Greg Sargent & the Midterm Election

Digging a Hole: The Legal Theory Podcast

It’s time for an election recap! We’re joined by Greg Sargent, who covers elections for the Washington Post and who slides into Sam’s DMs regularly. We recorded this episode on Friday, November 11th as election returns are still coming in, but it’s clear that the “red wave” did not transpire. It looks like Democrats will hold the Senate and they have a small hope of retaining the House.

What lessons can we draw from this election (without just confirming our priors and takes)? Were any issues – abortion, inflation, democracy – most salient? Did candidates cover these issues (they certainly didn’t run on legislation Congress passed!) and what messaging was relevant to voters? Was candidate quality a bigger element than normal? What's the deal with racial de-polarization? We discuss how to disentangle these factors and their effects on the election nationally, regionally, and in localities.

We also debate what this means for the future of politics and governing. As a starting point, Sam summarizes the argument of his recent article: “It’s time for the Democrats to move past Donald Trump.” Yes, his thesis relates to neoliberalism, and, yes, David disagrees with it (somehow by analogizing it with the SNL cowbell sketch).

We had a very fun discussion with lots of healthy disagreement over the current state of American politics and the future! We’d love to hear your thoughts, too, sound off on Twitter while it’s still there!

Referenced Readings

• “Why Some States Went in Different Directions in Midterms,” by Nate Cohn
• “It’s Time for the Democrats to Move Past Donald Trump,” by Samuel Moyn
• “Why the Red Wave Didn’t Materialize,” by Sohrab Ahmari
• “Resist, Persist, and Transform: The Emergence and Impact of Grassroots Resistance Groups Opposing the Trump Presidency,” by Leah Gose & Theda Skocpol