Is a Left-Wing Populist the Current Answer?

I voted “America First” because I thought we were finally going to put this place first — wages, housing, supply chains, families. Instead, we got an increasingly dangerous culture war and stadium rallies, while Congress quietly shipped tens of billions overseas. Washington passes nearly $95 billion in foreign aid, and it goes through with bipartisan applause.

That tells you more than any speech ever could.

You can’t run libertarian economics and family values at the same time. You can’t gut local industry, deregulate the housing market, ship jobs overseas, and then tell people to cling to home, church, and tradition like nothing’s changed. The conditions don’t match the sermon. And people feel that.

And Trump-era populism? It made some of us feel heard — it did. But it didn’t build the basics: the factories didn’t come back, the cost of living didn’t drop, and the donor class never left the room. The tone was rebellious, but The outcomes weren’t.

The modern left isn’t perfect either. Too much jargon, too much paperwork, too much distance from real life. But in 2025, the clearest voices talking about the cost of being alive — rent, groceries, transit, healthcare — are coming from the populist left.

Zohran Mamdani. Say what you want about him — but when he was asked which foreign country he’d visit first as mayor, he didn’t pledge allegiance on cable news. He said he’d focus on New York. That matters when political symbolism gets more airtime than policy. He ran — and won — on affordability: rent freezes, fare-free buses, universal childcare. Real stuff for real people.

Graham Platner. Not a media project. Not a think-tank lab rat. An oyster farmer and veteran running for Senate in Maine, talking plainly about corporate capture and what it looks like to live in a working-class state that’s been abandoned by both parties.

No, I don’t agree with everything these guys say. I still believe in local control, small enterprise, and keeping bureaucrats out of people’s homes. But they’re at least naming the crisis: it’s hard to live in this country. And policy should make life easier, not harder.

That’s more than I can say about most of the right.

Yes, there are a few still trying — people like Thomas Massie, who actually read the bills, questions foreign aid, and insists on transparency. And for that? He gets attacked by his own side. When honesty in government becomes a threat to a movement, you should really begin to question the movement.

That tells you who’s really running the show.

I’m not suddenly “left.” I’m just paying attention. If one camp is busy lecturing you about language and the other is busy naming enemies — but neither can explain how a family is supposed to make rent, afford groceries, or survive the ER — then I’m going to listen to the people who at least start with those realities.

Even historically, we’ve seen this play out. The New Deal was a lifeline in its moment — it brought security, built infrastructure, and put people back to work. But it also built a government so large it sometimes forgot who it served. Trickle-down economics? Same story. Worth a shot in the ‘80s. But today, all it’s trickling down is crumbs — and fentanyl — while CEOs and 35+ year bureaucrats buy their fifth house.

Every solution becomes a problem if you refuse to evolve.

So is a left-wing populist the answer? I don’t know.

But right now, it’s the only lane consistently willing to put material life at the center — not slogans, not geopolitics, not outrage.

And if “America First” means anything, it should start by focusing on our neighbors — right here at home.