The Dems Play Dead
Column about the leadership vacuum at the top of the opposition party.
I forgot to send out my latest NY mag column, which is about Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and the failures of the opposition. Amazingly, this was published before Schumer saved the MAGA spending bill — thereby signaling that the Democrats will absolutely roll-over in the rare circumstances where uniform dissent could plausibly interfere with Trump’s plans. Nice!
As you’ll see, I had two interesting conversations for this piece: one with a Bernie Sanders staffer, the other with Chris Murphy. Having followed Murphy’s career for decade, since he was my state representative in Connecticut, I was frankly a little surprised how similar his rhetoric has become to Bernie’s. More on that another time…
The piece closes with this observation, which I think is true, even if it doesn’t help anyone all that much:
I sometimes think the reason Democrats are so despised is that everyone across the political spectrum, whether they know it or not, has high expectations for the party. (Some weird, unconscious hangover from New Deal hegemony, perhaps.) Republicans expect them to be good-faith opponents, moderates expect them to be pragmatic, liberals expect them to be ardent champions of rights, and the left and labor expect them to be sincere egalitarians. The Democrats are barely any of these things now. They could be again, but they’ll have to learn: In American politics, you win or you lose. Righteous defeat gets you nowhere. There is no dignity dividend.
Anyhow. Thanks for reading. A few other updates:
On “Know Your Enemy,” we’ve released the first of two episodes on the making of Elon Musk, covering his formative years, his family, and his early career in Silicon Valley. The second part will be out next week.
If you’re in New York on April 8, and have some spare ducats, come hang out with me at this Dissent fundraiser. Speakers include: Jamelle Bouie (NYT), my friend Matt Sitman, and flight attendants’ union president Sara Nelson.