It is fascinating that Elizabeth Warren is faring so well with her message which is a populist message and, because the definition of populism is so elastic, one can also say that Donald Trump's message is a populist message.
There are of course similarities in their complaints but their solutions vary in very important particulars. In essence, Warren wants more government to regulates evil corporations (her version of elitists) and Donald Trump obviously wants fewer regulations to free up markets and capitalism. Warren identifies big business as the enemy while Trump identifies miscarriages of government reproducing bad trade treaties and bad regulations as the enemy. A signal characteristic of populism is an appeal to control the "elites" on behalf of "the people." We have seen that in 2016 in Trump's campaign, when we exhorted Washington to drain the swamp. There were also echoes of this on our side in the Tea Party. No one, not even Donald Trump, better articulates the Trump brand of populism than Steve Bannon who identifies the elite as Davos, Wall Street, the City of London etc. Bannon and Warren are in full agreement, big-money elites need to be controlled. Warren wants the end result to be bigger government, Bannon wants smaller government as the end result.
Now comes Nathan Bedford's first maxim of American politics: all politics in America is not local but ultimately racial.
The left, Warren included, will seek as Democrats always have sought to win elections, by calling Republicans and Trump racists. This is because there has been a century long cleft in populism, one in which the nation is the expression of "the people" and another which claims that expressions of nationalism are inherently racist. This is why the left reacted so virulently when Trump professed himself to be a nationalist.
The effect on this election campaign will be the same as it is always been, Democrats demagoguing race, but this time it will have a slightly different twist. Bannon's answer, this brand of populism knows no color except the color of citizenship which comes in all colors. If you're a citizen you are preferred regardless of your color over illegal immigrants and citizens of other nations. This is an effective answer to the racism smear when it is well articulated.
