Today’s links In defense of Deliverism: The radical idea that people vote for politicians who make their lives better. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2008, 2013 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading In defense of Deliverism (permalink) There are many ways to slice up the coalition that is the Democratic Party, but one important axis are the self-styled adults-in-the-room, who declare themselves to be realists, and the party’s left wing, who are dismissed as idealists who don’t understand politics: neither how to win elections nor how to wield power. The “realists” are the ones telling us that we can’t have nice things. They say that if the Dems promise bold action – protecting abortion, controlling assault weapons, funding infrastructure, raising the minimum wage, providing health care – they will lose elections. When Dems do win elections, they insist that none of these things are possible: the Supreme Court will strike them down, or the GOP will filibuster them, or the business lobby will subvert them. For these realists, every negotiation is a grand bargain in which all the grownups meet in smoke-filled rooms where they niggle and cajole and flatter their way into tiny, incremental policy changes, “signature achievements” that are so modest that the enemy can’t possibly weaponize them as the deeds of radical socialists who will bring the country to ruin. To do otherwise, the realists say, is to court catastrophe. Wielding power will destroy the “comity” that…Pluralistic: In defense of Deliverism (10 July 2023)