Chris Murphy 🟧 Profile picture
Nov 10, 2024 10 tweets 2 min read Read on X
That was a cataclysm. Electoral map wipeout. Senate D practical ceiling is now 52 seats. R's is 62.

Time to rebuild the left.

We are out of touch with the crisis of meaning/purpose fueling MAGA. We refuse to pick big fights. Our tent is too small.

1/ Some early thoughts:
2/ The left has never fully grappled with the wreckage of fifty years of neoliberalism, which has left legions of Americans adrift as local places are hollowed out, rapacious profit seeking cannibalizes the common good, and unchecked new technology separates and isolates us.
3/ The things that mattered are disappearing. We spend half as much time with friends as a generation ago. Hard work no longer guarantees economic mobility. Institutions (like churches) are delegitimized. Place based identity evaporates as we all become "global citizens."
4/ The left skips past the way people are feeling (alone, impotent, overwhelmed) and straight to uninspiring solutions (more roads! bulk drug purchasing!) that do little to actually upset the status quo of who has power and who doesn't.
5/ Does racism explain part of the attraction of the right's nativism? Of course. But mass deportation is a (terrible) response to Americans' real sense they are helpless in the face of global forces (like increased migration). The left largely ignores this pain.
6/ We don't listen enough; we tell people what's good for them.

And when progressives like Bernie aggressively go after the elites that hold people down, they are shunned as dangerous populists. Why? Maybe because true economic populism is bad for our high-income base. 😬
7/ Meanwhile, men tumble into a different kind of identity crisis, as the patriarchy, society's primary organizing paradigm for centuries, rightly crashes. The right pushes an alluring dial back. The left says "get over it". Again, a refusal to listen/offer responsible solutions.
8/ We cannot be afraid of fights - especially with the economic elites who have profited off neoliberalism. The right regularly picks fights with elites - Hollywood, higher ed, etc. Democrats (e.g. the Harris campaign) are tepid in our fights with billionaires and corporations.
9/ Real economic populism should be our tentpole.

But here's the thing - then you need to let people into the tent who aren't 100% on board with us on every social and cultural issue, or issues like guns or climate.
10/ Those are hard things for the left.

A firm break with neoliberalism.

Listen to poor and rural people, men in crisis. Don't decide for them.

Pick fights. Embrace populism.

Build a big tent. Be less judgmental.

But we are beyond small fixes.

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More from @ChrisMurphyCT

Aug 22
1/ Republicans think they are going to hide all the hospital and clinic closures due to throwing 17M off their health care to pay for their billionaire tax cuts.

We won't let them.

I'm starting an effort to track all the closures - @HospitalsCrisis. We launched it this week. Image
2/ My organization, American Mobilization Project, is funding and working with @ProtectOurCare to build this tool tool that tracks the damage done to health care centers in real time.

Every time a hospital closes or is at risk of closing because of the GOP bill, we'll know.
3/ When your local hospital eliminates its maternity delivery unit, or your parent’s nursing home closes, you should know why.

It's the direct result of a choice that Republicans and Trump made to choose tax cuts for the rich over health care for normal Americans.
Read 6 tweets
Aug 20
Private equity looted 3 Connecticut hospitals. Services cut, nurses buying their own supplies etc. They will do it to your hospital if we don't stop this trend right now.

1/ Today I'm releasing a report on the truth about private equity in health care.
tinyurl.com/adangerouspros…
2/ In 2016, private equity backed Prospect Medical Holdings bought three cash-strapped hospitals in Connecticut with the promise they'd invest in upgrades.

The plan was to shore up the hospitals so they could offer better care for patients. It was sold as a win-win. They lied.
3/ Instead, private equity deployed the “buy, strip, flip” playbook. It’s exactly as destructive as it sounds.

Buy a vulnerable hospital.

Strip it of staff, services and assets - scam and squeeze every dollar possible out of patients.

Flip whatever’s left for a big payout.
Read 8 tweets
Aug 14
There is no scenario tomorrow in which Putin doesn't become stronger and America becomes weaker. It's a premade disaster.

1/ But it could be worse than just a bad photo op. Here's how:
nytimes.com/2025/08/14/wor…
2/ This meeting essentially accepts Russia back into the club of legitimate major nations. And that's unacceptable, because Putin is committing war crimes in Ukraine - purposely murdering innocent people and kidnapping young children.

The photo op alone is a disaster for peace.
3/ How could the meeting become an even bigger disaster? Easy.

If there is no ceasefire (and there can't be, because Ukraine isn't even attending!), and Trump doesn't immediately announce sanctions AND new weapons for Ukraine.

That would be Putin playing Trump like a fiddle.
Read 6 tweets
Aug 2
The story of how Trump sells access to the White House - to benefit himself and his family financially and to benefit his political operation - is shocking and sordid.

No President has ever monetized access like Trump has.

1/ It's a story you need to know.
2/ The primary way to get to Trump is at his golf clubs. Reportedly, a $5 million donation to Trump's political operation gets you a one-on-one meeting. $1 million will get you a group private dinner.

Putting a price on a one-on-one meeting isn't normal.
wired.com/story/people-p…
3/ One crypto CEO who paid the $1 million price explained to the @nytimes that after his meeting with Trump, his idea to make money off the federal government was suddenly "making the rounds...so mission accomplished from my view.”
nytimes.com/2025/08/02/us/…
Read 6 tweets
Jul 28
The more we learn about the U.S.-Japan "trade deal", the more we learn there is no deal.

Trump rushed out an "announcement" after a 70 minute conversation with Japan's trade negotiator and the press dutifully reported a deal.

1/ No text and widening disagreement on terms.
2/ The most significant claim Trump made in the "announcement" was a $550 billion Japanese investment fund in the U.S. where the U.S. would split profits with Japan 90/10.

Trump called it a "signing bonus".

"They gave us $550B up front, 100 percent," he said.
3/ The press reported it straight even though it sounded absurd.

$550 billion is 13% of Japan's entire GDP! Who believes Japan is investing 13% of its GDP in the U.S. and giving the U.S. 90% of the profits?

It made no sense. And of course we find out - Trump made it up.
Read 6 tweets
Jul 11
I told you that the SCOTUS's ban on national injunctions would supersize Trump's lawlessness.

Well, it's starting.

1/ Let me break some news for you: Trump is stealing money to build facilities like Alligator Alcatraz - from an account earmarked for the OPPOSITE of detention.
2/ I'm the top Democrat on the sub-committee that writes the budget for DHS. I know that budget.

Since 2019, the budget always includes a line item for detention beds AND a line item for the Shelter and Services Program ("SSP"). They are very different programs.
3/ The detention account funds secure beds for immigrants who are detained. But many asylum applicants are released into the U.S. as their cases are processed.

SSP provides small grants to help local communities provide shelter or services to those people.
Read 7 tweets

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