JD Vance is a fusion between Oren Kass style right-coded economic populism and Claremont Institute authoritarianism. He's very good at it but not an electrifying speaker, as last night's speech showed. Ezra Klein just did an interview with Oren Kass if you want to know more about that angle. The Cla…
JD Vance is a fusion between Oren Kass style right-coded economic populism and Claremont Institute authoritarianism. He's very good at it but not an electrifying speaker, as last night's speech showed. Ezra Klein just did an interview with Oren Kass if you want to know more about that angle. The Claremont Institute approach is best understood in the first paragraph of this essay:
"Let’s be blunt. The United States has become two nations occupying the same country. When pressed, or in private, many would now agree. Fewer are willing to take the next step and accept that most people living in the United States today—certainly more than half—are not Americans in any meaningful sense of the term."
Kamala is underrated. She would hold up very well in a debate against Vance or Trump. Just watch some of her questioning of nominees in the Senate.
She's been hamstrung by the VP role having to be in sync with Biden in everything she says, and a a little intimidated by the media after her terrible Lester Holt interview. (The solution to that kind of mistake is just to go on TV more often so that one appearance doesn't define you.) Elaina Plott did a good profile of her in the Atlantic last fall, and Ezra Klein had Plott on his podcast a few weeks ago.
Meghan is right that her background was ill-suited to the BLM moment, but that context has changed a lot since then.
Great episode. A couple quick thoughts.
JD Vance is a fusion between Oren Kass style right-coded economic populism and Claremont Institute authoritarianism. He's very good at it but not an electrifying speaker, as last night's speech showed. Ezra Klein just did an interview with Oren Kass if you want to know more about that angle. The Claremont Institute approach is best understood in the first paragraph of this essay:
"Let’s be blunt. The United States has become two nations occupying the same country. When pressed, or in private, many would now agree. Fewer are willing to take the next step and accept that most people living in the United States today—certainly more than half—are not Americans in any meaningful sense of the term."
https://americanmind.org/salvo/why-the-claremont-institute-is-not-conservative-and-you-shouldnt-be-either/
Kamala is underrated. She would hold up very well in a debate against Vance or Trump. Just watch some of her questioning of nominees in the Senate.
She's been hamstrung by the VP role having to be in sync with Biden in everything she says, and a a little intimidated by the media after her terrible Lester Holt interview. (The solution to that kind of mistake is just to go on TV more often so that one appearance doesn't define you.) Elaina Plott did a good profile of her in the Atlantic last fall, and Ezra Klein had Plott on his podcast a few weeks ago.
Meghan is right that her background was ill-suited to the BLM moment, but that context has changed a lot since then.