I want to invisibly link this letter to hold hands with all the people who listen and listen to Klein and Reich and … in the imagined form of doing action by listening and discussing …. And then bring them to work at Klein’s potluck. And yes, this is grouchy at them all, and no one will want to share their hot dish with me as i hold my plate of angry tired righteousness but Klein and his ilk offer people (with a ton of privilege) a way to pretend they’re doing the work and yet….
Ok, putting my amazing potluck hat back on and working to re-center.
I don't know I'm now kind of into the concept of the "grouchy potluck"-- you still get to share food, but you get a really good hard stare down while you eat.
Best idea ever. We have our first multi-gen potluck this month (after three wonderful regular gatherings, thank you barn builders) and we're doing stations to ease and help conversation -- maybe we'll change one to be the grouchy potluck corner! Feeling better already. lol.
Finally. Thank you Garrett. This is the perspective Ezra badly needs, I genuinely hope he reads it. For someone obsessed with BUILDING (political power, infrastructure), he's been disappointingly silent on building relationships that matter.
As another busy Dad who is somewhat begrudgingly but undeniably fascinated by the recent Ezra Klein discourse, what I found most revealing about the Ta-Nehisi Coates conversation was the moment Coates interjected and asked him to define his role. He couldn't.
I've thought a lot about this guy Ezra, his rise, how he sees himself, and how he must be handling the pressure of being an increasingly prominent voice. His blogger-turned-healthcare policy wonk-turned author-turned...whatever he is now trajectory tells me that he must see his value to society as "making complex topics understandable" - so it's no wonder that he is digging in his heels at a moment when he feels misunderstood.
I don't mean to defend his arguments. I just think his "what's my role here" confusion exposes where we've gone wrong by elevating a guy like him to a position where he can mistake his analysis for some self-aggrandizing panacea in the first place.
We need guys like Ezra at the potluck! And I wonder if we're expecting too much of him to host one before he attends one.
I believe there's value in considering Ezra's argument for building political power, following his example of Obama-era marriage equality.
I also believe his argument for building physical infrastructure in "Abundance" should be taken seriously.
But I'd be thrilled to hear him engage with the type of building that you describe here, Garrett, and I wonder (big question here) are these types of "building" mutually exclusive? I'd love to live in a caring world where there's still space for calculation.
I think the question of calculation is less about calculation per se, and more about what gets figured into the calculation. Klein seems to be arguing for a calculation that sacrifices the vulnerable in pursuit of "winning", without considering whether or not that qualifies as "winning" for anyone other than people like him.
What Garrett seems to be arguing for is a calculation that centers care and the vulnerable, which maybe means Klein isn't the right person to be doing the talking, or the calculating. But, as Garrett also so aptly notes, there are people who have successfully made those calculations in social movements. They just haven't often been rich, White guys of any political persuasion, who seem to always struggle with not being at the center of any calculation or calculating.
Love this. Thanks Asha. Putting "Caring IS the calculation" on my t-shirt wish list.
I agree, the social movements mentioned are an infinitely better model of power-building.
A question I'm left with is what we imagine for Klein and his growing audience. How can the energy that he has generated be harnessed to build caring humane infrastructure that centers the most vulnerable?
I'll confess, I don't know what to do with Klein or his growing audience, which is basically the entire center of the Democratic Party. Lock them in a room with a whole bunch of other White men like you and Garrett and make them listen? Ignore them? Gift them all "I'm with Zohran" t-shirts? I don't know that there's any pay off for them for actually de-centering themselves that they will understand.
This really resonates-- there is a real role for "guy who explains complex topics" but it says something about what we value in politics (and gender and race) that role got elevated to the ur central role of all left of center politics.
Oh, Garrett. I so respect what you're doing here. Both in calling attention to some of the central problems with Klein's approach, which helps all of us parse what's really going on there, and in genuinely trying to give him the benefit of the doubt and call him in in a decidedly loving way.
