Editor's Note: The Difference Between Governing and Campaigning

The ideas primary is not about catchy slopulist slogans or incoherent wish-lists from every group under the sun, but must return a genuine program for successful governance.

For more than a year, the “ideas primary” has been simmering beneath the surface of Democratic politics. After Kamala Harris’ disastrous defeat, factions throughout the party produced their own diagnoses for what went wrong and how to win next time. But as Trump’s poll numbers have cratered—largely as a result of his own demented policies, from ICE brutality to a seemingly intractable war with Iran—some factions have begun to think bigger. If the stink of Trump’s failures hangs around the neck of whatever Republican runs in 2028—as Biden hung around the neck of Harris—then a Democratic presidential candidate may have the opening to run an ambitious agenda, rather than scraping for every last median voter in Wisconsin.

This is the ideas primary: the contest within the liberal intellectual class to put forward visions of possible futures, which will go on to shape the Democratic presidential primary—much as Medicare For All or the Green New Deal were first developed in these elite circles. One such attempt is Project 2029. …

Continue reading this article by Samantha Hancox-Li, “Editor’s Note: The Difference Between Governing and Campaigning,” here: https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-difference-between-governing-and-campaigning/