Can the Left save itself?
- Thread starter BradStevens
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Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson think so and argue how to do it in their new book. If you're on the Left, you should listen and hear some good stuff about the direction you should want the Dems to go. If you're on the Right, I bet you'll be surprised to hear some common ground you share with these two. If you're not either, you should listen and hear good ideas being discussed intelligently by people who don't agree about everything but can still have a productive conversation.
Can Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson Save the Left From Itself?
The Democrats desperately need a new vision. Two prominent liberal journalists are offering one.www.thefp.com
'Abundance' Liberals Have a Carbon Problem
The abundance movement is premised on cheap energy, but its advocates support decarbonization policies that would make energy, and the aspirational suburban lifestyle, more expensive.
www.joshbarro.com
“Big-ass truck economy”? Are Democrats ready to create one?
Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson think so and argue how to do it in their new book. If you're on the Left, you should listen and hear some good stuff about the direction you should want the Dems to go. If you're on the Right, I bet you'll be surprised to hear some common ground you share with these two. If you're not either, you should listen and hear good ideas being discussed intelligently by people who don't agree about everything but can still have a productive conversation.
Can Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson Save the Left From Itself?
The Democrats desperately need a new vision. Two prominent liberal journalists are offering one.
I thought you would like this clip Brad. I think it's a pretty good take on the situation.
It's one way to look at it, but I think he's wrong.
My theory is that moderate Dems do have beliefs (in fact, its impossible for anyone not to have them) but they've been driven underground by the Woke Wing of the party. The Woke religion shames people for heretical views, and wants to cast them out in the name of purity. So, for example, it used to be a leftist position to champion an ever improving color-blind society. I think most moderate Dems would embrace that. But the Woke position is that color blindness is impossible, not desired, or actually a form of, or rhetoric of, racism. Sane moderates are scared to be called out, confused, and disaffected by stuff like this.
In many ways, the Woke wing is doing to the rest of the Dems what MAGA is doing to, say, people like Aloha and Crazy.
But I would push back on this entire discussion just a tiny bit to stress that there isn't actually a Woke wing. Rather, there are multiple radical factions that are all shouting down the moderates, but they don't necessarily walk in lockstep. The racial justice warriors and the transgender activists and the economic socialists have a lot of differences between them. I think that makes it more likely that the mainstream could retake the party if they put in a little effort.
I would add that pretty much all Dems share a basic belief in the importance of pocketbook issues for the lower and middle class to the point where it’s taken for granted, which makes it invisible to Friedberg, neglected or poorly addressed by policy makers, and stifled by the vociferous factions.
Moderates need to reclaim their party by prioritizing the economic issues important to all. The suggestions by Carville, Klein and others have synergy.
My first reaction was, "that will show him". I even made up several scenarios. His parents were ashamed of him either because he was destroying property which did not belong to him. Or it was because they were radicals who were ashamed he got caught. But then I thought, "this kid is a mechanic". He had a skill and now he could spend some time in prison. He will be a felon for the rest of his life. This outcome is not funny. The media should be ashamed of themselves because this young man who had potential is a product of their agenda.I’ll be trying to listen to the podcast soon. For now…
Hapless anti-Musk activist sets himself on fire after attacking South Carolina Tesla charging station with Molotov cocktails
The would-be vigilante also spray-painted “f–k Trump,” and “long live the Ukraine,” in red on the pavement next to the charging stations near an outlet mall in North C…nypost.com
The Republican party since the days of Jerry Falwell have the support of some religious groups who strongly believe mortality and religion are inseparable. Abortion being the example which I cited.
In terms of Trump's personal behaviour (divorces and grabbing ladies) the voters are way more lenient than In the days of yore.
I’d also say the school choice movement is largely a function to the religious right.
You’d be surprised. Most of the religious right is into home-schooling. In fact, it’s a big point of contention in Texas right now. Homeschool advocates there believe the pending school choice legislation shortchanges them.
The school choice movement was largely started by Milton Friedman, who was associated with the libertarian wing and was an agnostic Jew.
Considering most cars are insured, doesn’t destroying them actually offer a good opportunity for Musk to sell the owners a second one quicker than he otherwise would?
It was. It's morphed a bit. I have a woman in my village I've come to know who works for a charter school advocacy organization. Devout atheist. But she worked in inner city school in LA, saw the bad stuff surrounding the public schools, and wants to work to give those kids a better chance.
She despises the rich liberals who live in great school districts, made great by their hefty taxes that others can't pay, who rail against school choice.
I’d say you are flat dead wrong. I recognize many conservatives support school choice, but it’s not a “function” of it. Colorado, and Denver, have robust school autonomy and I can pretty much guarantee that neither system is a function of the religious right. I don’t know what religious right even means except for a few situations that have no universal application. .
