As one who ekes out a modest living running my mouth on radio and Substack, I hesitate to critique others who do the same – even though I might disagree entirely and emphatically with them.

But occasionally, I see influential purveyors of conventional wisdom tromping into my area of real-life experience, pushing some political nonsense that is not only wrong, but delusive. That’s when I intrude.

Like now, a whole posse of pundits is bellowing these days that Democrats have only one path forward to avoid perpetual defeat by MAGA Republicans: “Shift to the right!” For example, New York Times right-wing sermonizer Ross Douthat, recently proclaimed that the wisdom of Democrats “repositioning” their issues and message away from progressivism “ought to be plain to anyone with eyes.” To which I say: Bovine excrement.

What’s plain to most voters (and especially to fed-up nonvoters) is that cynical partisan shiftiness is what’s wrong with both parties, creating a plutocratic realpolitik run by and for avaricious moneyed powers. I’m no New York Times pontificator, but my ground-level experience in Texas tells me that what common people really want is not more precisely-calculated positioning, but an honest stand on “little-d” democratic principle. Say what you believe… and do it!

On the very day that the Times ran a Douthat column lecturing Democrats on how to “play politics,” Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City. He won by running an aggressively-progressive campaign against corporate elites, exciting the city’s widely-ignored working-class and poor voters. Instead of trying to manipulate the electorate, Mamdani expanded and inspired it. That is plainly the Democratic Party’s future.

Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe