Can We Build a New Populist Movement? (Letter 2)

Democrats told us they were the last line of defense. But after years of compromises and betrayals, have they already lost the fight? A conversation about what comes next.

This is the second in a six-letter exchange between Lukium, author of The American Manifesto, and Lady Libertie of The American Pamphleteer.

Can We Build a New Populist Movement? (Letter 1)

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Dear Lady Libertie,

First, let me say—I hear you, and I feel it too. The heartbreak, the frustration, the absolute exhaustion of watching the Democratic Party squander opportunity after opportunity while expecting our gratitude for merely being less of a disaster than the other guys.

For decades, they have done little more than drift wherever the Republican current took them, a battered raft of “moderation” in a political sea where the right-wing storm keeps pushing the Overton window further and further toward corporate greed, deregulation, and wealth concentration. After Reagan demolished them in the ‘80s, they abandoned even the pretense of fighting for the working and middle class, choosing instead to become a slightly less cruel, slightly more palatable version of the GOP.

Clinton gutted the social safety net with welfare reform and championed free trade policies that hollowed out American manufacturing. Obama, for all his soaring rhetoric, gave us the Affordable Care Act—a policy that, at best, was a compromise between corporate interests and harm reduction, leaving millions at the mercy of insurance companies. And through it all, the party’s guiding philosophy seemed to be: at least we’re not Republicans.

That changed, however briefly, under Biden. Against all odds, we saw a National Labor Relations Board that actually defended workers. An FTC that stood up to corporate monopolies. Genuine investments in American industry and infrastructure. But it was too little, too late, with messaging so weak and leadership so spineless that the impact barely registered with the public. They did good things, but they never owned them.

So, here we are. Standing at a crossroads. You ask—should we abandon the Democratic Party altogether? Should we finally build something new, a modern Bull Moose Party to break free from this endless cycle of disappointment? And if this were a different country, or even a different time, I might say yes.

But here’s where I hesitate. Not because I don’t believe in the need for transformation—I do, with every fiber of my being. But because I believe we can achieve that transformation faster, and more effectively, by taking over the party rather than abandoning it.

The Challenges of a Third Party

I admire the dream of a clean break. In a world unburdened by historical precedent and institutional barriers, I would be right beside you, hammering the first plank into the foundation of something truly new. But America, for better or worse, is a country deeply entrenched in its two-party system—not just structurally, but psychologically. Even Theodore Roosevelt, with all his popularity and political might, couldn’t make the Bull Moose Party last. It was absorbed back into the GOP almost as quickly as it arrived.

And while the DNC’s corruption and incompetence are undeniable, it has one thing a third party won’t: infrastructure. A vast network of ballot access, donor pipelines, media relationships, and voter outreach operations built over decades. Starting fresh would mean rebuilding all of that from scratch. And in the time it would take to do that, the Republican Party—an institution that is increasingly embracing outright authoritarianism—would consolidate its power even further.

Worse still, a third-party movement would force us into an adversarial stance against people who, at their core, already agree with us. Millions of progressives still vote Democratic, not because they love the party, but because they see it as the only viable path to stop the GOP’s worst excesses. Telling them to abandon ship and start anew isn’t just a logistical challenge—it’s a messaging nightmare.

The Alternative: A Hostile Takeover

Instead of abandoning the Democratic Party, I propose something else: We take it over.

Think about it. The timing has never been better. The hunger for real change is there. Bernie proved it. AOC proved it. Hell, even establishment figures like Chris Murphy are admitting on national television that the party should have embraced Bernie’s message rather than trying to suppress it. The ground is shifting beneath their feet, and they know it.

What we need is our own version of the Tea Party movement. Not in ideology, obviously, but in execution. The Tea Party didn’t create a new party; they infiltrated the Republican Party, pulled it to the right, and made it clear that any Republican who didn’t fall in line would be primaried into oblivion. And they won.

Why can’t we do the same? Why can’t we make it clear that the future of the Democratic Party isn’t in being Republican-lite, but in being the unapologetic, working-class-focused, corporate-busting party it should have been all along?

That means recruiting progressives to run for every office, from city councils to Congress. That means building independent media and grassroots funding to counter the DNC machine. That means using the party’s own structure against itself—forcing its leadership to either evolve or be replaced.

And most importantly, it means making sure that once the transformation happens, it sticks. No more “hope and change” that vanishes when the next centrist Democrat takes the reins. No more backpedaling. If we take control, we take it forever.

So, Lady Libertie, do we burn it all down and start over? Or do we storm the gates and take the castle for ourselves?

I say it's time for us to rise up, to banish the spineless and the corrupt—first from our own party, and then from our entire government. Not just to restore what was built from the New Deal through the Civil Rights Movement, but to cement it into a foundation of opportunity and equity for all, one that can never again be broken.

And maybe, once we’re done and the Democratic Party is no longer recognizable, we even drop the name “Democratic Party” for something more powerful and unifying. As you alluded to, maybe we can just call it the “American Party”

I think the real question is: how do we do it?

Who is the messenger? What is the message that doesn’t just mobilize the left, but shatters the illusion that the only choices are corporate Democrats or creeping fascism? How do we break through apathy and propaganda—not just to wake up those who’ve tuned out, but to start peeling away from the fascists on the right those whom they have brainwashed for decades?

To be clear: I agree that we need a new party, I just don’t believe we get there by starting brand new.

What do you think?

— Lukium,
The American Manifesto