Throughout his time at the FTC, Alvaro met pharmacists in Appalachia, farmers in Iowa, and rideshare drivers in New York — people who might seem worlds apart yet shared the same story: being stripped of economic power and dignity by a system designed for monopolies, not for them.
“If you focus on the conflict between left and right, if the most important thing is what you are—your party, your state, your race, your ethnicity—the people I met could not be more different. On the one hand, you have rural, white small-business owners, generations into building a life in this country. On the other, you have urban Latino, Haitian, African, and South Asian immigrants, every one of them a worker. The line between them is sharp, almost tribal. What could they possibly have in common?
Everything—if you look at what they need. The people I met as a commissioner may look different, but what they need is surprisingly the same: They need a government that gives them a level playing field against the powerful and wealthy. They need the courts to check corporations when they abuse that power and wealth. They need basic dignity and control in their material lives.
Looking at things that way, everyone I met was part of one huge group: people working themselves to the bone who were getting screwed by billionaires and corporations—regardless of party or state or race or ethnicity. Regardless, even, of whether they are workers or the owners of farms or small businesses.”
These diverse experiences across America led Alvaro to a hopeful conclusion — one that defines so much of our work at Economic Liberties:
“Populism is not an indictment, but an opportunity. Focusing on the conflict between the haves and the have-nots is not divisive; it’s a way to build coalitions with astonishing potential.”
Alvaro’s story is a reminder how confronting concentrated economic power can bring together people who have been told they have nothing in common, and how building an economy that works for everyone is essential to renewing faith in democracy itself.
I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read his full essay and watch his appearance this week on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. It’s a deeply personal and moving reflection on why this work matters.
Read “How I Became a Populist” in The New Republic here.
Best,
Nidhi Hegde
Executive Director
