The Political Conversation

Democrats like myself have exhaustively criticized Donald Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill.  But coming from Democrats like me, folks say: “So what?  You’re just another Democrat who opposes Trump.  Big deal!”   My guest  today is an economist with impeccable  conservative credentials — Jessica Reidl.  She is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, specializing in budget, tax, and economic...

A handful of ultra-wealthy donors have quietly fueled a campaign to swing San Francisco politics to the right -- according to Julie Pitta, the founder of The Phoenix Project.  In our conversation, she maps the forces transforming San Francisco, from tech billionaires funding ballot campaigns to the rise of YIMBY politics and a new mayor few had heard of a year ago. How has this city, long seen as...

Chris Lehmann, Bureau Chief for  The Nation  in Washington, D.C., objects to the easy characterization of Trump as a populist by both left and right-leaning media, which misunderstands the term grossly. He explains that the idea of Trump as a populist is a tool in Trump's narrative—one that suggests he’s fighting for “the people.” This plays right into his hand, giving him a cloak of legitimac...

The dust has settled. The inauguration is around the corner. In an effort not to disconnect, I turned to a wise friend for some insight and levity -- Mo Fiorina. A professor at Stanford, Mo is one of the most respected political scientists in our country, and he's navigating this season with an informed, blunt perspective and --thank God-- some lightheartedness.

Pundits are, at the end of the day, motivated by attention. Their takes need to provoke and intrigue -- which is why, when looking for insight on this election, I prefer to turn to a people who are motivated instead by the drive to understand the moment, and to embed it in its context: Academics. I sat down with John Mark Hansen, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. Hanse...

The last time Democrats won an election BIG was in 1964. Why? Just a few days out from the November 5 election in which the victor will win by one or two percentage points, that question becomes pressing. Timothy Shenk, an historian and assistant professor at George Washington University, who for years was co-editor of Dissent Magazine, has an answer and it is one that must be heard regardless of...

After months of panic and uncertainty, we Democrats have a candidate - Kamala Harris. Finally, we can get back to what we have roughly 100 days to accomplish: winning this election. So, who do we need to win over? Mike Madrid, a leading Latino political strategist and co-founder of the anti-MAGA Lincoln Project, urges us not to underestimate the power of the Latino vote. Latino voters well outnumb...

If you tuned into the debate, you may have done what I did —  wince, pace, and try to process the second-hand embarrassment. Even the most hardened partisans are having a hard time continuing to advocate for another four years for our rapidly declining President, even as Biden himself has rarely shown any signs of interest in stepping aside. The argument that Biden should step aside has been refue...

Biden is making a move on immigration — he has to because, as it stands, it's the Republicans issue to win on. Will it matter? For both the election, and at the border, this remains an open question.  It's tempting to think of immigration in black and white terms — or, rather, in terms of the left and the right. But what Hein de Haas, author of "How Immigration Really Works" and...

Lewis, a notable and long-standing member of the Harvard faculty, worries about the state of American education — what do we want our students to learn? For him, too much emphasis is placed in course catalogs on intersectionality, and too little on a more canonical foundation of understanding.  For Lewis, the campus protests are a mere symptom — we are " reaping what we have taught. " Ha...

As Gallup finds that only 28% of people consider themselves Democrats, the eminent historian Michael Kazin’s fascinating new book  What It Took To Win  asks if “college educated cosmopolitans in search of a majority” have driven out ordinary working people — the people we need to win.  Michael Kazin is a distinguished professor of history at Georgetown University and Co-Editor of Dissent magazine....

Michael Kazin introduces the concept of "moral capitalism" while discussing his new book, "What it Took to Win." Kazin is a professor of history at Georgetown University and editor emeritus of Dissent. His books include American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation, The Populist Persuasion, and A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan. He is a member of the American...

As party loyalty declines, independent voters are becoming a powerful force in politics. In this video, we'll discuss the rise of independent voters and the impact they're having on elections, as well as the impact that extremely polarized or calcified politics is having on the voting public. We also discuss that in 2022 no candidate who lost called for an insurrection to overturn the resu...