While there’s no question that school choice has found a lot of purchase among people who desire religion to be a part of their children’s education, it has libertarian roots.
This was Friedman, in 1955:
We have seen that both the imposition of a minimum required level of education and the financing of education by the state can be justified by the “neighborhood effects” of education. It is more difficult to justify in these terms a third step that has generally been taken, namely, the actual administration of educational institutions by the government…
Yet the two steps could readily be separated. Governments could require a minimum level of education which they could finance by giving parents vouchers redeemable for a specified maximum sum per child per year if spent on “approved” educational services.
Parents would then be free to spend this sum and any additional sum on purchasing educational services from an “approved” institution of their own choice.
So it’s probably most precise to say that school choice is an example of fusionism. It’s not hard to see what would make it attractive both to libertarians and to religious conservatives.
The school choice movement has a number of appeals which attract a diverse group of parents.
If your politics happens to be on the so-called right and your children attend a religious private school why wouldn't you support public school funds being shifted to help you pay your child's tuition?
Particularly considering that you’re still required to pay the taxes, whether you send your kids to public schools or not.
That said, I’m not opposed to the idea of means-testing them. I can see both sides of the argument.
Also, I personally know (and know of) parents who have lobbied their kids’ schools not to accept state vouchers.
Here in Evansville, the secular K-12 Evansville Day School stayed out of it for a time. They’re participating now, but it wasn’t right away. And the truth of the matter is, some influential parents wanted it to be expensive and (more importantly) exclusive.
“The Christian right are Christian political factions characterized by their strong support of socially conservative and traditionalist policies. Christian conservatives seek to influence politics and public policy with their interpretation of the teachings of Christianity.”
Colorado Springs, while certainly more diverse than its reputation, comes to mind.
I have a good friend who had a very successful run as a HS football coach in Colorado Springs.
His teams won 16 conference championships, played in 6 state finals, and won 4 of them…in 19 seasons. He finally had enough of the administration at his school and took a job in the Kansas City area.
There were some conflicts over religion. But it was mostly about his imposition of discipline.
C2, help me here.
I associate discipline as being an integral part of a religious school education.
He was not at a religious school. He was at Pine Creek, a public school.
And he said that, over time, the administration got less and less supportive of his instilling discipline in his teams.
At his new school, he apparently sought and received assurances that they wouldn’t interfere.
Oh of course as a conservative I believe in personal responsibility. This young man will have to face some kind of music. But as an older man my heart aches for the decisions he made and how this will affect his life. Let's say he does 10 yrs and it takes him five years afterwards to get his life back together. He will be 40.
Yes, very possible. But weren't some attacking the charging stations too? That makes no sense because these leftists want electric cars and you have to have charging stations.
Not much different than biden trying to divert funds to help people with student loans...except there isn't a direct connecting to hurting public schools and not as helpful to the better off
Finally listening to some of this. Some good points. I was especially impressed by this point (paraphrasing): "I'm a tax and spend liberal. I think we should fund a government to do things. The problem with the left is they've become obsessed with how much money they can spend, instead of how much they can build. So you end up with an X-dollar high speed rail system that would accomplish important liberal ends, but 15 years later, hasn't been built yet despite all the money spent on it.'Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson think so and argue how to do it in their new book. If you're on the Left, you should listen and hear some good stuff about the direction you should want the Dems to go. If you're on the Right, I bet you'll be surprised to hear some common ground you share with these two. If you're not either, you should listen and hear good ideas being discussed intelligently by people who don't agree about everything but can still have a productive conversation.
Can Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson Save the Left From Itself?
The Democrats desperately need a new vision. Two prominent liberal journalists are offering one.
Agree about Biden funds for infra-structure failing to have the results promised.
Disagree about the promised goals being "liberal ends".
Improved rails, roads, clean water, rural internets, etc. benefit Americans of all political persuations.
The DOGE crew would serve us all well by investigating what happened with those Biden funds, so they and future administrations don't do a repeat.
Yes. And it’s what makes people jaded to gov. Tobacco. Opioids. Muni here just bought an F250 with the opioids $
Actually seeing concrete results for this kind of spending would go a long way toward the libs showing they're serious about "government efficiency." Too bad the term has been co-opted and perverted to mean "slash jobs and make it impossible to efficiently provide services."
The kind of big ticket projects that were funded don't just spring to life immediately after the legislation has passed.
How long has Elon and his Boring Co. been working on that LA subway?
Uncle, to prove your point the I- 69 interstate project from Evansville to Indianapolis in the so-called conservative state of Indiana took 16 years to complete.
Return on investment may take 50 years and another billion to correct all the problems caused by cheating contractors who abused their contracts.
