Toward a Tough-Minded Populism

The United States is the wealthiest nation in the history of the world: Were we to divide today’s Gross National Product equally among families of four, each would have roughly $65,000. Self-evidently, a much more equitable distribution of resources than our present one is technically possible— even allowing for the current poor functioning of the economy.

Traditional progressive theory—at least as it has operated since the New Deal—has held that a set of liberal ideas and ...