The genius of Clinton and Blair was to combine genuine concern for the underprivileged with an unseemly devotion to the fat cats of Wall Street, the City of London, and some murkier places, too. Blair vacationed with Silvio Berlusconi, Italy s plutocrat prime minister.

Bernie Sanders the socialist and Donald Trump the plutocrat are addressing much the same impulse. Speaking in clear, declarative sentences, Sanders sets forth an idealistic conception of government policy that appeals to a great many people on the growing left of the Democratic Party.