How Mexico’s Post-Neoliberal Policies Offer a Blueprint for U.S. Democrats (with Kurt Hackbarth)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Paul and Goldy sit down with journalist Kurt Hackbarth to discuss the recent electoral success of Mexico's Morena party and their progressive economic agenda. The conversation explores how Morena’s focus on middle-out policies, such as significant minimum wage increases and sweeping social safety net programs and reforms, has lifted millions out of poverty and challenged decades of neoliberal orthodoxy. Hackbarth also highlights the effective communication strategies employed by Morena's leaders, particularly their innovative use of social media, and the importance of staying connected to the base while appealing to a broad spectrum of voters, offering insights into what U.S. Democrats can learn from Mexico's left-leaning Morena party. Kurt Hackbarth is a writer, playwright, and freelance journalist who contributes to Jacobin Magazine and co-founded the independent media project “MexElects.” His writing often explores the complexities of global affairs and the impact of neoliberalism on society. Social Media: @KurtHackbarth Further reading: Jacobin Magazine- Mexico’s Lessons for the International Left Soberanía: The Mexican Politics Podcast Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer, @civicaction YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Substack: The Pitch

Transcript

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0:00.0	The rising inequality and growing political instability that we see today are the direct result of decades of bad economic theory.
0:11.0	The last five decades of trickle-down economics haven't worked. But what's the alternative?
0:16.0	Middle-out economics is the answer. Because the middle class is the source of growth, not its consequence.
0:23.1	That's right.
0:28.7	This is pitchfork economics with Nick Hanauer, a podcast about how to build the economy from the middle out.
0:36.9	Welcome to the show.
0:38.3	Paul, you're joining me on the pod today to do a therapy session?
0:50.3	I believe me. If you ran a GoFundMe for therapy, I would be your top donor.
1:00.4	Because as you know, I'm still, I'm still a little, I'm still, I'm a little down about the election.
1:09.2	Oh, yeah? And I guess by the time this airs about the inauguration.
1:17.2	Yeah, you know, that's understandable, Goldie.
1:19.4	I mean, I had the, I would say that the week after the election was was pretty rough for me, too.
1:25.8	It was one of the roughest weeks of my life.
1:28.0	I will say emotionally in public this it was it was incredibly depressing. And you know, one of the
1:35.9	things that helped me at that time was there was a chart that was going around and I think
1:43.0	you've probably seen it, Goldie, but it's the one that showed that
1:45.8	ruling parties around the world have been getting thrown out of office and losing elections
1:52.5	one after the other. Right and left. Right and left. It didn't matter who was in power. The party
2:00.1	in power was getting kicked in the teeth by voters
2:02.8	around the world this year. And in fact, that was one of the things that was helpful for me,
2:07.3	because, you know, Americans like to believe we're living in a vacuum. But in fact, the loss
2:12.4	in America was less than almost every other country in the world, meaning that, you know, all that work,
	...

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