You, as a White, middle-class father, are the one to do that emotional labor, which you don't ever name explicitly, but is worth naming in my book. As a category of person, and family of a category of person, and mother of a category of person that Klein would clearly and happily throw under the bus to get the Democratic Party back in power (and then remonstrate for reclaiming their time once the Democratic Party came back to power), I'm tempted to run him over with my car. And definitely don't feel like it's my job to invite him carefully back into the arms of care. Not because he shouldn't be invited back in. Most of us need to be invited back in eventually, I expect. But who should be tasked with the emotional labor of making that invitation is really at the heart of Klein's problem, isn't it?
He really seems to think the marginalized and vulnerable should be doing that emotional labor for the powerful in the name of "political strategy", and it's his job to convince them to do it. Instead of actually using his considerable platform to do what you are doing, expending his own emotional capital to get other White men to actually give a shit about other people.
I hope someone, somewhere sends him this, though the skeptic in me doubts he would listen. He's too far up his own a*s and too deeply embedded in a media culture that encourages that.
That's a very kind and generous way to put it (I would have also accepted "but it would feel pretty cathartic if you too just yelled at the dude!) lol. I do see a lot of myself in dude pontificators (parts of myself I'm still trying to transform into something more helpful and less self-centered for the world; I don't feel like any advice I have for them isn't something I don't need to hear too.
See, but we all have egoic failings. Mine is easily accessible and irrational levels of self-righteous rage at garden-variety male bullshit, which I love letting out to play but does get in the way of community problem solving. If you get in line to yell at him, having the bigger platform than me and being a middle class, White guy, you’ll get pushed to the front of the line. And that will make me even more mad, the cycle going endlessly round. Better that I yell at him and you be compassionate. Thank you for your service 😅.
Also, do you read The Ink? Anand has an interesting essay about this whole situation. I didn't like it as much as yours, but he makes some interesting points.
Been reading the newsletter for awhile now, and this is officially the first substack to which I am a paid subscriber(!!!). You're out here doing politics the right way, potlucks and jokes and earnestness and making me cry and think and all the things. Thank you.
You sell yourself short, when you speak from the heart not just the brain to “only” 25,000 people who desperately want to make a difference, not by leaving the country or throwing the oppressed under the bus. You are reminding us that the path away from fascism and exploitation is not achieved by putting on the clothing of wolves. That the pundits speaking out against fascism, from pulpits secular and religious, have their own privileges, blinkers, and fears. The fascists seduce my fellow citizens with a path to security that is relatively effortless, requires no preparation of potluck dishes nor grappling with past injustices. I am afraid. I need a community and leaders that help me find the courage to risk my own security in a way that has impact, not just makes me feel less alone.
This is the most compelling pitch for buying a hat that I've ever heard ❤️ Also, thank you, now I can stop trying to articulate my feelings of that Ezra and just point people to this much better article.
I too really appreciate so much of his writing. I think Peter articulated up above one of the things he does really well- the dilemma is (and this is something I have to challenge myself on), when your world is words, it's easy to trick yourself into thinking that social change comes primarily from those words.
That distortion must be particularly pernicious for him, since one could argue that he did, in fact, craft the one perfect argument that (almost)saved the country, when he wrote his piece saying Biden should step down.
He’s got to feel a little like Clint Eastwood in In the Line of Fire.
I just recently did a raffle for paid subscribers, but they were so popular that I put in another order for more. That's to say, thank you so much for subscribing and if you'd like a hat either DM me your address or toss it to me in an email (Garrett @ barnraisersproject.org)
OK, slightly off topic (but it was mentioned in the footnotes): "One Battle After Another." I want to see it, since everyone says how great it is, but I'm extremely squeamish about violence, and it's three hours long, so it's a big commitment. Can someone who's seen provide some content warnings? As a potential point of comparison, I loved "Sinners" but it kind of fell into a "supernatural violence" category, which maybe doesn't bother me quite as much. (I've watched every episode of "What We Do in the Shadows.")
