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So @HeerJeet wrote a piece on the declining influence of big progressive D.C. think tanks with thoughts from @mschmitt9, @Econ_Marshall, @MattBruenig and @BruceBartlett. thenation.com/article/think-…
@HeerJeet @mschmitt9 @Econ_Marshall @MattBruenig @BruceBartlett A couple of thoughts. Dominant progressive think tanks are basically a post-2003 phenomenon. There was EPI in the 1980s and IPS, but basically Dems did their thinking from *within* Congress prior to the 1995 GOP takeover.
@HeerJeet @mschmitt9 @Econ_Marshall @MattBruenig @BruceBartlett The problem that progressive think tanks have is the same problem all progressives have today. Progressives got what they wanted in Obama, and it turns out the Obama Presidency sucked for most people. The ideology broke down.
@HeerJeet @mschmitt9 @Econ_Marshall @MattBruenig @BruceBartlett As Antonio Gramsci put it, “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”
@HeerJeet @mschmitt9 @Econ_Marshall @MattBruenig @BruceBartlett I'm at a think tank that focuses on the problem of monopoly, and we've had a fairly significant impact on the debate. I come out of the progressive space, but I find myself working with conservatives all the time. Yesterday 50 state AGs announced an investigation of Google.
@HeerJeet @mschmitt9 @Econ_Marshall @MattBruenig @BruceBartlett I deal with conservative government contractors who hate the corruption they see, ex-engineers at Boeing angry that engineering decisions are corrupted by financiers, and conservative China hawks upset at infringements on sovereignty and dangerous levels of pollution.
@HeerJeet @mschmitt9 @Econ_Marshall @MattBruenig @BruceBartlett We have a series of existential crises threatening liberal democracy and humanity itself, from China to climate change to big finance to monopoly. Everyone in policymaking positions needs to reorient and learn. Lots of think tanks, too little curiosity.
@HeerJeet @mschmitt9 @Econ_Marshall @MattBruenig @BruceBartlett I wrote this in 2016 on how the progressive ideology collapsed in the face of its framework that business isn't part of politics. The ferment we see, and lack of answers, is good. theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
