7 Comments

Defending pharma to own the right has indeed been a weird twist for Dems. I wonder why so many on the left feel uncomfortable getting angry / paranoid. It's clearly effective, and often warranted.

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I think it's an elite posture tbh, both in terms of diplomacy and in terms of complexity. "These issues are nuanced, let's not alienate anyone"

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Mr. Goodrich, thanks for your post. It would be nice to see an alternative taxonomy of ideology presented with these thoughts. Or some other tool to better delineate new regimes beyond left/right/center.

The talk of flipping, reversing, overlapping just suggests the frame is not correct.

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I'm chewing on this as well and I think you're right that we need to move beyond left/right/center as the main feature of American politics. Honestly, I could buy an argument that says only college educated elites have anything resembling coherent partisan ideologies at all

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Agree on edu elites. Thinking in categories and judge ideas/policies as merely an expression of an ideological essence (left/right). "She's tacking to the right with this policy"

Normals: Are the first order effects good or bad?

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yes i love that analysis. politics is about self-interest which is the dominant frame people assess an action.

only educated elites are going to hold off on an opinion on a plank like "no taxes on tips for workers" until they hear from an economist

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Hofstadter got populism quite wrong, according to Thomas Frank.

https://youtu.be/ja4BkfbBU70?feature=shared&t=154

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