Last month, I sat down for an interview with the Washington Post’s deputy opinion editor, James Hohmann, for a wide-ranging discussion about the Democrats, the DSA, working-class voters, the 2026 midterms, the 2028 election, and plenty more.
The phrase “trans rights” is doing too much work in this conversation, and it is time to retire it.
What the party actually absorbed is not a generic civil-rights add-on. It is self-ID: the claim that a person’s stated gender identity should rewrite sex in law, sports, prisons, shelters, medicine, and speech, and that disagreement is illegitimate. “Trans rights” hides the mechanism. Self-ID names it.
That is why the sports example keeps coming up and why Moulton had to walk it back. The fight is not over whether people can live as they wish. It is over whether institutions must treat sex as a feeling with legal force. Working-class voters can smell the difference even when the language won’t say it.
If Democrats want a Sister Souljah moment that is more than vibes, start there. Stop saying “trans rights agenda.” Say what the policy is: self-ID in law, male access to female categories, and a ban on noticing. Until the words match the thing, the party will keep arguing with a slogan while the country argues with the reality.
Most working class don't like their kids being told their gender and pronouns can be whatever they choose. The LGBTQ extremists have destroyed the Democrats.
Wishful thinking, the word "socialism" will cost Dems many votes in swing states and red states where the word draws huge fear and scorn--especially in places like Florida where millions of residents fled socialism in Cuba and Venezuela. Democrats are just being stupid.
It will, but not in 2026 and probably not even in 2028. Everyone hated Biden when Biden was president, and everyone hates Trump now that he's president. You'd need a fabulous economy to keep independents from souring on the governing party.
Ahh, no. Teixeira has done tons of analysis. Working class mostly refers to people who didnt go to college, which is most voters. Democrats lost all the Texas Border districts to trump in 2024. Teixeira has been watching that. The Biden democrats fucked that up royally. Minorities down South do want healthcare, they just know M4A is a pie in the sky socialist dream that wont happen for a long time. You are making a caricature yourself by implying that only DSA is for healthcare, when of course they are because they want everything good, whether possible or not. The southern working class wants expanded medicaid because it is attainable and right now they dont have anything, whereas Blue wealthier states do have expanded medicaid. its a huge difference being poor down south versus up north and most northerners are clueless and dreamy about M4A.. Teixeira understands this because he studies the South, which has the most poor and the most minorities. DSA is a northern, white college crowd mostly. Teixeira has listed out the stats in previous articles. Saying that Teixeira is all grievance, no analysis is way off.
The ultimate Rep secret weapon, will be 2 years of perpetual Impeachment of Trump and his Cabinet. Dems just cannot help themselves. Dem Congress people are seriously informing voters the Ballroom is grounds for Impeachment, before 6 other issues. Absent a Huey Long "live boy or dead girl" saga, there are not 67 Senate votes for conviction of anyone for anything.
That is before, Medicaid for All, Deportation for None, 100% student loan forgiveness, free childcare, all with a 32 hour work week, kick in, in earnest. Reps losing the House in Nov, will be their best 2028 play, by far.
Meanwhile, the Dem secret weapon is Trump. Even when his instincts are correct, he cannot stop repeatedly shooting himself in the foot, with a sawed off shotgun. Trump 1 streamlined drilling regs sparking an oil and gas boom. US oil production is up 20-25%. The economic energy suicidal tendencies of the Green New Deal are gone, for good, not even the Europeans believe them anymore.
The notion of Americans ever again tolerating the purposefully high oil and gas prices of Obama and Biden, to aid a mythological energy transition, are over. Hence Trump being slaughtered over what are arguably temporary oil prices, due to Iran, that still average less than Obama
At some point, Reps will counter Abolish ICE with a list of thousands of Americans who have suffered at the hands of the undocumented, purposefully or not. Even supposed moderate Dems refuse to cheer the deportation of child rapists and murders. Then there is basic Math. 10 million people require extra housing, MDs and speciality teachers, we do not have. More than 1/2 reside in a home enrolled in a welfare program.
Biden's greatest gift to Dems was conflating mass migration with orderly immigration. Long term, a lack of deportation turns the US into the world's home base. Hit US soil and never leave. Even Dems, like the Denmark Socialists, will eventually realize that is not remotely sustainable, but not before the issue returns to the voting booth.
Reps and Dems are both carrying millstones around their necks, but the Rep variety has an expiration date. Dems Socialists seemingly do not. Look for Reps to lose the 2026 battle , to win the 2028 war.
Every Dem needs to read "the Dentons Doc" the trans playbook for self-ID for youth.
