The counterfeit currency of lefty abundance

Few things are more nauseating than book tours from authors who are repackaging old ideas as “brand new.” You know the story, some writer goes on national TV or big-name podcast saying “Eureka, I have discovered something no one else thought before.” Except the premise of the book is repackaged common sense with a clever new phrase.

This experience is made worse when the authors are making hypocrites of themselves. When you can easily check that they have in fact built their careers belittling or undermining those who long promoted the very ideas they now claim as their own. That is exactly what happened with the release of the new Abundance book by liberal media darlings Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. The duo has been on a media blitz showing up on TV, youtube clips, podcasts, and NPR pontificating about their “new” approach.

To dig in a bit, the authors envision as “a new path for Democrats.” Their so-called "abundance" plan emphasizes building more housing, investing in infrastructure, and embracing technological advancements to create a future characterized by clean energy, medical progress, and improved quality of life. They argue that too many regulations and poor policies have led to major inefficiencies in blue states and liberal cities where restrictive zoning laws and environmental regulations obstruct development.

On first blush, a lot of what they argue for makes sense. Who doesn’t want to promote innovation, take down big-city zoning laws, reduce barriers to building new infrastructure, cut regulations, harness new energy resources, or mitigate urban blight? But then you start realizing a few things. These purveyors of liberal enlightenment are just following the lead of standard conservative proposals developed over the past several decades. Center-right policy advocates from Project 2025 to Reason Magazine have articulated various ideas that align with this mindset in numerous proposals.

It isn’t just in the towers of D.C. think-tanks where these ideas are prevalent, but in states and communities throughout the nation we are seeing these pro-growth policy proposals being put into action. Anyone who has been to cities such as Salt Lake City, Grand Rapids, Miami or even smaller metros can see how these communities have transformed into vibrant centers of commerce, culture, and opportunity and have stolen the spotlight from traditional blue communities.

To be fair, the authors of Abundance recognize this. In a 15-minute ostentatious video, Ezra Klein looks deeply into the camera, smugly explaining how Democrats have failed and how he alone has the answer. However, in his pretentious monologue, Klein fails to mention he’s been an enabler of this failed approach. Just a quick look at his wiki bio and you will see he is “currently a New York Times columnist and the host of The Ezra Klein Show podcast [No. 12 in United States]. He is a co-founder of Vox and formerly was the website's editor-at-large. He has held editorial positions at The Washington Post and The American Prospect, and was a regular contributor to Bloomberg News and MSNBC.” At every stop along the way he’s been echoing lefty talking points and not articulating a new vision.

In all his time on stage center-left he never used his prominent position to call out the party’s failure to embrace abundance policies. In fact, Klein and Derek Thompson routinely use their positions to attack Republican efforts to roll back regulations and enact pro-growth policies. They didn’t just sit by as the left enacted devastating policies that turned blue cities into wastelands but actively enabled their demise.

This hypocrisy was on full display this past Friday when Bill Maher and his guest Andrew Sullivan discussed the unconscionable collusion between the public health community, Democrat politicians, and The New York Times to lie to the American public about the origins of COVID. Throughout the discourse, Ezra Klein just sat sheepishly next to Andrew Sullivan, quiet. Unwilling or unable to defend the decisions of the Times or even acknowledge how the cities that embraced draconian policies pushed by public health “experts” during the pandemic essentially accelerated decline across blue cities.

This “Damascus” moment is little more than a ploy by liberal influencers to sell books and absolve themselves of their life’s work enabling the party’s current political conundrum. This is almost as bad as Jake Tapper co-authoring a book about the White House’s effort to cover up President Biden’s mental and physical decline after spending years refusing to acknowledge Biden’s health problems, calling concerns about them a “conspiracy theory.”

The book is yet again another treatise for the coastal elites and fails to address the issues of the heartland where Democrats are held hostage to climate activists vandalizing Teslas, amnesty advocates who want open borders, and transgender warriors are cheering on boys invading girls’ sports.

I understand the need for the left to come up with answers to their political predicament. They are leaderless, have no new ideas, and are married to unpopular woke zealots who will only drive away more independents. Yet this argument isn’t the way. Move on, find a new slant.