Tom Edsall is the problem. So are all these political scientists. So is the New York Times. That’s the actual Democratic Party. They won’t fire themselves and they don’t see themselves as responsible. nytimes.com/2021/11/17/opi…
The reason Afghanistan hurt Biden is because the Democratic Party in the form of the Atlantic, the New York Times, the national security apparatus, etc turned on him. Trump’s strength is he disdained the elitists on his side. Biden hasn’t.
I don’t think a loss is going to do it. The progressive institutions are simply too strong and Democratic voters simply like their leaders too much. It’s going to take a Democratic Trump.
I was very clear that until Democrats actively reject Obama and what he did they cannot govern. So far everyone wants to pretend they can move beyond Obama without a reckoning.
Obama’s victory and failure was institutional, and they both represent the repudiation of deeply held elitist convictions going to the core of who Dems and the left still are today.
The Democratic Party brand is still the foreclosure crisis Obama engineered and then lied about. It is still Democratic voters and elites who do not know and will not believe that they voted for and stole the homes of tens of millions.
The Republicans are wildly out of touch, but if they can fix that, the Democrats will shrink into a niche regional party. So far though neither party has fixed their problems.
Dem politicians are actually more in touch. It’s the Atlantic, the New York Times, CNN, nonprofits, MSNBC, biglaw - it’s the unaccountable machine operatives who don’t have to face voters.

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More from @matthewstoller

7 Nov
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.
Read 4 tweets
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
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
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
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
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

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