The title: ONLY ADULTS? GOOD PRACTICES IN LEGAL GENDER RECOGNITION IN YOUTH: A report on the current state of laws and NGO advocacy in eight countries in Europe, with a focus on rights of young people
Grievance is substituted for analysis: “working class” becomes a synonym for cultural conservatism, while the DSA’s heterogeneous urban base is reduced to a cartoon of white grad students. Where is the evidence that Democrats lose because they support civil rights, climate action, or health care, rather than because voters face stagnant wages, unaffordable housing, high prices, and distrust in government? Triangulation by anecdote, imitate Trump on immigrants, trans people, fossil fuels, and AI, then call it “common sense”, is not a cure. It is nostalgia for a Clinton-era electorate that no longer exists.
If you are asking me personally if I believe life begins at conception, my answer is yes, I do believe that. I also do not believe in a nationwide ban on abortion. So everyone on the extremes hates me (for that point of view, I am otherwise quite charming).
This article and interview is so much ado about nothing. Whether dem candidates are demsoc or not, what they have been talking about is much more important than 'who' they are. These two did not have a discussion about the issues that have been resonating with voters in primaries and why, they chose to whine about the dems at all levels. There is no mention of big money at the national Dem level, and how that has influenced dems for years. The dem 'center' has collapsed because of the lack of intellectual rigor, as displayed here. Poo Poohing data center opposition is an elite talking head position that displays no understanding of the fundamental issues around opposition.
Interesting conversation that touched on a lot of things I've been curious about. I'm a spectator in that there are no competitive races here for me to vote on, not even close. Not a very good place when neither party is even thinking of pandering to the 60%.
Oh, we're in a special moment alright. I just this in reply to someone else, but its so tragic how everything is sort of on autopilot, most all people and groupings are locked out of key processes by various means (means being pluralized is important, because key features of our current set up is a centralized academe and centralized press and so even info and deliberation are kept concealed), and AI is just a profoundly important subject across and within multiple civilizational dimensions. But all those who actually work in politics and related media and knowledge production, at least in the places that count here, are part of, at least effectively, hierarchical structures with aggressive incentive structures, and theyll just keep ticking along
If there has ever been a technology that MOST calls for widely and deeply federated governance, with wide and deep access to decision making regarding it, and the redundant, sometimes overlapping and sometimes not, institutional plurality and requisite regulatory and policy variability that enables those things; well, AI is that technology.
But current day Republicans (really a Conservative Party, for a very long time now) and current day Democrats (really just a technocracy party, and have been for a very long time now) wasnt its governance to be dictated by powerful centrally planning Centers, Republicans mainly through major corporations and Democrats through a full power system-scale unitary agency.
Neither of these current day parties have much at all genuine lower case "p" populism in any serious capacity within them. But of course they just represent powerful special interest groups and so "populism", "democracy", "free markets" (actually leaning towards *free*, I mean), well, these are entirely just slogans, underhanded sales pitches, and deceptions, thats what we have now. And since the general public is locked out of real decision making regarding these parties, and all those that are are people who do this for a career and are locked into its incentive structures and the likes, well, we're heading towards worse place if things dont change with the organizational designs and governance designs of our major institutions (parties, business landscape, governments, academe)
I think you mean *radical* professionals, not radial (though perhaps that's true too!). Stupid spellchecker fail.
What I would like to see is a discussion of the party's relationship to idealism, because it seems like a problem that most discussions with Democrats end with someone playing the idealism card, and calling the other person by one of the jargon epithets like racist or sexist, which is unfalsifiable because the words have no fixed meaning that anyone can be held to. A vague, general meaning, sure, but even then it's hard to have a rational talk about what is essentially emotional.
Wrong in so many ways. Practical Racism is not promoting worthy people in the military, red line housing, separating neighborhoods, stopping people for driving brown or black to name a few.
The "disparate impact" is de facto proof of racism tactic.
We went through this with defunding the police. The typical liberal thought anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 unarmed black men were shot and killed by police every year. The actual number was 10 and those involved aggressive behaviors that couldn't be deescalated.
The body cam movement proved that there wasn't systemic bias in policing.
The phrase “trans rights” is doing too much work in this conversation, and it is time to retire it.
What the party actually absorbed is not a generic civil-rights add-on. It is self-ID: the claim that a person’s stated gender identity should rewrite sex in law, sports, prisons, shelters, medicine, and speech, and that disagreement is illegitimate. “Trans rights” hides the mechanism. Self-ID names it.
That is why the sports example keeps coming up and why Moulton had to walk it back. The fight is not over whether people can live as they wish. It is over whether institutions must treat sex as a feeling with legal force. Working-class voters can smell the difference even when the language won’t say it.
