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Matt Stoller Profile picture
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7 Nov, 4 tweets, 2 min read
Democrats *don't* want to fix their rural problem with policy. They talk a lot about policy but they don't know that, say, rural health care has gotten a lot shittier in the last ten years. Democrats have been bad for rural America on policy. bostonreview.net/forum/finding-…
I don't know if rural America is more concerned about culture or policy but no one else does either. Democrats in 2016 barely noticed opioids.
This is also a challenge for the Rs. The Rs want to fix their urban problem with culture, but it's really a policy challenge. The first party to *actually* notice policy matters will govern for a generation.
There are factions in both parties that get this fundamental challenge, and those factions are becoming more powerful and influential. But neither is dominant, so it's just endless culture warring because that's easier and it's what the media wants.

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More from @matthewstoller

Matt Stoller Profile picture
6 Nov
Yes Democrats look down on people who live in rural areas, but they shouldn’t take it so personally. Democrats look down on everyone. nytimes.com/2021/11/06/us/…
We believe in diversity, equity, and inclusion when it comes to who we condescend to.
I’m only half kidding. Literally every faction of the Democratic voting base feels taken for granted and condescended to.
Read 4 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
6 Nov
1. Yesterday I wrote up a labor revolt at CVS and Walgreens by pharmacists and technicians. And what I found has some partial answers as to why Democrats are getting crushed by voters even as workers get more militant. mattstoller.substack.com/p/pizzaisnotwo…
2. The problem most people face at work is not 1930s-style Pinkerton hostility, but these guys, the management consulting Bob's. It's alienation from the distant corporate masters who control the workplace.
3. And that's a *direct* result of corporate power and size. Pharmacies used to be locally owned and small. Here's a Salt Lake City directory of pharmacies from 1955. Note they are almost all independently owned, with one small chain.
Read 23 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
6 Nov
What the antitrust bar misses is that the 'participants' are not just #BigLaw but everyone in the economy. Mergers have harmed tens of millions of people, and if we enforced the law as intended most mergers would be illegal. Antitrust law was not written so you could have a club.
The simplest rule would be that all mergers above $1 billion are illegal. The current rule is that all mergers are arbitrarily decided by a random judge who probably finds dueling corrupt economists confusing, intimidating and irritating.
What actually angers antitrust attorneys about Lina Khan is that she isn't in the club and didn't pay her dues. Instead she wants to actually wield the authority Congress gave the FTC to ensure fair markets. That's really all it is.
Read 4 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
4 Nov
Why don't we have cheap rapid covid tests? Tim Stenzel, the FDA employee in charge of approving them, approved two firms to make them. He had worked at both. Then he blocked additional ones from coming on the market. propublica.org/article/heres-…
FDA official Tim Stenzel explicitly advocated a rapid covid testing monopoly in his approach. Why? Efficiency!

Except that Europe has 39 tests and they are cheap and everywhere. We have expensive tests and they are in shortage.
This story about rapid covid testing came from my organization @econliberties. We wrote a letter two months ago asking why Stenzel is allowed to make these kinds of decisions. At this point the FDA needs radical reform to end its pro-monopoly posture. documentcloud.org/documents/2109…
Read 7 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
3 Nov
Liberals don't get it. The Pandemic and Covid are different things. Covid is a disease. The Pandemic is a politically constructed determination. We are not in a 'flu pandemic' because we have decided politically that the flu is something we have to deal with in a normal society.
Covid makes you sick. The Pandemic is a rationale for making lots of public policy decisions about who can travel, work, get educated, sell medicine, and so forth. Covid can decline as The Pandemic continues, and vice versa.
Biden has not handled the Pandemic well because he has empowered media hungry bureaucrats like Fauci to make *political choices* when the country has decided it prefers normalcy to endless panic and control.
Read 4 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
2 Nov
I have views on what Democrats are doing wrong politically, but the basic issue is that we are out of touch. I've never seen such wildly pro-labor sentiment in America in in my lifetime, but the Democratic governing class has no connection to the working class.
When Democrats admire a working class icon as much as they admire Anthony Fauci, they will no longer be out of touch. Screw that. When Democrats can *name* a working class icon...
Structurally the Democrats rely for their political machinery on nonprofits, and that's mostly untethered from any feedback loop except what foundation and corporate executives think. I don't really know how to fix any of this.
Read 10 tweets

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