Marshall and Steve here. Welcome to the realignment's last Steve and Marshall episode of the entire year.

The show only has about a week more to go.

So we thought Steve and I would have a great conversation focused on the fact that after a month plus since the 2024 election, a lot of takes have been thrown, a lot of stands have been taken, and I'd be really

interested in hearing Steve where you have settled and basically the different debates and

ideas and issues that are top of mind for you going into 2025.

So I'll just throw it to you there and we can just hop into things.

Yeah, I was going to say, we know for a fact we're having a conversation, whether it's

going to be a great conversation is something to be determined, I guess.

So, yeah, I've been thinking, you know, I don't know whether I mentioned this in an earlier

podcast, but the New Republic used to have its like biannual recriminations issue every time the Democrats lost.

So we're well into recriminations season now. So maybe that's what this is. This is the

recriminations session. And, you know, I think the one of the things to figure out is, is there anything to discuss, right? Was this just entirely structurally determined? And I guess that's one kind of claim that's out there, right? One kind of claim is every incumbent party, regardless of ideology, lost. So this is a very

short conversation because there's nothing to explain. And that's, you know, that's a hard one to actually

argue with. And I do think it's worth saying that that, you know, that's obviously true to a degree, right?

That sets the baseline.

Now, did that mean, especially given how close this election was, that there was no opportunity to squeeze through given a bad structural situation.

And I guess I'm on the side of thinking that while the structural stuff is really important,

there was some room for agency here, and it's worth trying to unpack that.

But again, I don't think this is in either or.

I think there are people who want to focus on the structural explanation so that they can say

that nobody needs to lose their job or be embarrassed by what they did. But I still think

it's a good explanation, even if a lot of people are using it pretextually.

...