Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of the Left podcast.

This is a sample of our recent bonus episode, usually only available to members.

These episodes are comprised of our crew of researchers, Amanda and myself, all getting together for a roundtable discussion on topics that we find interesting.

So here's a few minutes for free so you can know what all the fuss is about.

Speaking of the need for system change, we're going to talk about political parties and a slightly new take on how we could, I don't know, perceive them, interpret them.

Jacobin wrote the article, Democracy is not a customer loyalty program, and the essence of it is taking aim at the idea that parties earn votes from

people. Parties need to earn your vote. They create policies like products and try to sell them,

right? And so this article is taking aim at that.

And they give this description of democracy, as was envisioned by an Austrian political

economist.

And this totally reminds me of the way that people always describe stuff using metaphors that are

particular to their own period.

So, like, the human brain and the human body used to, like, 100 years ago, used to be

described in mechanical terms and, like, gears and steam steam power because that's what people had. That's what

they were dealing with on a regular basis. And so they're like, oh, yeah, like, that's,

that's kind of like what the human body is. And then, you know, by the end of the 1900s, we had pivoted and we started

talking about brains and bodies like computers. Because again, we had entered the computer age.

And so they just reach for the closest metaphor. And so Schumptor, this Austrian political

economist who died in 1950. And this article doesn't get deep

into it, but like the deep, deep roots of neoliberalism that came from the Chicago school

is also called the Austrian School of Economics. So, like, I have no doubt whatsoever that

this is where this dude is coming from and it was, like, I have no doubt whatsoever that this is where this dude is coming

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