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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It was very informative reading the transcript of the Klein/Coates interview! I kept finding myself agreeing with Coates and feeling Klein was missing the boat. For him, it's not real in the sense that it is for Coates, a Black American, or for me, a person with a uterus, and he's having a tough time grappling with that. Thanks for posting the link to this.
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.
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.
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.
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
Thank you Garrett!! Sending to all my group chats, many of whom have frequent and consistent Ezra promoters :)
🫰🏻🫰🏻🫰🏻
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.
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.
Well done. Nick Kristof is a real contrast. He does the work and writes about doing the work.
Millions of imperfect potlucks!!!!!! This just made me gasp for joy.
I needed this today. Thank you for always writing right into what I'm feeling!
Hi Garrett! Great post (loved the line about "yucking it up on the 19th century equivalent of a manosphere podcast").
Also wanted to let you know that you accidentally linked to the Douthat interview again instead of linking to the Coates interview.
Oh no! Promising you Coates and giving you Douthat! That's a pretty cruel bait and switch. Let me fix now (and thanks for catching).
It was very informative reading the transcript of the Klein/Coates interview! I kept finding myself agreeing with Coates and feeling Klein was missing the boat. For him, it's not real in the sense that it is for Coates, a Black American, or for me, a person with a uterus, and he's having a tough time grappling with that. Thanks for posting the link to this.