Democrats need to do something

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Society & Culture, News, Politics, News Commentary, Philosophy

4.6 • 10.8K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

American government has a speed issue. Both parties are slow to solve problems. Slow to build new things. Slow to make any change at all. Until now. The Trump administration is pushing through sweeping changes as fast as possible, completely changing the dynamic. And the Democrats? They’ve been slow to respond. Slow to mount a defense. Slow to change tactics. Still. Ezra Klein — writer, co-founder of Vox, and host of The Ezra Klein Show for the New York Times — would like to offer a course correction. In a new book, Abundance, Klein and co-author Derek Thompson, argue that the way to make a better, brighter future, is to build and invent the things we need. To do that, liberals need to push past hyper-coalitional and bureaucratic ways of getting things done. In this episode, Ezra speaks with Sean about the policy decisions that have rendered government inert and how we can make it easier to build the things we want and need. Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling) Guest: Ezra Klein, co-author of Abundance and host of The Ezra Klein Show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:44.3	If I had to pick one word to really capture American politics, for most of my adult life, at least,
0:51.0	it wouldn't be hope or change or forward or future. The word I'd choose is inertia. It doesn't
1:00.1	matter what the slogans are or what the speeches say. In terms of getting things done or fundamentally
1:06.4	changing how we do things, both parties seem slow to solve problems, slow to build new things,
1:14.7	slow to change anything, really.
1:19.1	Until now.
1:21.6	As you know, the Trump administration has been passing executive orders and implementing new policies at a break-neck pace.
1:32.7	Attempting to remake entire swaths of the federal government.
1:37.8	And you might not like what they're doing. I don't.
1:41.7	But they are doing something.
1:47.0	And the Democratic opposition? Well, they don't seem to have the answers.
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