Limited government proponents should feel uneasy. On the right, populists deride economic liberty’s supporters as anachronistic “market fundamentalists.” The free market, they suggest, is not aligned with the preferences or interests of the Republican Party’s new working-class coalition. Many of these populists are eager to abandon freedom for tariffs and other forms of “industrial policy”—a euphemism for granting the state authority to pick economic winners and losers. Unfortunately, trends on the left may be even worse.

With populists embracing new state interventions and untrammeled executive power, freedom advocates find their influence on the right at a nadir. Perhaps overtures to the center-left are in order? Having lost the last presidential election to a very flawed Republican candidate, maybe Democrats will be inclined to move toward the center. There is some historical precedence for this. Bill Clinton’s “New Democrats” sought to make peace with markets, and they were rewarded at the ballot box. And there are some positive signals, such as Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s calls for progressives to embrace an “abundance agenda” that would significantly deregulate key aspects of the economy. The Democratic Party’s growing support from affluent and highly educated voters may additionally weaken its commitment to economic redistribution.

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