There’s a version of the progressive political tradition that is truly empirical. It looks at who is being harmed, what can be done to reduce the harm, and determines workable fixes accordingly. FDR looked at a 25% unemployment rate and tried five different things until something worked to improve it. LBJ’s policy staff looked at infant mortality data and built Medicaid around it. Obama looked, clear-eyed, at the political landscape, and expanded health insurance coverage to 20 million people, using his opponent’s ideas. This progressivism updates based on new facts, because ambitious, society-improving plans must be based on truth. When held to that discipline, progressivism won landslides.
The version we have now does not win landslides, and a chicken sandwich helps explain why not.
This past April Fools Day I published a prank story on this Sub…