Today, politics feels both stuck and explosive, as both parties are becoming increasingly unrecognizable to the majority of voters. According to Lynn Vavreck, a political scientist at UCLA and leading researcher into the electorate, it has to do in no small part with this: Most voters identify as moderate, whether a moderate Republican or a moderate Democrat. She describes the state of our politic...

After Obama was elected, Ruy Teixeira and his co-author John B. Judis were hailed as having gotten it right— in their 2002 book "The Emerging Democratic Majority", they accurately predicted the coalition on the rise to carry Democrats to a majority.  Today, the revered political strategist has a different message, or rather, a question: "Where have all the Democrats gone?" Sinc...

"We need a system for deciding who gets in and who does not. That's not cruel, it's just rational." Meet Ruy Teixeira, political demographer, commentator and author of the deeply influential 2002 book "The Emerging Democratic Majority" with co-author John B. Judis. Today, he has a new book out: "Where have all the Democrats gone?" with the same co-author, and...

Part 2 of our conversation with Melissa Kearney. Listen to our episode titled " What is happening to marriage and families in the US?" for part 1. Melissa Kearney, a professor of Economics at the University of Maryland, argues that "we can't keep ignoring the fact that the share of kids raised by one parent is rising — especially among lower income families, and that this is hav...

Melissa Kearney, a professor of Economics at the University of Maryland, argues that "we can't keep ignoring the fact that the share of kids raised by one parent is rising — especially among lower income families, and that this is having an impact on the economic mobility of those children." "Kids who grow up in two-parent households tend to have better outcomes, both in young a...

Rob Atkinson, who has advised George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden on how to promote the high tech industry, just wrote in the Asia Times:  “The Chinese Communist Party has made manufacturing robot adoption a top priority, backing it up with generous subsidies. To the extent US policymakers talk about robots, it is usually to criticize them for taking jobs.” In my conversation with him, Atki...

Since June,  President Biden has campaigned on Bidenomics , making the argument that he's in charge of the economy and things are looking up. He’s right that the economy will play a crucial role in the coming election—but not in the way he currently imagines. Listen to this 15-minute episode that engages with several prominent perspectives, taking stock of the discourse and offering a distinct...

Remember the trade war with China under Donald Trump? Some argue that Joe Biden started a tech war with China, setting limits on US investments in Chinese technology . Are we headed for a cold war next?  The goal is not to be alarmist, but to understand: what is at play in our relationship with China? What is the best way forward? And how do we avoid accidental conflict —coincidentally, the title...

Most of us no longer believe globalization is the answer to our economic woes and inequity—perhaps the more interesting question is:  Then what is?  Bernie Sanders has an answer. So does Kevin MCarthy. But I prefer to listen to those with a less politically informed view.  The Hewlitt foundation has given 40 million dollars to the Reimagining the Economy project to power research at MIT, Harvard a...

We just survived another debt ceiling crisis. Whew! The media told us this time was different; there was a real chance the government would default on paying its debts. After all, the players were now crazy enough to let it happen.  But a deal was passed, extending the ceiling to early in 2025. I spoke to Prof. Frances E. Lee of Princeton about the history of debt limit crises—are we really in unp...

"Democrats should be asking themselves every day: With as crazy as the Republican Party is, and as Trumpified as it is, why can’t you beat them? As opposed to just squeezing through.” The Times recently called him " a liberal heretic " ; but these are the important questions Ruy Teixeira—who many consider to have written the manual on the future of the Democratic Party 20 years ago—...

In 2009 this was the cool thing to say about globalization: "Consumers across the globe have benefited from the increased competition, lowered prices and unprecedented availability of goods and services for every socioeconomic stratum." –  The Hill .  Today the false promise of globalization is clear: millions of Americans lost their good-paying jobs to cheap foreign competition.  Who wo...