Listen and subscribe to our podcast from your mobile device:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | RadioPublic | Stitcher
Why is socialism having a moment in America right now — and is it the future of the political left? This week on “The Argument,” Michelle Goldberg talks with Bhaskar Sunkara, the editor of Jacobin magazine, about his new book, “The Socialist Manifesto.” They discuss what distinguishes democratic socialists from liberals, the failures of past socialist movements and why Sunkara favors Bernie Sanders over Elizabeth Warren in 2020.
Then, Ross Douthat and David Leonhardt join Michelle to debate socialism’s role on the political left. David argues that Democrats benefit from a progressive movement pushing them further left. Ross argues that today’s workers face different circumstances than past labor movements, which makes the new socialists’ task harder. And Michelle thinks today’s socialist movement has become politically savvier in part by adopting the tactics of the political right.
And finally, the only TV show that nails life in the Trump era won’t take your mind off today’s politics, but it may help you cope with it.
Background Reading:
Ross on the failures of “the new new left,” Bernie Sanders’s candidacy and the Green New Deal
Michelle on millennial socialists, Joe Biden and electability, the Socialist Rifle Association and CBS’s “The Good Fight”
David on the problems with American capitalism
Bhaskar Sunkara on socialism’s future and “The Socialist Manifesto”
Peter Gowan, “A Plan to Win Socialism In America” (Jacobin magazine)
“When Did Everyone Become a Socialist?” (New York magazine)
Ross Douthat
I’ve been an Op-Ed columnist since 2009, and I write about politics, religion, pop culture, sociology and the places where they all intersect. I’m a Catholic and a conservative, in that order, which means that I’m against abortion and critical of the sexual revolution, but I tend to agree with liberals that the Republican Party is too friendly to the rich. I was against Donald Trump in 2016 for reasons specific to Donald Trump, but in general I think the populist movements in Europe and America have legitimate grievances and I often prefer the populists to the “reasonable” elites. I’ve written books about Harvard, the G.O.P., American Christianity and Pope Francis; I’m working on one about decadence. Benedict XVI was my favorite pope. I review movies for National Review and have strong opinions about many prestige television shows. I have three small children, two girls and a boy, and I live in New Haven with my wife.
Michelle Goldberg
I’ve been an Op-Ed columnist at The New York Times since 2017, writing mainly about politics, ideology and gender. These days people on the right and the left both use “liberal” as an epithet, but that’s basically what I am, though the nightmare of Donald Trump’s presidency has radicalized me and pushed me leftward. I’ve written three books, including one, in 2006, about the danger of right-wing populism in its religious fundamentalist guise. (My other two were about the global battle over reproductive rights and, in a brief detour from politics, about an adventurous Russian émigré who helped bring yoga to the West.) I love to travel; a long time ago, after my husband and I eloped, we spent a year backpacking through Asia. Now we live in Brooklyn with our son and daughter.
David Leonhardt
I’ve worked at The Times since 1999 and have been an Op-Ed columnist since 2016. I caught the journalism bug a very long time ago — first as a little kid in the late 1970s who loved reading the Boston Globe sports section and later as a teenager working on my high school and college newspapers. I discovered that when my classmates and I put a complaint in print, for everyone to see, school administrators actually paid attention. I’ve since worked as a metro reporter at The Washington Post and a writer at BusinessWeek magazine. At The Times, I started as a reporter in the business section and have also been a Times Magazine staff writer, the Washington bureau chief and the founding editor of The Upshot.
My politics are left of center. But I’m also to the right of many Times readers. I think education reform has accomplished a lot. I think two-parent families are good for society. I think progressives should be realistic about the cultural conservatism that dominates much of this country. Most of all, however, I worry deeply about today’s Republican Party, which has become dangerously extreme. This country faces some huge challenges — inequality, climate change, the rise of China — and they’ll be very hard to solve without having both parties committed to the basic functioning of American democracy.
How do I listen?
Tune in on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Tell us what you think at [email protected]. Follow Michelle Goldberg (@michelleinbklyn), Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) and David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) on Twitter.
This week’s show is produced by Alex Laughlin and Wynton Wong for Transmitter Media and edited by Lacy Roberts. Our executive producer is Gretta Cohn. We had help from Tyson Evans, Phoebe Lett, Ian Prasad Philbrick and Francis Ying. Our theme is composed by Allison Leyton-Brown.
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Home » Analysis & Comment » Opinion | The United States of Socialism?
