Can Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson Save the Left From Itself?

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Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson are the two most important liberal journalists working in the legacy press today—Ezra at The New York Times, and Derek at The Atlantic.

Although they insist they’ll never go into politics themselves, they are offering Democrats a path back to power.

To get out of the political wilderness, they say the Democrats need a new vision—one that goes beyond resistance to Trump. A vision that can bring back the disaffected Democrats who stayed home or voted red for the first time this past November.

While other progressives are doubling down on zombie ideas, afraid to confront a country that has moved decisively to the right, Ezra and Derek are willing to face reality. They see that blue states are functioning similarly to the DMV—and, as a result, losing people to states like Texas and Florida.

In their new book, Abundance, they offer a blueprint for winning them back—to cities like San Francisco and New York, but also to the Democratic Party.

The thesis is simple: To have the future we want, we need to build and invent more of what we need.

While conservatives and libertarians might say, Yes, exactly, let the free market do its thing, Ezra and Derek insist that the government can play a crucial role—if liberals will let it. They want to rein in the laws, regulations, and bureaucratic thinking that have made it nearly impossible to do anything in this country.

How do we build a government that’s less like the DMV and more like the Apple Store? How can it actually deliver for Americans and solve our most pressing problems—in housing, energy, transportation, and healthcare? And, how do we reverse government’s long march into total incompetence?

Ezra and Derek have a lot of ideas on how we can get there. Today on Honestly, we hear them. This was an excellent conversation and I’m eager for you to watch or listen.

You can click the video above to watch, click below to listen, or scroll down for an edited transcript of our conversation.