The Second Greatest Threat to Democracy

Neoliberalism brought us to the brink. It won’t bring us back.

Democratic power brokers are spending millions trying to manufacture a "Joe Rogan of the Left." They don’t know what he should say. They just know who he should reach: white men who still believe Trump tells it like it is. But whoever this inevitable wealthy consultant, cosplaying a blue-collar everyman turns out to be, they'll have one mandate: never criticize the party. Because the party serves as a gatekeeper for the donor class whose interests clash with those the party swears it fights for.

It’s a microcosm of how we got here.

Think about it. They kneecapped David Hogg for challenging complacent Democrats. Now—since Jake Tapper is hawking his book—the establishment talking heads are suddenly scrambling, bumbling, lying to pretend they always thought Joe Biden running for re-election was a bad idea. They are fabricating a reality where they didn’t crush the primary system or blacklist leftists who called for him to step aside months ago.

Leftists weren’t clairvoyant; they simply reported what anyone with open eyes could see. Joe Biden was in decline, and America had moved on.

The Democrats gaslit their own party—and possibly the country—into a kind of paralysis. Their politics were never convincing because they dressed up loyalty to the donor class in progressive language, offering symbolic gestures without any real substance. And the people see that.

Let’s be clear: hypocrisy is not exclusive to Democrats. But the Right offers something different—a space to voice unfiltered grievances, often laced with coded racism, and a stage for people expressing real anxieties, even if those expressions lack the language or polish Democrats demand. For many, that unvarnished approach feels more honest. And so, they drift toward nationalism, mistaking a folksier jingoism for authenticity. They feel heard in Republican circles and judged in ours. In our spaces, their language is corrected, their tone policed, their pain intellectualized. So they go where they feel seen, even if it's in a house built on hate.

Meanwhile, a second and more authoritarian Trump presidency is underway. Mass deportations are being carried out with brutal force. Trump is openly defying the courts. His billionaire cronies are pillaging the government, its treasury, and the data of every person in the country. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Trump is seeking to unleash the United States military on civilians, claiming it's necessary to quell the people’s protests in California.

Yet the Democrats are prioritizing a search for a market-tested centrist who can recite donor-friendly talking points and call it a winning strategy.

So I'm back to airing a variation on a grievance you've heard from me before. Our party’s fascination with this mythological political center is beyond reason, given how warped the spectrum has become with the Republican Party now squarely into fascism. Where, then, is the political center now? Somewhere to the left of Nixon but still to the right of Reagan?

This obsession with the so-called center isn’t just misguided—it’s revealing. It exposes the deeper ideological fault line at the heart of the Democratic Party. Yes, neoliberalism presents itself as an economic framework. But more than that, it's a posture—a knee-jerk rejection to anything that threatens the status quo, especially policies that might empower working-class people and communities abandoned by decades of corporate appeasement.

Ideas rooted in economic populism and democratic socialism can never be considered. They are a threat. But to whom? You tell me. What category of people in America would view wealth redistribution to the working people who created it as dangerous?

So, it wasn’t just about markets after all. Neoliberalism came with a story—one designed to convince us that big ideas always fail, that the best we can hope for is modest reform, and that anyone pushing further is dangerous, unserious, or both.

And this is where the mask slips: so, who does neoliberalism really serve?

It serves the wealthy elite: donors, corporations, and technocrats—people who have no incentive to fix what works perfectly for them. Elections become rituals, not reckonings. Policy becomes posture, not progress. And when a wealthy, soulless strongman comes along to hollow out our democracy in plain view, there's no meaningful resistance; it wasn't designed for dramatics. This is why neoliberalism isn’t just ineffective—it’s the second greatest threat to democracy.

Ask yourself, what do neoliberals actually believe? Can they articulate a coherent worldview beyond vague gestures toward “stability” or “normalcy”? Their politics often amounts to little more than tacit resistance to Trump and reflexive resistance to figures like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—two of the most consistently popular politicians of our time.

Maybe at one point it was a real policy program. But if its original ideology is taken seriously, it's barely distinguishable from what Wall Street conservatives say they believe. And those folks voted for Trump.

In its modern form, neoliberalism has been laid bare—shown to be nothing more than political snake oil.

And because centrist neoliberals still run the Democratic Party, this is a dangerous reality for all of us—and for our democracy. The Democrats aren’t coming to save us. They just want us to think they are. We gotta save us.

For those who disagree, tell me honestly that you believe Senator Schumer and Speaker Jeffries—the de facto leaders of the party—have mounted an effective opposition to Trump’s authoritarian antics. You could never in a million years do that with a straight face.

For those ready to recite a meager list of centrist “accomplishments,” consider this: the issue isn’t about kept promises. It’s that neoliberalism kills any promise that threatens hierarchy. Structural change is forever postponed in the name of pragmatism. So, things might get done on paper, but nothing changes in reality.

Consider Elizabeth Warren: She reached her peak when her politics were rooted in structural change. The moment she embraced a more technocratic, establishment-friendly stance, she faded from the party’s imagination—less a presence than a placeholder.

Most politicians, Democrat and Republican alike, are rudderless. They perform ideology rather than hold one. They declare that healthcare is a human right, yet flinch at universal coverage. They speak of racial justice, then funnel military-grade weapons to police departments. They claim to champion the cause of workers while protecting tax loopholes for billionaires.

Nearly thirty million Americans remain uninsured (to say nothing of the underinsured). Another 13 million could join them under the latest Republican budget proposal. Meanwhile, U.S. billionaires added more than $2 trillion to their fortunes during the pandemic—a stark reminder of who prospers when inequality goes unchallenged.

And yet, in the midst of all this, people are organizing. Communities are resisting. Movements are rising. These are encouraging glimmers of hope, with only a few coming from elected democrats. Perhaps that’s because it’s easier to be against something than to stand for something. This moment, however, requires Democrats to do the hard thing.

True advocacy requires care, vision, the will to defend that vision when it’s unpopular, and execute on it when it’s hard. Neoliberalism meets none of those requirements. Without meaningful advocacy, there’s no change. And without meaningful change, Democrats can’t address the inequality and decay that produced Trumpism, which in turn, makes them complicit in its survival.

Trump and his movement are the single greatest threat to American democracy. That is indisputable. But the second greatest threat, the one cloaked in moderation and pragmatism, is a Democratic establishment more focused on sidelining the Left than defeating the Right.

That's how we got here.

The only way out is through: through the wreckage of hollow centrism, through the illusions of incrementalism, through the self-preserving calculation—or quiet cruelty—of those who believe power should stay in the hands of wealthy elites.

To build a decent society, we must do more than oppose Trumpism. We must dismantle the neoliberal default that enabled it and replace it with a politics rooted in democratic socialism and economic populism.

Neoliberalism may be the second greatest threat to democracy—but the greatest hope for its renewal lies in political revolution.