globalization, automation, and digitization. Populist views on trade ignore the evidence: Because of trade, American consumers have paid lower prices for the products they buy, businesses have reduced costs in their supply chains, and farmers have gained access to new markets for their commodities. Yet at the same time people in certain industries and regions have been exposed to job loss. We can adopt policies to support these people, but we are distracted by populists' calls for abandoning trade altogether.
We are also distracted from the most serious threat to jobs: automation. We need to be thinking about how we can build education and training systems to prepare current and future workers for the types of jobs that will exist in the digital economy. It will take an all-hands-on-deck approach involving leaders in both parties, the public and private sectors, and academia and think tanks to come up with viable answers. We need to set aside empty promises to instead work together for a real solution. This is the only alternative that secures America's future.
Some might say that the prospect of Democrats and Republicans working together to solve these problems is too idealistic. But we know that progress is possible because we have seen it recently, even in this polarized era. Lawmakers came together to pass comprehensive criminal justice reform as well as meaningful legislation to combat the opioid crisis. With a willingness to build on our common ground and a commitment to doing what is right for American citizens, our leaders can tackle the urgent challenges we face.
This is what the moment requires: not just a message against the divisiveness and empty promises of populism, but a vision for something better. We need substantive and lasting solutions that unite us around our shared values.
More than two centuries ago, as our Founding Fathers gathered for the Constitutional Convention, a passerby asked Benjamin Franklin if they were creating a republic or a monarchy. "A republic," Franklin replied, "if you can keep it." Our generation is ready to do the hard work ahead of us to not only keep the republic, but to ensure that its greatness--and goodness--endure for centuries to come.
Matthew Tully, a member of the University of Virginia Class of 2018, is a 2014 graduate of Catholic High School in Little Rock. Jack DiMatteo, a member of the University of Virginia Class of 2019, is from Deerfield, Ill.
Editorial on 02/03/2019