Democratic Voters Don’t Want Vanilla Centrism

You can watch this conversation above, on Substack, or YouTube.

I joined journalist Wajahat Ali’s Substack show The Left Hook. We discuss the policy differences between Democratic Party leaders and voters, including my recent article showing that moderate Democratic voters are quite liberal on many issues. In contrast, many centrist Democratic strategists and politicians are very critical of progressive stances. Ali argues Democratic leaders are still misguidedly chasing a hypothetical swing voter who they believe is white, male, and fairly conservative. I suggest that part of the tension between Democratic voters and politicians is that the latter raise money from superwealthy people, who often oppose tax hikes on corporations and the rich and increases in government spending. We also discuss the war with Iran, including my recent piece blasting it as misguided and ill conceived.