Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ezra Klein Hash Out Their Charlie Kirk Disagreement

RamsayBolton

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Listened to all of it despite my earlier post.

Ezra's position is basically that he wants dems to be what HE views as politically savvy. He includes examples like running pro-life/anti-abortion dems in red states. His argument is that it's most important to win these places back than it is to be hardheaded and write off red states/red people. He says this is because if we dont win those places the republicans will win and then theyll get to enforce their worldview anyway. In other words, ceding ground to republicans - though he also hints that maybe it can just be an appearance of ceding ground.

Ta-Nehisi basically lightly pushes back and says he can't betray his audience of the unspoken for like that. They both kind of dance around the direct implication that Ezra was throwing those people Charlie Kirk disparaged under the bus with his article on how Kirk did politics right.

Ta-Nehisi basically comes to a middle ground with Ezra where he says if you're going to try to take that "logical" stance you need to have receipts and hard facts for the people who are coming under direct harm that youre writing off. He uses an example of being pro-palestine but having to tell palestinians he's voting for Kamala because its a 2 party system and she's the lesser of two evils.


Ta-Nehisi also says he doesnt agree with Hilary Clinton writing people off as deplorable. He is more concerned with writing off and destroying ideologies than being OK with the deaths of people propagating those ideologies.
 

WIA20XX

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Listened to all of it despite my earlier post.

Ezra's position is basically that he wants dems to be what HE views as politically savvy. He includes examples like running pro-life/anti-abortion dems in red states. His argument is that it's most important to win these places back than it is to be hardheaded and write off red states/red people. He says this is because if we dont win those places the republicans will win and then theyll get to enforce their worldview anyway. In other words, ceding ground to republicans - though he also hints that maybe it can just be an appearance of ceding ground.

From the transcipt

In '08, as you and I both know, Barack Obama ran as a public opponent of gay marriage, right? He ran opposed to it at a time when not only I won't speak for you was I not opposed to it, but most of us did not Yeah. Most of us did not think he was opposed to it, right? Like at his heart, we did not think he was opposed to it, right? But he was playing politics. That playing of politics allowed him to name Supreme Court justices and that led to the decision that created a constitutional right to samesex marriage.

So Ezra thinks the Dems need "bait and switch" politicians to get his set of policies.

Just vote for these people even though they are taking positions you don't like and saying things you don't like.
In the end, somehow, they will vote right and make the right things happen.

"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time" (c) Maya Angelou.

Ta-Nehisi basically lightly pushes back and says he can't betray his audience of the unspoken for like that. They both kind of dance around the direct implication that Ezra was throwing those people Charlie Kirk disparaged under the bus with his article on how Kirk did politics right.

Yup!

Ta-Nehisi also says he doesnt agree with Hilary Clinton writing people off as deplorable. He is more concerned with writing off and destroying ideologies than being OK with the deaths of people propagating those ideologies.

I think TNC says he wouldn't have said it like that. The implication was that HILLARY WAS RIGHT!

Ezra - She probably shouldn't have said it, but you think it's true.
Coates - I mean, it's probably not how I would say it, but you know, I mean, there are things that I would say. M

Me, hearing the whole thing now in 2025, HILLARY WAS DAMN RIGHT.

I don't know if Coates really killed it in this one, but mostly because Ezra dodges a lot of his points.
 

Ish Gibor

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LOL, the Dems wish. They've been searching for a liberal Theo Von since the election. Plenty of columns and podcasts about it.

Meanwhile there are plenty of liberal comedians with podcasts. (there's a whole pushback against comedians with podcasts)





Not really, imo. Ezra started out as a political blogger, when having a blog mattered. So post Howard Dean and through the Obama era. Pre-Podcast, Pre-Vlog. He started Vox.

He's a policy wonk at heart

So he has talked about Mamdani, and his clever campaigning, but not so much about his POLICY.
AOC? No
Bernie? No.

Anyone really in that realm of mainstream but left? Not really.

At best, he's trying to bring back state capacity to build things like Lefty China and Europe...but with a neo-liberal slant...maybe? (Abundance)

Is he talking about court packing?
Proportional representation instead of the electoral college?

And those aren't even "Left" issues....

So no, he's not the Left Joe Rogan. He's not even a Liberal Joe Rogan.
He's more like the nerdy kid with the Democrat Centrists.

Throughout the last few weeks I have seen a lot of potential at the Left. A lot of them are in their early 20s.
 

Ish Gibor

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I truly wish Ezra Klein was just a bought and paid for Liberal.
If that was the case, he'd be like Vance, for sale to the highest bidder.

Then it would just take someone of different politics to pay for him.

He actually believes what he says......50% of the time.

Right before ol boy got Kirk'd





When someone takes the threat seriously? The threat he's been talking about

He runs to these people



But because he's of 2 minds...smh, right after that he says



..........

I gotta pull the transcript on this joint to talk about Coates, but not even the great TNC can get Klein to see his own blind spots.

Should someone at the Left never have a Right leaning person on the platform, or just only Left leaning pundits?
 

WIA20XX

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Throughout the last few weeks I have seen a lot of potential at the Left. A lot of them are in their early 20s.

There might be, but if I take my Kufi off and put my DC hat on for a second - young people don't vote, young men don't vote. And the votes that are needed are really in the "battleground" states.

Coates makes a good argument about last election - a few things could have gone differently in a procedural sense, and the Dems would have won.

He says that, because Klein is so focused on winning "hearts and minds".
 

WIA20XX

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Should someone at the Left never have a Right leaning person on the platform, or just only Left leaning pundits?

I'm not exactly clear on what you're saying, but

Klein is like we need to win seats in Red States, so run "purple" candidates.

Coates is saying that when you run "pro-life" candidates in red states, that are Dems, - you're fukking over women that want abortions in those states, and in all states.

Klein's argument is that these "pro-life" candidates will end up confirming pro-choice judges.

....

I'm not saying either.

What I'm saying is that we've had plenty of Joe Lieberman's and Joe Manchins that stand in the way of Democractic Party goals.

The Right has a word for this, Repubicans in Name Only, RINOS.

Klein is naive enough to think that our Purple Democrats aren't really DINOs, democrats in name only.
 

Ish Gibor

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I'm not exactly clear on what you're saying, but

Klein is like we need to win seats in Red States, so run "purple" candidates.

Coates is saying that when you run "pro-life" candidates in red states, that are Dems, - you're fukking over women that want abortions in those states, and in all states.

Klein's argument is that these "pro-life" candidates will end up confirming pro-choice judges.

....

I'm not saying either.

What I'm saying is that we've had plenty of Joe Lieberman's and Joe Manchins that stand in the way of Democractic Party goals.

The Right has a word for this, Repubicans in Name Only, RINOS.

Klein is naive enough to think that our Purple Democrats aren't really DINOs, democrats in name only.

I posted the conversation, because Ta-Nehisi Coates publicly has criticized Charlie. And had probably the biggest voice out there for the last couples of weeks.

And should a Left leaning platform have Right leaning guests on the platform? Because allegedly Ezra Klein is suspected a "bought and paid" for Left who is actually Right leaning?


 
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WIA20XX

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I posted the conversation, because Ta-Nehisi Coates publicly has criticized Charlie. And had probably the biggest voice out there for the last couples of weeks.


I'll have to watch this, but before I do, are you saying these Antifa people are capable of leading in the Left?

I'm trying to get my hands around the conversation that you and I are having.
 
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