Checks and Balance: Peak progressive

Checks and Balance from The Economist

The Economist

Politics, News & Politics, News, Us Politics

4.6 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2022

⏱️ 46 minutes

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Summary

The Democratic party is in the throes of a rude awakening. Despite Donald Trump remaining at its head, the Republican Party is widely expected to make significant gains in the upcoming mid-term elections. Working class and Hispanic voters seem to be turning away from the Democrats. In some liberal cities, voters are in open revolt against progressive policies. How did the party lose touch with its voters? And does a flurry of recent dealmaking suggest it can moderate in time to avoid electoral disaster?

Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, makes the case for progressive success beyond the mid-terms. We ask Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of “The New Politics of Evasion”, how the central myths of the Democratic party have changed. And Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressman from Silicon Valley, argues for how to reframe the Democratic narrative.

John Prideaux hosts with Idrees Kahloon and Charlotte Howard

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Against flaring lights and background music of grinding strings, the shaven-headed sheriff
0:07.8	patrols his neighbourhood. His steely eyes in the rearview mirror scan for near-do wells.
0:13.8	I've seen all kinds of gun crimes, he draws.
0:18.8	It's a campaign ad paid for by a candidate who promises to raise police wages and defend
0:23.9	against a politics of dangerous extremes that would make the streets less safe.
0:30.1	But this candidate has so far been better known for her campaign against voter suppression
0:34.8	than for her law and order credentials.
0:37.8	Stacey Abrams, running for governor of Georgia, is one of a flurry of prominent Democrats,
0:42.7	including Tim Ryan in Ohio and Val Demings in Florida, embracing a public safety message
0:48.3	after criticisms the progressive wing of the party has undermined law enforcement and
0:53.1	ignored public concerns over violent crime.
0:56.8	Last week, President Biden joined the fray, with his safer America plan, a $37 billion
1:03.0	project to put 100,000 more police officers on the streets over five years.
1:10.4	I'm John Prado and this is Chex and Balance from the Economist.
1:19.6	Each week we take one big theme, shaping American politics and explore it in depth.
1:30.7	Today has America passed peak progressive.
1:45.5	The Democratic Party is in the throes of a rude awakening.
1:49.2	Its grand legislative ambitions have had to be scaled back again and again.
1:54.3	A flurry of recent deal-making in Congress bears little resemblance to Joe Biden's original
1:58.6	promises.
2:00.3	Most of these initiatives sit squarely in the pro-business centre.
2:04.6	And at state level, some of the most progressive programs are even going into reverse.
	...

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