What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Behind the Democrats’ Losing Strategy

Why the Democrats’ electoral strategy of “hire consultants to tell you which positions poll well enough to take” has run its course—and where they should look to start rebuilding.

Guest: Ben Mathis-Lilley, Slate senior writer and author of “How Strategist Brain Took Over the Democratic Party”.

Cited in this episode: 

The Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics (Daniel Schlozman and Sam Rosenfeld)

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (Robert D. Putnam)

The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions—And How the World Lost Its Mind (Dan Davies)

Cited in this episode: 

The Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics (Daniel Schlozman and Sam Rosenfeld)

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (Robert D. Putnam)

The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions—And How the World Lost Its Mind (Dan Davies)

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Podcast production by Ethan Oberman, Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.

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Chapo Trap House - 951 – My Boys And In Some Cases Gals feat. Alex Nichols (7/14/25)

Alex back on the show today to look at the continuing fallout of Trump’s attempts to wash his hands of Epstein. From the baffled & betrayed Trump-curious internet trend-seekers, to the dyed-in-the-wool loyalists, the admin seems to have picked the absolute worst way to disarm this bomb. Plus: Greg Abbott makes a why-even-bother play to cover up Musk’s bribery, and Biden gives a why-even-bother explanation for his diminished capacity pardons. Pre-Order YEAR ZERO: A Chapo Trap House Comic Anthology at badegg.co/products/year-zero-1

Read Me a Poem - “Parachutes My Love, Could Carry Us Higher” by Barbara Guest

Amanda Holmes reads Barbara Guest’s “Parachutes My Love, Could Carry Us Higher.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.

 

This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It Could Happen Here - Humanity, the Bad feat. Andrew

Andrew and Gare discuss the reasons why people justify doing bad things, from pleasing authority to narratives of necessary evil.

Sources:

Humankind by Rutger Bregman

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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