Ezra Klein

But also, I mean, in Ben Smith's great semaphore story about the group chats, you had this amazing ending where on one of these big group chats that had been a key... I would call a key point of influence for the tech right to convert others. The tech right got really mad at how people were getting mad at Donald Trump.

But also, I mean, in Ben Smith's great semaphore story about the group chats, you had this amazing ending where on one of these big group chats that had been a key... I would call a key point of influence for the tech right to convert others. The tech right got really mad at how people were getting mad at Donald Trump.

And you had like David Sachs and Tucker Carlson and them leaving the group chat. And again, I know some of these people who got very Trump curious. And my sense of them is they think this is going badly. Not for necessarily the reasons we do, but they think Doge was a failure. It didn't save that much money and just sort of did things kind of at random with a buzzsaw. They hate the tariffs.

And you had like David Sachs and Tucker Carlson and them leaving the group chat. And again, I know some of these people who got very Trump curious. And my sense of them is they think this is going badly. Not for necessarily the reasons we do, but they think Doge was a failure. It didn't save that much money and just sort of did things kind of at random with a buzzsaw. They hate the tariffs.

They think the tariffs are really dumb. Mm-hmm. I'm not saying that the tech right becomes the tech left. I don't think that's where any of this goes.

They think the tariffs are really dumb. Mm-hmm. I'm not saying that the tech right becomes the tech left. I don't think that's where any of this goes.

But from that moment where you had the entire billionaire class assembled before Donald Trump at the inauguration to now, something seems like it is under strain and contested again, as opposed to he was able to consolidate it and make the alliance permanent.

But from that moment where you had the entire billionaire class assembled before Donald Trump at the inauguration to now, something seems like it is under strain and contested again, as opposed to he was able to consolidate it and make the alliance permanent.

Okay, but let me make the other side's argument on this, that actually that's just politics in the way it works. Mm-hmm. Curtis Yarvin loves to bring up FDR. And I don't think FDR actually makes any of Curtis Yarvin's points for him. But one thing that I think is interesting about the way liberals remember FDR from this perspective is the Supreme Court is standing four square against the New Deal.

Okay, but let me make the other side's argument on this, that actually that's just politics in the way it works. Mm-hmm. Curtis Yarvin loves to bring up FDR. And I don't think FDR actually makes any of Curtis Yarvin's points for him. But one thing that I think is interesting about the way liberals remember FDR from this perspective is the Supreme Court is standing four square against the New Deal.

FDR threatens to court pack. He loses that fight, but seems to convince some key members of the court that they don't really want this confrontation. And the court begins to turn around on some issues. And we look back on that. And liberals are like, damn, good work, FDR, right? Like, we ended the Lochner court. I expect that the Supreme Court is going to give them some of what they want.

FDR threatens to court pack. He loses that fight, but seems to convince some key members of the court that they don't really want this confrontation. And the court begins to turn around on some issues. And we look back on that. And liberals are like, damn, good work, FDR, right? Like, we ended the Lochner court. I expect that the Supreme Court is going to give them some of what they want.

But a world in which they basically accept a negotiated bid for 20% of the powers they've attempted to take without really changing any of the institutional structures of American life – I don't know, isn't that what kind of goes on all the time?

But a world in which they basically accept a negotiated bid for 20% of the powers they've attempted to take without really changing any of the institutional structures of American life – I don't know, isn't that what kind of goes on all the time?

Hungarian oligarch.

Hungarian oligarch.

If you do accept the premise, and I do accept the premise, that we are in an interrenium between wars, we are in a very messy and deranging fight because there is no settled set of answers in American politics, no settled set of questions that both sides take and sort of have agreed on the boundaries upon. So when you think about the Democratic opposition right now,

If you do accept the premise, and I do accept the premise, that we are in an interrenium between wars, we are in a very messy and deranging fight because there is no settled set of answers in American politics, no settled set of questions that both sides take and sort of have agreed on the boundaries upon. So when you think about the Democratic opposition right now,

it is still processing in its own ways 2024. And it has learned, I think, certain lessons that are relatively consensus at this moment among its leadership. Democrats had in fits and starts gone too far left. They really, really politically screwed up and substantively on the border. They got crosswise on like trans edge case issues that they never should have allowed to define them, right?

it is still processing in its own ways 2024. And it has learned, I think, certain lessons that are relatively consensus at this moment among its leadership. Democrats had in fits and starts gone too far left. They really, really politically screwed up and substantively on the border. They got crosswise on like trans edge case issues that they never should have allowed to define them, right?