Share this page!

Ezra Klein Profile picture
Twitter logo
23 Mar, 6 tweets, 2 min read
I've interviewed @SenSanders many times over the years. But this conversation is, by far, the most optimistic I've heard him. He changed politics, and now he wants to see how far he can push.

You should listen to the whole thing, but a few excerpts:

nytimes.com/2021/03/23/opi…
On the American Rescue Plan:
On how the Republican Party has changed:
On "cancel culture," and the power of tech platforms:
On the politics of younger voters:
And there's much more, including on sectoral bargaining, the GOP's turn against democracy, Sanders's turn against the filibuster, what he's looking for in the coming investment package, and on: nytimes.com/2021/03/23/opi…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Ezra Klein

Ezra Klein Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @ezraklein

Ezra Klein Profile picture
24 Mar
Interesting @kdrum post on the decline of blogs that includes, among other things, this provocative theory for why Google let Reader die, and no other major company picked up RSS effectively. jabberwocking.com/why-have-blog-… Image
My personal theory of the death of the blogosphere — which is different than the death of blogs, there are still lots of those — is that the blogosphere was built on short links that moved people around, not long essays, and when Twitter disaggregated that, the ecosystem died.
This is also why Substack isn't a replacement for the blogosphere, even if it does feel similar to the best blog posts: that curation and conversation function doesn't translate, both because of subscriber walls and because Twitter just does it better.
Read 6 tweets
Ezra Klein Profile picture
18 Mar
This is well said.
"The appetite for larger-scale governmental action could not be more different in 2021. Think of it this way: the Recovery Act was twenty points less popular than Obama. The American Rescue Plan is twenty points more popular than (a pretty popular) Biden."
We can't run the counterfactual but I wouldn't underestimate how much of a role race played in how these bills were seen. Obama was very popular personally, but we know that his presidency led people's views on race to drive their views on all kinds of policy questions.
Read 6 tweets
Ezra Klein Profile picture
18 Mar
I want to recommend this thread, and also to say: I think it would be *good* if Republicans felt forced to come up with a real legislative agenda.

The way politics should work is parties win power, bass agendas, and the public uses the consequences to inform future votes.
Part of the GOP's collapse into symbolic politics is that so little gets done in congress, and there are so many excuses for why nothing gets done, that they can afford to indulge all kinds of ideas they know will never pass, and focus on issues with no legislative content.
But it'd be better if politics was a contest between actual legislative agendas, and politicians were disciplined by the knowledge that they may have to pass, and stand by the consequences, of the ideas they claim to favor.
Read 4 tweets
Ezra Klein Profile picture
16 Mar
Lots of symbolic progressivism and operational conservatism in Europe's vaccine debacle. So much emphasis on process and solidarity and equity and regulatory deference in ways that made action easy to slow or veto, with disastrous results. nytimes.com/2021/03/16/bri…
Trump's Warp Speed program really does deserve credit, but you can also see the different in how the Biden admin (and various states) have acted: A real emphasis on speed, on pushing government to find ways to get new doses, on adding flexibility even amidst uncertainty.
In crises, government needs to be able to *act*, even at the cost of some other values. There is nothing more progressive than actually having government deliver vaccinations that save people's lives, as fast as possible.
Read 4 tweets
Ezra Klein Profile picture
12 Mar
Hope feels like an unsafe emotion lately. Personally and professionally, I don’t want to wax optimistic only to be crushed as deaths rise. Pessimism is safer.

But in the US, at least, the reality right now is pretty damn hopeful. nytimes.com/2021/03/12/opi…
Let me back up: On Jan 28th, I published a column that began like this:

“I hope, in the end, that this article reads as alarmism. I hope that a year from now it’s a piece people point to as an overreaction.”

Good news: Six weeks later, it does!

nytimes.com/2021/01/28/opi…
The column was all about the new variants, and the way experts thought we could have a truly hellish period as super-contagious strains exploded before mass vaccination took hold.

But — thankfully — that’s not what happened.
Read 11 tweets
Ezra Klein Profile picture
6 Mar
I'm angry about the cut to UI and the absence of *any* minimum wage increase in the bill.

At the same time, I'm ELATED the Child Tax Credit is moving through unscathed, and same for EITC, school infrastructure, state and local aid, $1,400 checks, Obamacare boost...
And then there's the coronavirus funding itself, which is huge. Vaccinations are already above 2m a day. Add in tens of billions for distribution, and $50 billion for a national testing infrastructure, and we could really beat this thing.
I'm open to counterexamples, but this still looks like the most ambitious and progressive economic package Congress has passed in my lifetime. It will do more to cut poverty, and push full employment, than anything else I've covered.
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @ezraklein has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @ezraklein!

Read all threads by @ezraklein