The Democrats need to listen closely to Ezra Klein, if not the Republicans are going to
New York: They need their own Joe Rogan. They need to get better at messaging. They need to drop the radical left and shift back to the center. They need new blood. The Democrats need a lot of things. But what they really need is Ezra Klein.
It’s hard to imagine Klein-- an NYT columnist, podcaster and author -- is just 40. His podcast ‘The Ezra Klein’ show is a towering testament to nuance, logic, empathy, and above all, an ability to listen to all sides of an issue.
While other left-leaning shows like Pod Save America, The Bulwark, et al tend to be smug and treat Conservative arguments as utter drivel, Klein seeks to understand the foundations of their views, and the machines of their growth.
Klein was also one of the first liberal columnists and podcasters to call for Joe Biden to step off the 2024 ticket, a view for which he was battered by the Left and colleagues at the Times. Turns out, he was right. Klein is right about a lot, and if not that then at least he points you in the right direction.
His new book, 'Abundance', written with Derek Thompson is both an ode to Liberalism, as well as an elegy to an ideology that now lies in tatters. As Klein says, Democrats used to build things and govern, now they like to tell you how much money they spent and spend too much time regulating, rather than governing.
Klein seems to have a recipe for a Democratic resurgence, the problem is that the Democrats will first have to own up to the fact that they have messed up the last 15 years. Looking in the mirror and recognizing the face in it is not a Democratic strong point.
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One of the few liberal voices beloved by listeners on the Left and respected by right-wing firebrands like Steve Bannon, Klein is a rarity. Why? Because Klein is not a radical, he genuinely loves the Democratic party for what it symbolizes: Freedom, justice and the American dream. Klein’s arguments and theories are formed with love and care, they are not thrown together and tailored to appease party elders or young rebels. They make sense, and that’s why conservatives listen to him, because the one thing they fear is that Democrats might start to.
Klein’s theories are not new, they’re built on decades-old foundations, refurbished, reinvigorated and reimagined. And in this ability he finds a logic that transcends partisanship.
If he sometimes sounds like a Conservative it’s because over the last few years Democrats have relinquished the ideals of innovation, industry and American work ethic. The Conservatives have happily picked them up and run with them.
Democrats are now the party of identity politics, draconian social justice, over-regulation and cancel culture. And in making this change they have lost the American working class. Klein is showing them a way back, but if he is to succeed, Klein also needs to be prepared to become a pariah, cast out of the Democrats’ Xanadu. And that may not be a bad thing.
I think it was Bannon who once suggested that Klein leave the New York Times, suggesting that he deserved a wider audience. A mark of respect from the warhorse if ever there was one.
The Democrats need to listen to Klein, not dismiss him. If they do, the statement that will ring through 2026 is “The Left needs its own Ezra Klein”. You have him now, embrace him.