Populist movements rarely spring out of nowhere. They are like tidal waves that a watchful eye can notice slowly building as the ocean recedes from the beach.
For politicians who campaign as populists, it’s a question of timing: How can they avoid riding the wave when it is too early for an effective campaign to take shape? Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot — who were concerned about mass immigration and deindustrialization that might result from normalizing trade relations with Mexico and China — were too early. Rudy Giuliani’s pitch to white working-class New Yorkers in the outer boroughs to crack down on crime, or Donald Trump’s attacks on the political class that supposedly sold out our country on trade and immigration, were met at the right moment. In the past decade especially, Republicans have managed to turn popular disaffection over open borders, boys in girls’ sports, and weak-on-crime policies into political victories even in traditionally blue regions of the country.
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