Populist Republicans and Democratic Socialists Are Merging

Wall Street Journal: “That a Democratic socialist mayor and a Republican vice president have found common cause disparaging free-market icons heralds the ascendance of what could be called the Horseshoe party.”

“‘Horseshoe theory’ describes the tendency of the political extremes to bend toward each other. Coined decades ago to describe the similarities between communism and fascism, today it captures how Republicans’ populist wing, typified by Vance, and the progressive left, represented by Mamdani, have drawn closer to each and more distant from the center of their own parties.”

“Both extremes disdain free markets and globalization while embracing big, coercive government. They are obsessed with identity; the populist right rails against immigration while the progressive left inveighs against ‘colonialism’ and systemic racism. They are populists who see ordinary people pitted against global elites, including their own party establishments.”