I could be forgetting some other moments, but while there are a lot of moments where you'll see the kind of violence that you'd see on news reports (riot cops descending on protestors, explosions, bank robberies, etc.) the really more jarring moments (people getting shot suddenly) are concentrated in two specific scenes-- a montage near the beginning and the climax at the end. I'm not a violence in media guy myself, and beyond those two specific scenes I definitely felt a lot of tension, but not the discomfort of gratuitous violence.
Thanks for this, Garrett. I hope it breaks through.
A few side notes:
I’m suspect of anyone who needs the appeal of “Field of Dreams” explained to them.
Also, I’ve been thinking about you this week as the playoffs start. Your Crew!! Ahhhh! If my beloved Cubbies don’t go the distance, I’m hoping for a Milwaukee-Seattle Series!
This is gonna be a fun playoffs-- it feels like so many different teams can make a run. I mean even just in the NL: You all look really good. The Phils are scary, of course. The Padres and Reds both had great finishes, the Dodgers are, well, the Dodgers.
It’s true, I did subscribe immediately upon reading about changing payment processors and canceled recurring donations. So relatable. Signed, a fan and nonprofit fundraiser who only got 50% of their cancelled recurring donations to enter all their information again. Keep on keeping on! If you’re on the fence, subscribe!
I want to invisibly link this letter to hold hands with all the people who listen and listen to Klein and Reich and … in the imagined form of doing action by listening and discussing …. And then bring them to work at Klein’s potluck. And yes, this is grouchy at them all, and no one will want to share their hot dish with me as i hold my plate of angry tired righteousness but Klein and his ilk offer people (with a ton of privilege) a way to pretend they’re doing the work and yet….
Ok, putting my amazing potluck hat back on and working to re-center.
Thanks as always for your post
I don't know I'm now kind of into the concept of the "grouchy potluck"-- you still get to share food, but you get a really good hard stare down while you eat.
Best idea ever. We have our first multi-gen potluck this month (after three wonderful regular gatherings, thank you barn builders) and we're doing stations to ease and help conversation -- maybe we'll change one to be the grouchy potluck corner! Feeling better already. lol.
Finally. Thank you Garrett. This is the perspective Ezra badly needs, I genuinely hope he reads it. For someone obsessed with BUILDING (political power, infrastructure), he's been disappointingly silent on building relationships that matter.
As another busy Dad who is somewhat begrudgingly but undeniably fascinated by the recent Ezra Klein discourse, what I found most revealing about the Ta-Nehisi Coates conversation was the moment Coates interjected and asked him to define his role. He couldn't.
I've thought a lot about this guy Ezra, his rise, how he sees himself, and how he must be handling the pressure of being an increasingly prominent voice. His blogger-turned-healthcare policy wonk-turned author-turned...whatever he is now trajectory tells me that he must see his value to society as "making complex topics understandable" - so it's no wonder that he is digging in his heels at a moment when he feels misunderstood.
I don't mean to defend his arguments. I just think his "what's my role here" confusion exposes where we've gone wrong by elevating a guy like him to a position where he can mistake his analysis for some self-aggrandizing panacea in the first place.
We need guys like Ezra at the potluck! And I wonder if we're expecting too much of him to host one before he attends one.
I believe there's value in considering Ezra's argument for building political power, following his example of Obama-era marriage equality.
I also believe his argument for building physical infrastructure in "Abundance" should be taken seriously.
But I'd be thrilled to hear him engage with the type of building that you describe here, Garrett, and I wonder (big question here) are these types of "building" mutually exclusive? I'd love to live in a caring world where there's still space for calculation.
I think the question of calculation is less about calculation per se, and more about what gets figured into the calculation. Klein seems to be arguing for a calculation that sacrifices the vulnerable in pursuit of "winning", without considering whether or not that qualifies as "winning" for anyone other than people like him.