Opinion | The United States of Socialism?
Listen and subscribe to our podcast from your mobile device:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | RadioPublic | Stitcher
Why is socialism having a moment in America right now — and is it the future of the political left? This week on “The Argument,” Michelle Goldberg talks with Bhaskar Sunkara, the editor of Jacobin magazine, about his new book, “The Socialist Manifesto.” They discuss what distinguishes democratic socialists from liberals, the failures of past socialist movements and why Sunkara favors Bernie Sanders over Elizabeth Warren in 2020.
Then, Ross Douthat and David Leonhardt join Michelle to debate socialism’s role on the political left. David argues that Democrats benefit from a progressive movement pushing them further left. Ross argues that today’s workers face different circumstances than past labor movements, which makes the new socialists’ task harder. And Michelle thinks today’s socialist movement has become politically savvier in part by adopting the tactics of the political right.
And finally, the only TV show that nails life in the Trump era won’t take your mind off today’s politics, but it may help you cope with it.
Background Reading:
Ross on the failures of “the new new left,” Bernie Sanders’s candidacy and the Green New Deal
Michelle on millennial socialists, Joe Biden and electability, the Socialist Rifle Association and CBS’s “The Good Fight”
David on the problems with American capitalism
Bhaskar Sunkara on socialism’s future and “The Socialist Manifesto”
Peter Gowan, “A Plan to Win Socialism In America” (Jacobin magazine)
“When Did Everyone Become a Socialist?” (New York magazine)
Ross Douthat
I’ve been an Op-Ed columnist since 2009, and I write about politics, religion, pop culture, sociology and the places where they all intersect. I’m a Catholic and a conservative, in that order, which means that I’m against abortion and critical of the sexual revolution, but I tend to agree with liberals that the Republican Party is too friendly to the rich. I was against Donald Trump in 2016 for reasons specific to Donald Trump, but in general I think the populist movements in Europe and America have legitimate grievances and I often prefer the populists to the “reasonable” elites. I’ve written books about Harvard, the G.O.P., American Christianity and Pope Francis; I’m working on one about decadence. Benedict XVI was my favorite pope. I review movies for National Review and have strong opinions about many prestige television shows. I have three small children, two girls and a boy, and I live in New Haven with my wife.
Michelle Goldberg
I’ve been an Op-Ed columnist at The New York Times since 2017, writing mainly about politics, ideology and gender. These days people on the right and the left both use “liberal” as an epithet, but that’s basically what I am, though the nightmare of Donald Trump’s presidency has radicalized me and pushed me leftward. I’ve written three books, including one, in 2006, about the danger of right-wing populism in its religious fundamentalist guise. (My other two were about the global battle over reproductive rights and, in a brief detour from politics, about an adventurous Russian émigré who helped bring yoga to the West.) I love to travel; a long time ago, after my husband and I eloped, we spent a year backpacking through Asia. Now we live in Brooklyn with our son and daughter.
David Leonhardt
I’ve worked at The Times since 1999 and have been an Op-Ed columnist since 2016. I caught the journalism bug a very long time ago — first as a little kid in the late 1970s who loved reading the Boston Globe sports section and later as a teenager working on my high school and college newspapers. I discovered that when my classmates and I put a complaint in print, for everyone to see, school administrators actually paid attention. I’ve since worked as a metro reporter at The Washington Post and a writer at BusinessWeek magazine. At The Times, I started as a reporter in the business section and have also been a Times Magazine staff writer, the Washington bureau chief and the founding editor of The Upshot.
My politics are left of center. But I’m also to the right of many Times readers. I think education reform has accomplished a lot. I think two-parent families are good for society. I think progressives should be realistic about the cultural conservatism that dominates much of this country. Most of all, however, I worry deeply about today’s Republican Party, which has become dangerously extreme. This country faces some huge challenges — inequality, climate change, the rise of China — and they’ll be very hard to solve without having both parties committed to the basic functioning of American democracy.
How do I listen?
Tune in on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Tell us what you think at [email protected]. Follow Michelle Goldberg (@michelleinbklyn), Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) and David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) on Twitter.
This week’s show is produced by Alex Laughlin and Wynton Wong for Transmitter Media and edited by Lacy Roberts. Our executive producer is Gretta Cohn. We had help from Tyson Evans, Phoebe Lett, Ian Prasad Philbrick and Francis Ying. Our theme is composed by Allison Leyton-Brown.
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