Derek Thompson

He and Pete Buttigieg call it, rightly, the most important infrastructure bill passed in the last several generations. There's $42 billion that are earmarked for rural broadband construction to help the most poor and outside of mainstream metropolitan America people hook up to the internet so that they can lead richer lives, get in touch with doctors when they need to.

This is a classic progressive agenda. What happens is that four calendar years later now, Practically nobody's been hooked up to rural broadband.

This is a classic progressive agenda. What happens is that four calendar years later now, Practically nobody's been hooked up to rural broadband.

And it's because the way the program worked out through the Commerce Department is that there was a 14-step process that began with the FCC drawing a map and ended with the states essentially begging the Commerce Department for money and being told, nope, you didn't file that paperwork correctly. Nope, there's a bureaucratic issue there. Nope, you have to refile it. Yada, yada, yada.

And it's because the way the program worked out through the Commerce Department is that there was a 14-step process that began with the FCC drawing a map and ended with the states essentially begging the Commerce Department for money and being told, nope, you didn't file that paperwork correctly. Nope, there's a bureaucratic issue there. Nope, you have to refile it. Yada, yada, yada.

Nothing is built. Donald Trump is trying to take over the program, shut it down, and hand the whole thing to Elon Musk. We want government to work. If government has progressive aims and it can't accomplish them, you can't blame the oligarchy for that. You can't blame monopolies for that. You can't blame- Especially if you control the government. If you control the government.

Nothing is built. Donald Trump is trying to take over the program, shut it down, and hand the whole thing to Elon Musk. We want government to work. If government has progressive aims and it can't accomplish them, you can't blame the oligarchy for that. You can't blame monopolies for that. You can't blame- Especially if you control the government. If you control the government.

You certainly can't say the reason we didn't accomplish this is that we don't have a welfare state akin to Denmark. We failed to accomplish this program because government got in its way and was subsumed with the kind of everything bagel liberalism that Ezra's written about so eloquently.

You certainly can't say the reason we didn't accomplish this is that we don't have a welfare state akin to Denmark. We failed to accomplish this program because government got in its way and was subsumed with the kind of everything bagel liberalism that Ezra's written about so eloquently.

So this is where I think the emphasis on, well, you should talk more about antitrust and welfare states, misses a core function of this book, which is to say if you're trying to build a progressive political movement, you should be obsessed with making political power work for liberals because when it doesn't, the public will notice.

So this is where I think the emphasis on, well, you should talk more about antitrust and welfare states, misses a core function of this book, which is to say if you're trying to build a progressive political movement, you should be obsessed with making political power work for liberals because when it doesn't, the public will notice.

And when they notice, they either won't vote for you or they will literally vote in the most expensive way with their feet and spend thousands of dollars leaving the states and cities that you govern.

And when they notice, they either won't vote for you or they will literally vote in the most expensive way with their feet and spend thousands of dollars leaving the states and cities that you govern.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I absolutely disagree with that.

I absolutely disagree with that.

Bernie Sanders. I mean, tell me if you if you disagree with this, this interpretation. Bernie Sanders seems to be objectively the most popular figure in the Democratic Party right now. He runs against the Democratic Party every day. So this idea that Democrats should be afraid of self-criticism makes absolutely no sense to me in the context of the most famous self-critic of the Democratic Party

Bernie Sanders. I mean, tell me if you if you disagree with this, this interpretation. Bernie Sanders seems to be objectively the most popular figure in the Democratic Party right now. He runs against the Democratic Party every day. So this idea that Democrats should be afraid of self-criticism makes absolutely no sense to me in the context of the most famous self-critic of the Democratic Party

being objectively the most popular. Donald Trump, who ran against the Republican Party.