If you want to bring in additional people that you're going to need to build a supermajority,

to build a Big Ten coalition, you're going to have to say, I will be a more responsible

steward of taxpayer dollars. It's really funny to be sitting here talking about this because

it's not a moderate who is out there making the strongest case for fiscal responsibility right now.

It's Zoran Mamdami.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Focus Group podcast. I'm Sarah Longwell, publisher

of the bulwark. And this week, I want to revisit a debate. I've spent a long time

begging Democrats not to have, but they do insist upon it, especially on the interwebs, whether the Democratic

Party should become more moderate or more progressive. But that's, there's no stop at them. So

personally, I think it's the wrong debate to be having. Everyone in Democratic politics agrees

in theory that you need to have a big coalition to win elections, and there are a lot more moderate and progressive and completely heterodox Democrats who are models for the future. Yet everyone in the Democratic Party also has some people they wish we're not in the tent with them. This week, we're going to look for some synthesis in this moderate progressive debate because our focus groups have a fair bit of it. And because I listen to voters, it is why I reject this moderate progressive frame. Because if you listen to a lot of voters, you know that is just not the world they live in. I also want to look at some of the limits that Democrats place on

their big tent because part of having a big tent is knowing how to manage it well. My guest today is

Adam Jenelson, founder of the Searchlight Institute and author of the forthcoming book, Supermajority.

How Democrats can end Republicans' dominance and build lasting power. It comes out on September 15th.

Adam, what's up?

What's up, Sarah? It's great to be back. Okay, so I'm so pumped to have this conversation in part.

My book comes out September 8th. Yours comes out September 15th. And it sounds like we are having a very similar conversation. Mine is called How to Eat an Elephant, one voter at a time. And it is

filled with focus groups that basically

says, okay, how are we going to take down this toxic version of the Republican Party? And of course,

it means building a big, broad coalition. That is essential to doing this. Are you able to talk

about your book? Like, do your publishers get mad if you give away spoilers for your analysis? Because otherwise, tell me, tell me what's in there. They might, but let's just do it anyway. Look, the point of the book is thinking about, you know, how do we get out of this era where the best you can hope for, really for either side, but I'm looking at this as a Democrat, is to win a narrow majority. Like we've gotten locked into this idea that every election is going to come down to a white knuckle question of do we barely beat the fascists, right? And it's going to hang by a few thousand votes. We might wait for a week for the election results to be called. We need to break out of that mindset and start thinking about how we build not just a narrow majority, but a super majority. And the way to do that is exactly what you were talking about in the intro, which is to think about how do you assemble a big tent coalition, how do you link arms with people who you may disagree with on some issues, but have a lot of areas of common ground. The first half of it looks at sort of recent history of how we lost the most recent supermajority that Democrats won under President

Obama. And then it goes back through history and looks at times throughout history when

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