
Michelle Goldberg Goes to Washington
The problem isn’t just voting for Democrats, it's letting a rightward-moving Democratic Party set the Left’s political horizons.

The problem isn’t just voting for Democrats, it's letting a rightward-moving Democratic Party set the Left’s political horizons.

The Democratic Party is hopelessly corporate, but election law is stacked against third parties. The Left needs an independent organization that can stay flexible about running as Democrats but behaves with the discipline of a real party.

On the 2020 campaign trail, Joe Biden and much of the rest of his party promised to pursue a public option for health care. We haven't heard a word about the public option since.

Centrist Democrats embraced identity politics in the 2016 election. Surprise, surprise — they’re now working to keep diverse candidates out who threaten their power.

To win working-class voters — and possibly today’s election — Democrats need to attack economic elites. But the Kamala Harris campaign hasn’t consistently offered an anti-elite counter to Donald Trump’s right-wing populism.

Pro-crypto candidates in the 2024 election cycle are enjoying a major funding boost from the $2.5 trillion cryptocurrency industry, which is fighting hard to reverse regulatory measures put in place by government agencies like the SEC.

Though the issue has been put on the back burner in recent years, the influence of big money is still wreaking havoc on US politics. Zohran Mamdani’s grassroots-powered, publicly funded campaign for New York City mayor suggests a way out of this morass.

By making big promises and then steadfastly refusing to deliver on them, Joe Biden and the Democratic Party’s power brokers are helping Republicans convince the country that government and politics can’t make life better for average people.

Israel’s naked attempt to enforce an unflagging pro-Israel consensus, as it did in stoking backlash against Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s sensible recent comments that the country is a “racist state,” may work in the short-term. But the future belongs to Palestine.

Democrats have reneged on their longtime promise to codify Roe v. Wade every time they’ve held power. Party leaders will not fulfill that promise until and unless they fear their own voters.

New Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson comes from a party called the Moderates. But his majority relies on the votes of the far-right Sweden Democrats — and their pressure is already visible in his plans for government.
Five things a Vermont third party can teach us about carving out a space to the left of the Democrats.

Chiara Ferragni is Italy’s top influencer, a brand the center-left Democrats have long tried to associate themselves with. But now the fashion blogger and businesswoman is enveloped in scandal, showing the pitfalls of making influencers progressive icons.

Hillary Clinton won rich suburbs in record numbers. But her campaign failed to mobilize workers of all races.

Progressive candidates have established a few tenuous footholds in recent years. Democratic leadership and their corporate donors are now doing everything they can to destroy those progressives.

The Democratic donor class does not want progressives anywhere near the levers of power — even in races where they could clearly win. That's why they're backing centrist millionaire Democrat John Hickenlooper over a proponent of Medicare for All and the Green New Deal for a Colorado Senate seat.

Open contempt for the progressive left, speeches from Republicans, and a liberal class hopelessly out of touch with the moment, this week was 2016’s DNC all over again — and the Democrats are at risk of the same result: failing to defeat Donald Trump.

Joe Biden has reverted to type, pushing a laughably inadequate infrastructure deal that ignores the accelerating climate crisis. There are now enough progressives in Congress to block the bill and insist on something better. They should.

Chief Justice John Roberts has repeatedly declined to use his position to impose a code of ethics on the highest court. Now, he’s punting investigation of Clarence Thomas’s corruption scandal to a panel of lower court judges whose identities are secret.

When it comes to the economy, Democrats are now the party of the status quo, while Donald Trump’s GOP is making a misleading but radical-sounding pitch to upend the existing order in workers’ favor. It’s a fundamental role reversal in US politics.