Some thoughts related to the recent Presidential election.
If Biden governs as an establishment Democrat, it won't be long before the US elects another, far more effective Donald Trump.
Trump was not just a product of latent racism and sexism. The economic hypocrisy of recent Democratic administrations alienated part of the Democrats' traditional blue-collar voting base, not to mention the millions of unaffiliated voters who simply opted not to vote for either Clinton or Trump in 2016. It's these voters, not the wealthy suburbanites which many in the party's establishment cater to, that still hold the keys to American politics. Biden won simply because of how unpopular Trump is. Democrats will need to offer Americans something different - a type of politics that can activate irregular working-class voters and deliver on bread-and-butter economic issues - if they're to create a stable and responsive government.
Blaming the voters simply will not do. This is a failure of leadership. Those responsible for it need to be held accountable.
We know how Democrats can win again. Thomas Frank, in his vital book, Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? that offers something meaningful to working people. We know that voting Republican is no indication that voters actually want the agenda the Republican party will pursue in office. Fox News polling indicates voters want universal healthcare, abortion rights and a pathway to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants. Florida voters, even as they selected Donald Trump, also opted to increase the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour. The Democrats do not need to propose insipid half-measures when the data indicates that the public are fully on board with a progressive agenda.
Kamala Harris will make history when she becomes vice-president in January - but another black woman played a pivotal role helping the Biden-Harris ticket win the White House.
Morgan Housel
How do people think about risk? How do they react to surprise? What motivates them, and causes them to be overconfident, or too pessimistic? Those broad lessons are important because we know they'll be relevant in the future. They'll apply to nearly everyone, and in many fields. The same rule of thumb works in the other direction: the broader the lesson, the more useful it is for the future.