US onAir Curators

Democrats Must Discover Their Unique Selling Proposition
They’re the party of government. They should start acting like it.
Sam Kahn

One of the big questions raised by the recent transformation of American politics, and the breaking up of an older economic consensus, is what a coherent economic vision for the next decades might look like. Addressing himself primarily to the debate within the Democratic Party, Sam Kahn makes a case for a populist economist rooted in the burgeoning antitrust movement. Over the coming weeks and months, we will also feature many other voices, including ones that argue for an abundance agenda or address how the Republican Party can genuinely transform into party of the multiracial working-class. I hope you join us for these important debates.

Entering Our Crank Era
The Trump administration will be defined by people who refuse to trust empirical reality. RFK Jr. will be its avatar.
William Kristol and Andrew Egger, the Bulwark

In my lifetime, I got to watch the elimination of polio, a disease that caused 20 to 30,000 children to become paralyzed and 1,500 to die every year. In my medical lifetime I’ve gotten to watch the virtual elimination of a bacteria called Haemophilus influenzae B, which accounted for 20 to 25,000 cases of meningitis and bloodstream infections every year in this country. It dominated my pediatric residency in the late ‘70s—I mean, we’d see a kid come in, a child come in every week with severe meningitis caused by that bacteria. Gone! Most pediatricians in our hospital don’t see that. Have never seen it. Rotavirus—I mean, that was our vaccine, I’m co-inventor of that vaccine—that caused 75,000 hospitalizations a year. I don’t think pediatric residents have ever seen a case, currently in our hospital, of rotavirus-induced severe disease, the dehydration.

So, you know, vaccines work. When we make recommendations to give them, we lessen or in some cases eliminate diseases. So what is the problem we’re trying to fix?

The Morning: The BIG question I think about.  Is the Trump coalition durable?
Chris Cillizza

But I do think we have one interesting data point from the 2024 election: In 4 states where Trump won — Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan — the Democratic Senate candidate also won.

That consistent underperformance of Trump by GOP Senate candisates in swing states leads me to believe that it might just be a Trump coalition rather than a broader Republican coalition.

Joe and Mika Gave Us the Middle Finger…It Backfired
Ben Meiselas and MeidasTouch Network

I guess there is a silver lining to all of this.

The MeidasTouch Network is experiencing meteoric growth as viewers of Morning Joe and other corporate media shut off the “sane-washing” and Trump propaganda and turn to Meidas. So I make you this pledge: I will never “pull a Joe and Mika.” We will never be scared to report the truth about Trump and MAGA. We have built an infrastructure made for this moment, thanks to the support of paid Substack members. We are ready to meet the moment.

Repetition, Repetition… It’s How We Win
Ben Meiselas

The most important thing Democrats need to repeat is that they actually care about the people they fight for—unlike Republicans. Democrats often assume that because their policies—whether related to infrastructure, health care, unions, education, etc.—help people, those people will automatically feel that Democrats are on their side. That’s not how it works. We saw that in this election.

So, the most obvious thing Democrats need to do—and repeat, repeat, repeat—is tell people: “We care about you. We hear your concerns. We feel your pain. We are fighting for you.” Look people in the eye and say it. Over and over. Let them know you care.