What separates Obama-era liberalism from Sanders-style democratic socialism?
What are the fights splitting and transforming the Democratic Party actually
about?
This is a conversation I’ve wanted to have for a while, in part because I
often find myself simultaneously in these debates and confused by them.
Sometimes, arguments that are framed as deep ideological disagreements seem to
actually be about differing political judgments about what public and
political institutions will permit. But perhaps those political judgments are
just ideology posing as pragmatism. It’s easy to fall down the rabbit hole
here.
Elizabeth Bruenig is an opinion columnist at the Washington Post, co-host of
the podcast
The Bruenigs , and a thoughtful champion of the democratic
socialist worldview. I asked her on the show to help me trace the boundaries
of this debate and highlight where the divides really are.
This is a conversation about ideology, but it’s also about the limits of
persuasion, whether civility is a weapon wielded by the powerful, what
Medicare-for-all means, the left’s definition of freedom, the contradictions
of being “socially liberal and fiscally responsible,” Howard Schultz, and much
more.
Book Recommendations:
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-St-
Augustine-autobiographical-
including/dp/1723200905/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1549483348&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=confessions+augustine&psc=1" target="new">
The Confessions of Saint Augustine
by Saint Augustine
https://www.amazon.com/Crime-Punishment-Volokhonsky-
Translation-
Classics/dp/0679734503/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1549483365&sr=8-2&keywords=crime+and+punishment" target="new">
Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
https://www.amazon.com/Malaise-Modernity-Cbc-
Massey-
Lectures/dp/0887845207/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549483137&sr=8-1&keywords=the+malaise+of+modernity" target="new">
The Malaise of Modernity
by Charles Taylor
Read more
What separates Obama-era liberalism from Sanders-style democratic socialism?
What are the fights splitting and transforming the Democratic Party actually
about?
This is a conversation I’ve wanted to have for a while, in part because I
often find myself simultaneously in these debates and confused by them.
Sometimes, arguments that are framed as deep ideological disagreements seem to
actually be about differing political judgments about what public and
political institutions will permit. But perhaps those political judgments are
just ideology posing as pragmatism. It’s easy to fall down the rabbit hole
here.
Elizabeth Bruenig is an opinion columnist at the Washington Post, co-host of
the podcast
The Bruenigs , and a thoughtful champion of the democratic
socialist worldview. I asked her on the show to help me trace the boundaries
of this debate and highlight where the divides really are.
This is a conversation about ideology, but it’s also about the limits of
persuasion, whether civility is a weapon wielded by the powerful, what
Medicare-for-all means, the left’s definition of freedom, the contradictions
of being “socially liberal and fiscally responsible,” Howard Schultz, and much
more.
Book Recommendations:
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-St-
Augustine-autobiographical-
including/dp/1723200905/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1549483348&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=confessions+augustine&psc=1" target="new">
The Confessions of Saint Augustine
by Saint Augustine
https://www.amazon.com/Crime-Punishment-Volokhonsky-
Translation-
Classics/dp/0679734503/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1549483365&sr=8-2&keywords=crime+and+punishment" target="new">
Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
https://www.amazon.com/Malaise-Modernity-Cbc-
Massey-
Lectures/dp/0887845207/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549483137&sr=8-1&keywords=the+malaise+of+modernity" target="new">
The Malaise of Modernity
by Charles Taylor
Read less