6 Comments

Mike Mills1 min ago

Wow, some hope just in time for Thanksgiving. A self-proclaimed socialist advocating compromise. A call to the Democratic Party to stick with popular policies (wage, infrastructure, access to healthcare) and to pull back on “in your face” activist identity politics tropes. A (hopeful) path for the Republican Party to turn away from Trumpism toward a multi-cultural working class focus (fwiw, I agree with Yascha that Trumps more polarizing messaging, although perhaps effective in the short term, will ultimately prove fatal). Plus, an assessment of the general electorate being more in line with moderate policies than the aggressive poles being advocated by the loudest people in the room. Honestly, it won’t be easy but both parties have a decent path to power by both focusing on popular policies and appealing to the center - I always knew I liked empirical data better than meta-narratives.

Expand full comment

Glad to see David’s empirical insights getting a spotlight. I agree the highly educated, liberal media plays a big role in (mis)branding Democrats. Abolish ICE, defund police, and calling everyone you disagree with ‘racist’ turns off mainstream voters who *we need* to pass legislation! He’s a sober socialist who uses hard data to show us the Squad’s messaging is not a viable pathway to governing.

Expand full comment

Well said. This conversation contains insights that the Democratic Party needs urgently to heed. If AOC/Sanders are allowed to define the party, our democracy and planet will pay the price. Biden, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar had the right approach.

Expand full comment

Can anybody find a link/citation about the poll that showed that a majority of Mexicans favor building a wall on their southern border? Very interesting tidbit if true

Expand full comment

Democratic Socialism???? The only country that comes close is Bolivia where the mines have been nationalized and, as for the democratic part, only time will tell if democracy actually takes hold. I wish Americans knew what Socialism actually is. Just ask a Dane or a Swede and perhaps they can clarify the use of this term.

Expand full comment

Jeffrey Sachs likes to use the term Social Democracy to refer to the countries in Northern Europe. This Freakonomics Radio episode is a nice discussion on that

https://www.jeffsachs.org/interviewsandmedia/https/wwwjeffsachsorg/blog-page-url/new-post-title-1

Expand full comment