What Garrett seems to be arguing for is a calculation that centers care and the vulnerable, which maybe means Klein isn't the right person to be doing the talking, or the calculating. But, as Garrett also so aptly notes, there are people who have successfully made those calculations in social movements. They just haven't often been rich, White guys of any political persuasion, who seem to always struggle with not being at the center of any calculation or calculating.
Love this. Thanks Asha. Putting "Caring IS the calculation" on my t-shirt wish list.
I agree, the social movements mentioned are an infinitely better model of power-building.
A question I'm left with is what we imagine for Klein and his growing audience. How can the energy that he has generated be harnessed to build caring humane infrastructure that centers the most vulnerable?
I'll confess, I don't know what to do with Klein or his growing audience, which is basically the entire center of the Democratic Party. Lock them in a room with a whole bunch of other White men like you and Garrett and make them listen? Ignore them? Gift them all "I'm with Zohran" t-shirts? I don't know that there's any pay off for them for actually de-centering themselves that they will understand.
This really resonates-- there is a real role for "guy who explains complex topics" but it says something about what we value in politics (and gender and race) that role got elevated to the ur central role of all left of center politics.
Oh, Garrett. I so respect what you're doing here. Both in calling attention to some of the central problems with Klein's approach, which helps all of us parse what's really going on there, and in genuinely trying to give him the benefit of the doubt and call him in in a decidedly loving way.
You, as a White, middle-class father, are the one to do that emotional labor, which you don't ever name explicitly, but is worth naming in my book. As a category of person, and family of a category of person, and mother of a category of person that Klein would clearly and happily throw under the bus to get the Democratic Party back in power (and then remonstrate for reclaiming their time once the Democratic Party came back to power), I'm tempted to run him over with my car. And definitely don't feel like it's my job to invite him carefully back into the arms of care. Not because he shouldn't be invited back in. Most of us need to be invited back in eventually, I expect. But who should be tasked with the emotional labor of making that invitation is really at the heart of Klein's problem, isn't it?
He really seems to think the marginalized and vulnerable should be doing that emotional labor for the powerful in the name of "political strategy", and it's his job to convince them to do it. Instead of actually using his considerable platform to do what you are doing, expending his own emotional capital to get other White men to actually give a shit about other people.
I hope someone, somewhere sends him this, though the skeptic in me doubts he would listen. He's too far up his own a*s and too deeply embedded in a media culture that encourages that.
That's a very kind and generous way to put it (I would have also accepted "but it would feel pretty cathartic if you too just yelled at the dude!) lol. I do see a lot of myself in dude pontificators (parts of myself I'm still trying to transform into something more helpful and less self-centered for the world; I don't feel like any advice I have for them isn't something I don't need to hear too.
See, but we all have egoic failings. Mine is easily accessible and irrational levels of self-righteous rage at garden-variety male bullshit, which I love letting out to play but does get in the way of community problem solving. If you get in line to yell at him, having the bigger platform than me and being a middle class, White guy, you’ll get pushed to the front of the line. And that will make me even more mad, the cycle going endlessly round. Better that I yell at him and you be compassionate. Thank you for your service 😅.
Ha ha, Asha. I feel like your twin reading this. Well said.
The New York Times is more infuriating every day.
Also, do you read The Ink? Anand has an interesting essay about this whole situation. I didn't like it as much as yours, but he makes some interesting points.
haven't read yet!
Been reading the newsletter for awhile now, and this is officially the first substack to which I am a paid subscriber(!!!). You're out here doing politics the right way, potlucks and jokes and earnestness and making me cry and think and all the things. Thank you.
Oh Abby that's a huge honor, thank you
It's a pleasure to read and support.