If Democrats want a Sister Souljah moment that is more than vibes, start there. Stop saying “trans rights agenda.” Say what the policy is: self-ID in law, male access to female categories, and a ban on noticing. Until the words match the thing, the party will keep arguing with a slogan while the country argues with the reality.
Excellent point. I still can’t believe this shit is real.
Self-ID into the sex class of your choice! Yeah, that makes sense.
It’s a religion. It needs to be treated as a religion.
Most working class don't like their kids being told their gender and pronouns can be whatever they choose. The LGBTQ extremists have destroyed the Democrats.
Wishful thinking, the word "socialism" will cost Dems many votes in swing states and red states where the word draws huge fear and scorn--especially in places like Florida where millions of residents fled socialism in Cuba and Venezuela. Democrats are just being stupid.
It will, but not in 2026 and probably not even in 2028. Everyone hated Biden when Biden was president, and everyone hates Trump now that he's president. You'd need a fabulous economy to keep independents from souring on the governing party.
But in the long run it will doom the Democrats.
True, the bandwagons don't last long.
Ahh, no. Teixeira has done tons of analysis. Working class mostly refers to people who didnt go to college, which is most voters. Democrats lost all the Texas Border districts to trump in 2024. Teixeira has been watching that. The Biden democrats fucked that up royally. Minorities down South do want healthcare, they just know M4A is a pie in the sky socialist dream that wont happen for a long time. You are making a caricature yourself by implying that only DSA is for healthcare, when of course they are because they want everything good, whether possible or not. The southern working class wants expanded medicaid because it is attainable and right now they dont have anything, whereas Blue wealthier states do have expanded medicaid. its a huge difference being poor down south versus up north and most northerners are clueless and dreamy about M4A.. Teixeira understands this because he studies the South, which has the most poor and the most minorities. DSA is a northern, white college crowd mostly. Teixeira has listed out the stats in previous articles. Saying that Teixeira is all grievance, no analysis is way off.
The ultimate Rep secret weapon, will be 2 years of perpetual Impeachment of Trump and his Cabinet. Dems just cannot help themselves. Dem Congress people are seriously informing voters the Ballroom is grounds for Impeachment, before 6 other issues. Absent a Huey Long "live boy or dead girl" saga, there are not 67 Senate votes for conviction of anyone for anything.
That is before, Medicaid for All, Deportation for None, 100% student loan forgiveness, free childcare, all with a 32 hour work week, kick in, in earnest. Reps losing the House in Nov, will be their best 2028 play, by far.
Meanwhile, the Dem secret weapon is Trump. Even when his instincts are correct, he cannot stop repeatedly shooting himself in the foot, with a sawed off shotgun. Trump 1 streamlined drilling regs sparking an oil and gas boom. US oil production is up 20-25%. The economic energy suicidal tendencies of the Green New Deal are gone, for good, not even the Europeans believe them anymore.
The notion of Americans ever again tolerating the purposefully high oil and gas prices of Obama and Biden, to aid a mythological energy transition, are over. Hence Trump being slaughtered over what are arguably temporary oil prices, due to Iran, that still average less than Obama
At some point, Reps will counter Abolish ICE with a list of thousands of Americans who have suffered at the hands of the undocumented, purposefully or not. Even supposed moderate Dems refuse to cheer the deportation of child rapists and murders. Then there is basic Math. 10 million people require extra housing, MDs and speciality teachers, we do not have. More than 1/2 reside in a home enrolled in a welfare program.
Biden's greatest gift to Dems was conflating mass migration with orderly immigration. Long term, a lack of deportation turns the US into the world's home base. Hit US soil and never leave. Even Dems, like the Denmark Socialists, will eventually realize that is not remotely sustainable, but not before the issue returns to the voting booth.
Reps and Dems are both carrying millstones around their necks, but the Rep variety has an expiration date. Dems Socialists seemingly do not. Look for Reps to lose the 2026 battle , to win the 2028 war.
Every Dem needs to read "the Dentons Doc" the trans playbook for self-ID for youth.
The title: ONLY ADULTS? GOOD PRACTICES IN LEGAL GENDER RECOGNITION IN YOUTH: A report on the current state of laws and NGO advocacy in eight countries in Europe, with a focus on rights of young people
https://womenspeaktas.au/2025/09/25/analysis-of-the-dentons-document-a-how-to-manual/ talks about it.
Some key techniques it recommends:
Incremental change: Introduce reforms step by step rather than all at once, to avoid backlash.
