How Politicians Ignored the TRUTH about COVID
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome in, everybody. Close to the week strong here on NextUp. I am Mark Calperin, editor-in-chief of Two-Way, host of your program here, a guide for all Nexters to everything that's NextUp. Glad you're here. Terrific show today. Three fantastic guests, two who are going to give you expert presentations that you won't hear anywhere else. Former Clinton political advisor Doug Sosnick is going to join us. He worked with Bill Clinton in the White House. He's got a new op-ed piece on the true democratic autopsy after the 2020 24 presidential election and a great slide deck we're going to share with you about how the economy is affecting our politics and could swing the midterms one way or the other. Then Drew Holden will be here.
He's been with us before, author of the Holden Court Substack, but also a great thinker, a collector of receipts. And he's done a six-part series, another autopsy, this one on COVID, both about the pandemic, but also about how the pandemic was treated by government officials and by the media. Super compelling presentation. Again, you won't read about this in the media because Drew covers it the way the media, for some reason, will not. And then lastly, a great New York story. Mitch Modell back with us in the wake of the New York Knicks championship that has inspired Donald Trump and Trump. Barack Obama, as well as many people around New York City and around the country, will be here to talk about a big announcement about bringing his own iconic brand back to New York sports.
So all of that coming up in just a moment. Stay with us for it. But first, my reported monologue on the state of the Democratic Party in the wake of those shocking results on Tuesday. The New York primaries in the House races were three socialist, two socialist candidates won and three candidates backed by Mayor Mondami won. Two beat Democratic incumbents, including the head of the Hispanic caucus in the House. And they ran on very progressive platforms, also in New York state legislative races. Same thing. A lot of victories for not just outsiders, but in almost all these cases, socialists. This fallout is big. It's being navigated across the Democratic Party by Republicans, by the media. It says a lot about the internal nature within the Democratic Party, but also about the future of the party and our politics.
So that's my reported monologue. I've talked to a lot of Democrats since Tuesday night, some who are delighted by what happened and some who are freaking out. Let's talk about the political earthquake that hit New York City and the Democratic Party this week. It's going to be studied for a long time, maybe for years, depending on what ends up happening. Most of the coverage for now is going to focus on what it means for New York, what it means for Mayor Zoran Mondami, for the Democratic Party, for Israel, because Israel is at the center of a lot of these campaigns. It's become the litmus test in a lot of democratic races. And then this issue of democratic socialism, which is on the rise. The public opinion polls show that.
And these election results showed all important stuff. But there may be a lesson here that ends up being more important about why the Democratic Party is so unprepared. The establishment part of the party is so unprepared to deal with this. For years, the Democrats have, I think, made a huge mistake. They've treated Senator Bernie Sanders, the godfather, the leader of this movement, like a historical footnote, like a fascinating detour when he ran for president, just something quirky and interesting that happened, and then passed away because he ran in 2016, he ran in 2020, didn't get the nomination either time. And now, you know, he's on the periphery. He's in his 80s and people assume, not me, but most others, that he won't run for president.
I've always thought the Democrats made a big mistake in not working to understand how Bernie Sanders almost became the nominee of their party. Guy who was not a member of the Democratic Party. And you hear this week, some Democrats like Jamie Harrison, who's been our guest here, former chairman of the Democratic Party, on Twitter said to the socialist candidates, don't run as Democrats.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–7:51
2
How did Tuesday’s New York primaries signal a Democratic Socialist surge?
7:51–29:17
3
Why did Mark compare the rise of Democratic Socialists to past party insurgencies?
29:17–1:05:31
4
What internal dilemmas do Democratic leaders face after the primary upsets?
1:05:31–1:11:45
Speakers
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