You sell yourself short, when you speak from the heart not just the brain to “only” 25,000 people who desperately want to make a difference, not by leaving the country or throwing the oppressed under the bus. You are reminding us that the path away from fascism and exploitation is not achieved by putting on the clothing of wolves. That the pundits speaking out against fascism, from pulpits secular and religious, have their own privileges, blinkers, and fears. The fascists seduce my fellow citizens with a path to security that is relatively effortless, requires no preparation of potluck dishes nor grappling with past injustices. I am afraid. I need a community and leaders that help me find the courage to risk my own security in a way that has impact, not just makes me feel less alone.
This is the most compelling pitch for buying a hat that I've ever heard ❤️ Also, thank you, now I can stop trying to articulate my feelings of that Ezra and just point people to this much better article.
but yours too would be so good! and you look great in the POTLUCKS! hat!
Well done. Nick Kristof is a real contrast. He does the work and writes about doing the work.
Sounds like I should read more by him!
Millions of imperfect potlucks!!!!!! This just made me gasp for joy.
The world we deserve!
I like Klein’s writing but I’ve often felt there was a dimension missing from it that I couldn’t articulate. I think you found it in this piece.
I too really appreciate so much of his writing. I think Peter articulated up above one of the things he does really well- the dilemma is (and this is something I have to challenge myself on), when your world is words, it's easy to trick yourself into thinking that social change comes primarily from those words.
That distortion must be particularly pernicious for him, since one could argue that he did, in fact, craft the one perfect argument that (almost)saved the country, when he wrote his piece saying Biden should step down.
He’s got to feel a little like Clint Eastwood in In the Line of Fire.
Thank you Garrett!! Sending to all my group chats, many of whom have frequent and consistent Ezra promoters :)
Ezra should come to a potluck with your group chats!
🥴
lol
I needed this today. Thank you for always writing right into what I'm feeling!
Thank you Brooke!
I just subscribed based on your authentic voice, but, uh, what’s up with the hats??
I just recently did a raffle for paid subscribers, but they were so popular that I put in another order for more. That's to say, thank you so much for subscribing and if you'd like a hat either DM me your address or toss it to me in an email (Garrett @ barnraisersproject.org)
Ah---got it! I'm good for now, thanks! Wish you the best and look forward to tracking your work! be well. Jed
OK, slightly off topic (but it was mentioned in the footnotes): "One Battle After Another." I want to see it, since everyone says how great it is, but I'm extremely squeamish about violence, and it's three hours long, so it's a big commitment. Can someone who's seen provide some content warnings? As a potential point of comparison, I loved "Sinners" but it kind of fell into a "supernatural violence" category, which maybe doesn't bother me quite as much. (I've watched every episode of "What We Do in the Shadows.")
I was wondering the same!
I could be forgetting some other moments, but while there are a lot of moments where you'll see the kind of violence that you'd see on news reports (riot cops descending on protestors, explosions, bank robberies, etc.) the really more jarring moments (people getting shot suddenly) are concentrated in two specific scenes-- a montage near the beginning and the climax at the end. I'm not a violence in media guy myself, and beyond those two specific scenes I definitely felt a lot of tension, but not the discomfort of gratuitous violence.
Thanks for this, Garrett. I hope it breaks through.
A few side notes:
I’m suspect of anyone who needs the appeal of “Field of Dreams” explained to them.
Also, I’ve been thinking about you this week as the playoffs start. Your Crew!! Ahhhh! If my beloved Cubbies don’t go the distance, I’m hoping for a Milwaukee-Seattle Series!
This is gonna be a fun playoffs-- it feels like so many different teams can make a run. I mean even just in the NL: You all look really good. The Phils are scary, of course. The Padres and Reds both had great finishes, the Dodgers are, well, the Dodgers.
It’s true, I did subscribe immediately upon reading about changing payment processors and canceled recurring donations. So relatable. Signed, a fan and nonprofit fundraiser who only got 50% of their cancelled recurring donations to enter all their information again. Keep on keeping on! If you’re on the fence, subscribe!
Oh my God that is such a relatable pain to a very, very niche audience of people!
🫰🏻🫰🏻🫰🏻
Thanks!