Democrats Have a Billion-Dollar Idea Problem—And It's Self-Inflicted

This week I’m pleased to host TLP’s friend Adam Jentleson—the founder and CEO of the Searchlight Institute, former Chief of Staff to Senator John Fetterman, and former Deputy Chief of Staff to Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid—to make the case that the Democratic Party has built a billion-dollar idea machine and gotten almost nothing useful out of it.

* Why do the progressive groups shaping Democratic policy seem to only represent the views and priorities of their own college-educated staffers? How do they keep getting away with it?

* Why did prioritizing climate change become shorthand for “liberal elite”—and should Democrats stop talking about it entirely if they actually want to fix it?

* Is there any potential 2028 candidate who would be willing to embrace “80-20” issues and break away from activist orthodoxy the way Donald Trump broke away from his party in 2015?

In addition to his role at Searchlight, Jentleson is the author of an excellent book on the complicated history of the U.S. Senate and the filibuster, Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy.

A transcript of this podcast is available at the top of the post page on our website.

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