America at 250 seems stuck in a miasma of rival populisms that offer irreconcilable visions for curing what ails our country. Yet both the MAGA right and the socialist left start from the same demoralizing premise: The system is rigged!
That is the battle cry of today’s populist ascendancy, and it has undeniable potency. It is upsetting but vague enough to be impossible to prove or disprove. It can be counted on to rile up voters while at the same time stripping them of agency.
How can ordinary working families control their destinies if “the system” — whatever that is — is controlled by a shadowy cabal of globalists or billionaires? Telling people that they’re the suckers in a rigged political game breeds cynicism and fatalism, opening the door to demagogues who promise to overthrow the riggers if given unchecked power.
This paranoia-inducing gambit certainly has worked for President Trump. But democratic socialists like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani also parrot the “rigged system” canard to ignite left-wing militancy.
Judging by today’s scorched earth partisanship and the constant turnover of governing power, however, it doesn’t seem to be working for the American people. Nonetheless, they’ve internalized their leaders’ debilitating pessimism.