Piggybacking on other causes: Attach trans rights to broader equality, diversity, or anti-discrimination initiatives to normalise them.
Strategic framing: Use language that resonates positively (e.g., “equality,” “human rights”) and avoid terms that may provoke opposition.
Youth mobilisation: Position young people as the face of reform efforts, emphasising innocence and urgency to gain public sympathy.
Litigation and legal tools: Where possible, bring test cases to courts to compel governments to adapt laws.
Grievance is substituted for analysis: “working class” becomes a synonym for cultural conservatism, while the DSA’s heterogeneous urban base is reduced to a cartoon of white grad students. Where is the evidence that Democrats lose because they support civil rights, climate action, or health care, rather than because voters face stagnant wages, unaffordable housing, high prices, and distrust in government? Triangulation by anecdote, imitate Trump on immigrants, trans people, fossil fuels, and AI, then call it “common sense”, is not a cure. It is nostalgia for a Clinton-era electorate that no longer exists.
> "support civil rights"
Is a fetus of a woman a living member of the species Homo sapiens?
If you are asking me personally if I believe life begins at conception, my answer is yes, I do believe that. I also do not believe in a nationwide ban on abortion. So everyone on the extremes hates me (for that point of view, I am otherwise quite charming).
This article and interview is so much ado about nothing. Whether dem candidates are demsoc or not, what they have been talking about is much more important than 'who' they are. These two did not have a discussion about the issues that have been resonating with voters in primaries and why, they chose to whine about the dems at all levels. There is no mention of big money at the national Dem level, and how that has influenced dems for years. The dem 'center' has collapsed because of the lack of intellectual rigor, as displayed here. Poo Poohing data center opposition is an elite talking head position that displays no understanding of the fundamental issues around opposition.
Interesting conversation that touched on a lot of things I've been curious about. I'm a spectator in that there are no competitive races here for me to vote on, not even close. Not a very good place when neither party is even thinking of pandering to the 60%.
Oh, we're in a special moment alright. I just this in reply to someone else, but its so tragic how everything is sort of on autopilot, most all people and groupings are locked out of key processes by various means (means being pluralized is important, because key features of our current set up is a centralized academe and centralized press and so even info and deliberation are kept concealed), and AI is just a profoundly important subject across and within multiple civilizational dimensions. But all those who actually work in politics and related media and knowledge production, at least in the places that count here, are part of, at least effectively, hierarchical structures with aggressive incentive structures, and theyll just keep ticking along
If there has ever been a technology that MOST calls for widely and deeply federated governance, with wide and deep access to decision making regarding it, and the redundant, sometimes overlapping and sometimes not, institutional plurality and requisite regulatory and policy variability that enables those things; well, AI is that technology.
But current day Republicans (really a Conservative Party, for a very long time now) and current day Democrats (really just a technocracy party, and have been for a very long time now) wasnt its governance to be dictated by powerful centrally planning Centers, Republicans mainly through major corporations and Democrats through a full power system-scale unitary agency.
Neither of these current day parties have much at all genuine lower case "p" populism in any serious capacity within them. But of course they just represent powerful special interest groups and so "populism", "democracy", "free markets" (actually leaning towards *free*, I mean), well, these are entirely just slogans, underhanded sales pitches, and deceptions, thats what we have now. And since the general public is locked out of real decision making regarding these parties, and all those that are are people who do this for a career and are locked into its incentive structures and the likes, well, we're heading towards worse place if things dont change with the organizational designs and governance designs of our major institutions (parties, business landscape, governments, academe)
I think you mean *radical* professionals, not radial (though perhaps that's true too!). Stupid spellchecker fail.
What I would like to see is a discussion of the party's relationship to idealism, because it seems like a problem that most discussions with Democrats end with someone playing the idealism card, and calling the other person by one of the jargon epithets like racist or sexist, which is unfalsifiable because the words have no fixed meaning that anyone can be held to. A vague, general meaning, sure, but even then it's hard to have a rational talk about what is essentially emotional.
Yup. See the evolution of "racism."
In the 1960s, racism was Bull Conor spraying protestors for integration with water cannons.
In the 2020s, racism is complimenting a black woman's hair and growing cauliflower.
Wrong in so many ways. Practical Racism is not promoting worthy people in the military, red line housing, separating neighborhoods, stopping people for driving brown or black to name a few.
The "disparate impact" is de facto proof of racism tactic.
We went through this with defunding the police. The typical liberal thought anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 unarmed black men were shot and killed by police every year. The actual number was 10 and those involved aggressive behaviors that couldn't be deescalated.
The body cam movement proved that there wasn't systemic bias in policing.