Episode 97: Great Caesar’s Ghost! Jacobin Becomes Communications Strategist for Democratic Party

Brendan and Andrew discuss “Trump’s Kryptonite: How Progressives Can Win Back the Working Class,” an opinion survey and analysis recently issued by a Jacobin-aligned thinktank. Jacobin proclaims that the study shows that “economic populism can help progressives win more working-class voters,” but the co-hosts find that there’s less here than meets the eye. They detail some of the weaknesses and ambiguities of the study, including the facts that “[s]wing voters have weak preferences with respect to populism” (p. 17), and that differences in demographic groups’ responses to survey questions were generally quite small and within the margin of error. Brendan and Andrew also discuss the dangers of a politics centered around hating on “elites” and they explore Jacobin’s devolution—from ranting against “Democratic Party shills” to its current role as the Party’s (unsolicited) communications-strategy advisors. What, if anything, makes this a “socialist” study? What distinguishes it from similar studies produced by conservative and mainstream-Democratic populists, like American Compass and Ruy Teixeira?

This episode’s current-events segment is on the recent Supreme Courts rulings. Most continue to be horrible; why are a few non-horrible ones being thrown into the mix?

Radio Free Humanity is a podcast covering news, politics and philosophy from a Marxist-Humanist perspective. It is co-hosted by Brendan Cooney and Andrew Kliman. We intend to release new episodes every two weeks. Radio Free Humanity is sponsored by MHI, but the views expressed by the co-hosts and guests of Radio Free Humanity are their own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of MHI.

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