Introducing the
American Populist Party

Populism is such a broad term in the United States that it’s probably the only thing that unites Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders (or Barry Goldwater and John Edwards, for that matter). But the U.S. hasn’t had a viable populist party since the 1890s, when the Populist Party, or the People’s Party, tried to push a rapidly industrializing America back to its agrarian roots. Today, voters are angry, disillusioned, and fed up with both Republicans and Democrats — ripe conditions for a kind of populism that crosses political lines.

But what would a viable American populist party look like? What would it stand for? We talked to more than a dozen experts in political science, demographics, and U.S. history and looked at survey data to identify the issues, positions, and rhetoric that might work.

Who We Are

The elites. Them. We know who they are. They’ve failed us. The Democratic and Republican parties have failed us. The system failed us. Washington and Wall Street and Silicon Valley — they all failed us. They went to Davos and we went deeper into debt.

We’re bringing back American industrial might. We want roads, not apps. We want mom-and-pops, not blogs. We’re going to make things again and we’re going to make them with our hands — town by town, store by store, brick by brick. We will tax tech and finance, provide health care for all, and put America first. We’re going back to work. And back to the glory days.

Say no to creative-class Democrats and corporatist Republicans and say yes to the American Populist Party. More for us again!

Our Leaders

Thomas Jefferson

The writer of the Declaration of Independence celebrated the common decency of the American people and fiercely attacked elite financial interests as the “prigarchy.”

William Jennings Bryan

Bryan was the standard-bearer for the Populist Party in the 1896 presidential election. He called on the toiling masses to unite against the gold standard unfairly benefiting big business.

You

The only way to return our government to the people is to have it run by the people. The best leaders for America’s new century are the ones who will put our best interests — not special interests — first.

Our Values

We propose an immediate $1 trillion investment to rebuild roads, bridges, public schools, rail systems, and airports.

We will build a new network of publicly subsidized trade schools to train Americans in welding, manufacturing, farming, mechanical repairs, and more.

We will raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour for all workers 18 and older.

We will expand Medicare to offer health insurance coverage to all working Americans, their spouses, and their children. American workers are at their best when they are healthy and not fighting insurance and pharmaceutical companies. We will pay for this necessary coverage through a tax on Wall Street trading.

We propose an “Amazon tax” on all e-commerce websites to incorporate all the taxes brick-and-mortar stores must pay and a “Capital One tax” on credit card companies that have driven so many decent Americans into bankruptcy. The revenue from these taxes will provide subsidies to small businesses to help rebuild small-town America.

Some of the biggest tech and finance companies are too big and must be broken up. We will launch antitrust investigations of large technology firms and banks.

The tech industry must no longer be allowed to avoid labor laws through “freelance” and contract labor; all tech workers must have the same rights as other in-house employees.

Any country without minimum-wage and labor protections will not be able to sell goods in the United States without paying a tax. American workers cannot compete on an unlevel playing field.

People from other countries will always be welcome in America, but mass immigration can temporarily undercut American workers. We will slow down new arrivals to give the economy time to adjust.

At the same time, deporting the estimated 11 million undocumented people already living here would disrupt the American economy and hurt our businesses. We must find a way for these people to stay and continue to contribute to American society.