Theres Been a Regime Change in How Democrats Think About Elections
b'According to the conventional rules of politics, Democrats should be on track for electoral disaster this November. Joe Biden\\u2019s approval rating is stuck around 42 percent, inflation is still sky-high and midterms usually swing against the incumbent president\\u2019s party \\u2014 a recipe for the kind of political wipeouts we saw in 2018, 2010 and 1994.\\n\\nBut that\\u2019s not what the polls show. Currently, Democrats are on track to hold the Senate and lose narrowly in the House, which raises all kinds of questions: Why are Republicans failing to capitalize on such a favorable set of circumstances? How did Democrats get themselves into this situation \\u2014 and can they get out of it? And should we even trust the polls giving us this information in the first place?\\n\\nMatt Yglesias is a veteran journalist who writes the newsletter \\u201cSlow Boring\\u201d and co-hosts the podcast \\u201cBad Takes.\\u201d And in recent years he\\u2019s become an outspoken critic of the Democratic Party\\u2019s political strategy: how Democrats communicate with the public, what they choose as their governing priorities and whom they ultimately listen to. In Yglesias\\u2019s view, Democrats have lost touch with the very voters they need to win close elections like this one, and should embrace a very different approach to politics if they want to defeat an increasingly anti-democratic G.O.P.\\n\\nWe discuss why Yglesias thinks the 2022 polls are likely biased toward Democrats, how Republicans\\u2019 bizarre nominee choices are giving Democrats a fighting chance of winning the Senate, why Biden\\u2019s popular legislative agenda hasn\\u2019t translated into greater public support, the Biden administration\\u2019s \\u201cgrab bag\\u201d approach to policymaking, why Yglesias thinks there\\u2019s been a \\u201cregime change\\u201d in how Democrats think about elections, how social media has transformed both parties\\u2019 political incentives, what the Democratic agenda should look like if the party retains both houses of Congress and more.\\n\\nBook recommendations:\\n\\nFamine: A Short History by Cormac \\xd3 Gr\\xe1da\\n\\nSlouching Towards Utopia by J. Bradford DeLong\\n\\nStrangers to Ourselves by Rachel Aviv\\n\\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\\n\\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\\n\\n\\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d is produced by Emefa Agawu, Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld and Rog\\xe9 Karma. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Original music by Isaac Jones. Mixing by Jeff Geld, Sonia Herrero and Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Special thanks to Kristin Lin and Kristina Samulewski.'