1. Why is Bernie popular among Dem voters but not Dem elites? Studying monopolies in different markets has give me a new perspective on the Democratic Party. Because the Democrats, as it turns out, are a concentrated market. Here's how it works.
2. The Democratic Party at a national level is just two formal things. It organizes a platform and it organizes a convention to pick a Presidential nominee. But informally the Democrats are a market where the products are different policies. And elites control distribution.
3. The gatekeeping over distribution is a set of institutions like nonprofits, philanthropies, unions, and most important, TV media. The New York Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC and CNN are an informal cartel that organizes which ideas are legitimate.
4. The most obvious example of this cartel at work is how Democrats simply do not know that Obama had a policy of enabling mass foreclosures. They just don't know. washingtonpost.com/posteverything…
5. The most important part of the primary so far was in 2017, when Obama installed Tom Perez as DNC chair with anti-Muslim opposition research on Keith Ellison. Democratic voters just do not know the rules are structured by these kinds of arrangements. pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/…
6. The parent companies of CNN and MSNBC are quite happy with Trump. And the job of most MSNBC analysts and hosts is to ensure that the idea of decentralizing power to the public is never on the table. Democrats may or may not like that notion, but they never hear about it.
7. I have contempt for Democratic voters. But they are basically in the dark about all policy choices, because the gate-keepers structure the political conversation extraordinarily narrowly. It's why every Dem debate is the same 10 questions asked by different arched eyebrows.
8. The goal of gatekeepers is to retain a gatekeeping position, which puts them in a tacit alliance with billionaires, lobbyists, and biglaw policymakers. Trump actually broke this structure on the R side. It's why #nevertrumpers feel so comfy as Dems now. They are gatekeepers!
9. There are a host of attempts at breaking down this cartel, from @jacobinmag to @theintercept to @krystalball/@esaagar to @ddayen and the @theprospect. Many more on a local level too. I went into detail how this cartel worked in Iowa. mattstoller.substack.com/p/iowa-caucuse…
@jacobinmag @theintercept @krystalball @esaagar @ddayen @theprospect 10. The only way to truly break it down is to re-localize politics, and that means reimagining what political machines will look like without a top-down approach. Wright Patman, for instance, used local postmasters as his political contact points in rural Texas.
@jacobinmag @theintercept @krystalball @esaagar @ddayen @theprospect 11. At any rate, you can't govern if you can't reach the people. The dominance of the Democratic establishment comes from their gatekeeping of discourse, and then their vertical integration from that into policymaking and governance.
