"Abundance reorients politics around a fresh provocation: Can we solve our problems with supply?"
What It’s About
Klein argues that Democrats need a new approach to effectively counter the appeal of populist figures like Trump and Elon Musk, who are aggressively cutting the public sector workforce through the new Department of Government Efficiency.
Visiting California’s failed high-speed rail project, Klein suggests that the opening for this “wrecking ball” was created by Democratic governance failures, highlighting the political, economic, and spiritual crises arising from unaffordable housing and dilapidated infrastructure in states and cities run by Democrats.
Upshot
Klein argues that:
- Resistance Politics Aren't Enough: Democrats successfully opposed Trump in his first term but failed to govern with sufficient effectiveness during Biden’s
- Lack of Abundance Drives Populism: Scarcity encourages the type of us-versus-them political mindset that drives Trump and Musk's appeal
- Democrats Must Address Their Own Failures: Liberal policies that complicate housing, transportation, and energy development have fueled the scarcity crisis
Did you know? California’s high-speed rail project has been allocated $77 billion since 2009; no part of it has opened and only the 171 mile Merced-Bakersfield line is even under construction.
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Buy the Book: Abundance
Why It Matters
The harsh and often self-defeating attempts at budget cutting by Elon Musk’s Department for Government Efficiency are a direct result of the failures of the left to provide an alternative path to cost cutting and government effectiveness. If they want to reclaim government and undo the damage of the Second Trump Administration, liberals need to offer a compelling and results-oriented alternative to the politics of scarcity and resentment.
Who Wrote It
Ezra Klein is an opinion columnist for The New York Times, founder of Vox, and author of Why We're Polarized and Abundance.
