Dan Pfeiffer and Ezra Klein Dialog

Dan Pfeiffer and Ezra Klein Dialog
By Wade Lee Hudson

[NOTE: Dan Pfeiffer, co-host of Pod Save America, has spent most of his adult life in Democratic Party politics, which has included serving as White House communications director for President Barack Obama. His new book is Un-Trumping America.]

On the March 11 Ezra Klein Show, “Dan Pfeiffer on Joe Biden, beating Trump, and saving Democracy,” Ezra and Dan focus on “inside game” strategy -- campaigning, legislating, restructuring the government (e.g., eliminating the filibuster). What they say largely makes sense. But absent an effective “outside game,” the gains achieved with their efforts will be sorely limited and fragile. Witness 2010.

We need massive, inclusive, democratic grassroots movements that unite occasionally to support timely, top priority issues and persist until they win. In this way, we can build enough power to persuade Congress to respect the will of the people. 

To cultivate that political unity, we need profound personal, social, and cultural change of the sort that Ezra has addressed at times, especially in his conversations with and about Elizabeth Anderson. In particular, we need to learn how to really respect everyone’s essential equality and democratize our entire society, including creating new social structures, some of which would involve formal interaction with elected officials.

The discussion about Organizing for America and Bernie’s vision of “sending his people into Kentucky” and Dan’s idea of “sending a bunch of organizers” to lobby was woefully inadequate. That top-down approach is not democratic, and we need more democracy.