Welcome to Axis ProRata, a podcast that takes just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech business and politics.

I'm Dan Pramak. On today's show, a big-name U.S. investor gets arrested in Russia and the new way that Siri plans to compete with Alexa.

But first, socialism versus freedom. Okay, now those things don't actually necessarily have to be in conflict

with one another, but it is the dichotomy that a lot of Republicans want to solidify ahead of the

2020 elections. Now, Democrats recapture the House largely on the backs of relatively

centrist candidates, but almost all of the buzz media tension has gone to progressives, like

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, mainly because they're charismatic and unapologial. candidates, but almost all of the buzz media tension has gone to progressives like Alexandria

Ocasio-Cortez, mainly because they're charismatic and unapologetically offering a political

message that Americans haven't heard since, well, probably since before most Americans were

born.

Now, Republicans realize this and believe they can use things like Ocasio-Cortez's Green

New Deal, which focuses on both

climate change and income inequality as something to hang around Democrats next. Again, the message is,

these are socialists. Plus, Republicans believe it only bolsters their case when Kamala Harris

talks about free health care for all, and Elizabeth Warren talks about free child care,

and Bernie Sanders today reenters the

race with his proposal for free four-year college. Now, most of these candidates, with the exception

of Sanders, actually reject the socialist identification, but that's a detail that will not make

the GOP ad buys or the primetime Fox News segments. Trump will be capitalism in 2020, largely unfettered and quote-unquote free,

contrasting himself to so-called socialists. That's the playbook. The question now is if it's a winning

strategy or if American voters have moved on and are again ready for a pretty fundamental change.

In 15 seconds, we'll go deeper with Axios executive editor Mike Allen. But first, this.

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