Gillibrand Embraces Populist Left

New York Times: “While Ms. Gillibrand has made her name and reputation on fighting for women’s issues, especially around sexual assault and harassment — ‘60 Minutes’ favorably branded her ‘The #MeToo Senator’ earlier this year — she has spent recent months injecting her portfolio with a dose of the kind of economic populism that infused Senator Bernie Sanders’s campaign in the 2016 presidential primary.”

”She was among the first this year to endorse a federal jobs guarantee that is newly in vogue on the left. She was the first senator to introduce legislation to require that every post office in the country offer retail banking services in an effort to curb the predatory payday loan industry. She has announced a push to provide training to help those who lose their jobs to automation, embraced legalizing marijuana, pushed to tax drug companies for prescription drug price hikes, backed the Wall Street tax and announced that she would reject all future corporate political action committee money.”

Said Gillibrand: “Labels are hard. But I’m comfortable with ‘populist.’”