This Week In The Big Picture
Throughout this year’s Democratic primaries, a narrative has taken root pitting the candidates of the progressive left, widely seen as “insurgents” running to disrupt the status quo, versus more moderate candidates largely aligned with the Democratic establishment.
While the anti-establishment candidates don’t always prevail in the end, the Democratic base is undeniably in an anti-establishment mood. And now, the party’s 2028 hopefuls are beginning to position themselves accordingly.
In tomorrow’s piece, Todd Beeton explores how “normie” Democratic leaders with presidential aspirations are beginning to adopt the rhetoric and even some positions of the anti-establishment left, betting that they can run as a new breed of “anti-system moderates” in the 2028 presidential primary.
And in case you missed it yesterday, Jay Kuo broke down all the abuses of justice we should expect from Todd Blanche now that he’s been sworn in as Attorney General. In his piece, Kuo explores how we can rebuild the post-Watergate guardrails put in place to ensure an independent Department of Justice.
Carte Blanche
Cronyism, politicization and outright weaponization of the Justice Department have become so routine in Trump’s second term t…
Okay, sure but are they gonna GOVERN with these policies is the real question
Referring to the “left vs center” dynamic in the Democratic Party…
I like Simon Rosenberg’s reading (if I understand it right from his “Hopium Chronicles”) that it’s not that leftists are trying to disrupt the establishment. It’s that Democratic voters are favoring candidates with energy and new ideas - fighters for democracy and against Republican economics, cultural issues and authoritarianism … and against (among other things) the oligarchical interests that Republicans cater to.
With this perspective, what’s “wrong” with the Democratic establishment is its hesitancy to say/do things that might offend their big-dollar donors.
The “Social Democrats” who are winning primaries are not SDA zealots either. In most cases, they are aligned with less ideological local SD sub-groups who have far more pragmatic views on governance.
If Democrats waste energy debating over