Fred Harris on left populism, 2018

Former Democratic Sen. Fred Harris, who just turned 88 last month, did this interview with Marc Steiner in March of this year, Sen. Fred Harris: The Last Surviving Member of the 1968 Kerner Commission 03/06/2018.

Fred ran for the Democratic nomination for President twice, once in 1972 and also in 1976. Marc Steiner mentions in the interview that he did some work for him on the 1976 campaign. So did I. I was on his camapaign staff for a few months.

His campaign and his ideas then had a big effect on my political thinking, and still do. And he's still on the same broad wavelength in this interview, explaining what left populism is, though without using that exact term, "left populism." He used "The New Populism" as his theme in 1976.

He praises the Rev. William Barber's and his Moral Mondays movement, with which he clearly identifies. He repeats something he was saying in 1976, too: "I always say that people in our coalition, this majority coalition, they don't have to love each other. I wish they would. But all they have to do is to see that their interests are in common."

That's left populism in a nutshell.