Democratic Voters Don’t Want Vanilla Centrism

Wajahat Ali and TNR’s Perry Bacon discuss why Democratic leaders are out of step with the party’s voters on so many issues.

You can watch this conversation above, on Substack, or YouTube.

I joined journalist Wajahat Ali’s Substack show The Left Hook. We discuss the policy differences between Democratic Party leaders and voters, including my recent article showing that moderate Democratic voters are quite liberal on many issues. In contrast, many centrist Democratic strategists and politicians are very critical of progressive stances. Ali argues Democratic leaders are still misguidedly chasing a hypothetical swing voter who they believe is white, male, and fairly conservative. I suggest that part of the tension between Democratic voters and politicians is that the latter raise money from super-wealthy people, who often oppose tax hikes on corporations and the rich and increases in government spending. We also discuss the war with Iran, including my recent piece blasting it as misguided and ill-conceived.

Perry Bacon is a staff writer at The New Republic and host of the TNR show Right Now With Perry Bacon. Prior to TNR, he was a weekly columnist at The Washington Post. Perry has also been a commentator at MSNBC, a fellow at New America and the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, and a political writer at Time, TheGrio, NBC News, and FiveThirtyEight. He has covered six presidential campaigns and interviewed Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Nancy Pelosi, and numerous other prominent politicians. He is a graduate of Yale University and lives in Louisville, his hometown.

Email Perry: pbacon@tnr.com

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