A Great Ezra Klein Podcast

If Democrats Moderate on Cultural Issues, Will they Win More?

Today I listened to Ezra Klein interview with political scientist Ruy Teixeria, and I very much want you to listen to it too!

They discuss a core problems for Democratic Party politics, one that is existential for the future of the party, and frankly America—what to do about the loss of white working-class voters, and working class voters in general.

Ruy gives a spirited and relatively articulate defense of the “we should moderate on cultural issues” hypothesis. (Despite this, the case he makes here is still comfortably to the left of much of our city council on public spending and unions.)

But in the end, I think his arguments falters in the face of Klein’s probing. While his defense is informed and articulate, it becomes clear that his hypothesis is filled with holes—from the lack of examples of this strategy working, despite efforts here and abroad, to the fact that his theories don’t make any sense in the face of Republican success.

Just to be clear, Klein doesn’t argue for what I think of as the standard alternative movement left hypothesis—that left populism will mobilize enough disaffected voters to swamp any losses in the middle. Nor do I take a position on that here.

But in charitably engaging with Teixeira, and (I think) exposing huges gaps in his hypothesis, he does give the listener much to chew on.

Perhaps most intriguing, their discussion of Senator John Fetterman’s success may hint at an insight into a promising future strategy for Democrats, even if John Fetterman isn’t the perfect embodiment of this strategy.

You can listen online at the New York Times if you have an account. Or you listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast (that’s the free app I use for podcasts).

Ruy Teixeria is a political scientist best known as the coauthor of the 2002 book “The Emerging Democratic Majority,” which popularized the idea that the changing demographics of America created a kind of inevitable dominance by the Democratic Party. But this was contingent on slowing the loss of white working-class voters. He and his coauthor John B Judis have written a new book, “Where Have All the Democrats Gone?: The Soul of the Party in the Age of Extremes.” Teixeria also is a cofounder of “The Liberal Patriot.”